FC Dallas begins its home slate of games in the 2025 regular season this weekend when they host an old league rival in the Chicago Fire.

Gregg Berhalter took over the Fire for this season and has been reworking a roster that has struggled to consistently reach the playoffs for the last decade and a half. Let's just say, those are some big shoes to fill in order to get the Windy City club back to a level that was winning trophies in the early 2000s.

Let's examine what the Fire bring to the table for this weekend's game and how FC Dallas can continue to pick up points this season.

Key Player: Hugo Cuypers

Cuypers is one of the two Fire DPs on the roster (newcomer Jonathan Bamba is the other). In last week's draw with D.C. United, he scored twice and helped create 3.4 xG worth of chances.

Key Matchup: Jack Elliott vs Petar Musa

The 29-year old is one of the bigger signings for the Fire in the offseason, coming over as a free agent from Philadelphia. His size and physical play will match a lot of what Musa brings to the Dallas attack in and around the penalty area. I would expect these two to have a real battle in this one.

Availability Report1:

Suspended: none
Out: Leonardo Barroso (Lower Body), Dylan Borso (Lower Body), Chase Gasper (Lower Body), Maren Haile-Selassie (Lower Body), Romingue Kouamé (Lower Body), Chris Mueller (Not Due to Injury), David Poreba (Lower Body)
Questionable: none
On Loan: Bryan Dowd, Georgios Koutsias
International duty: none

Quick Notes:

Last time against FCD: It has been nearly three years since these two last faced one another. Back in 2022, when the Fire were moving back to Solider Field, the Brimstone Cup was held on a very cold and chilly day in Chicago. The match was a tight scoreless draw.

Last year’s record for the Fire: Chicago was a dismal club in 2024. They picked up 30 points, good for last place in the Eastern Conference or 28th overall in MLS.

That FCD connection: This gives us another meeting with former FC Dallas Homegrown midfielder, Kellyn Acosta.

Potential Lineup:

Berhalter has been dealing with some injuries already in the early season. He sticks mostly with a 4-3-3 formation, that can also shift into a 4-2-3-1.

Brady, Gutman, Elliott, Teran, Dean; Acosta, Oregel, Gutiérrez; Bamba, Cuypers, Zinckernagel

Keys To Three Points over Chicago

  1. Re-establish Fortress Frisco: It has been a couple of seasons since coming to Frisco was a dreaded thing for road teams. This group needs to get the home crowd back under their wings quickly in this one and start fast with some early chances on goal. With the limited crowds these next two seasons, we need to see the home field advantage return in a big way.
  2. Limit their wings: Bamba and Zinckernagel could one of the more underrated winger pair in the Eastern Conference this season. They've already shown that they can help set up Cuypers in the attack, like they did last weekend against D.C. United. Dallas will need to improve in this area by a mile if they want to avoid getting into another wild goal fest of a game.
  3. Punish their defense: While the Fire will get their chances in the attack, they still have one of the worst defenses in MLS. As much as I like Elliott and Andrew Gutman, the rest of the group is fairly unproven across the board. Last week against DC, the Fire gave up 19 shots, six on target, two goals and a total xG of 3.8. Dallas will want to continue that trend with the speed on the wings with Anderson Julio and Pedrinho, with Lucho Acosta pulling the strings.
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1 Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the day before each game. I will put last week’s report in these scouting reports and update where I can ahead of the weekly release from the league.