When the Chicago Fire welcome New York City FC on Saturday (3:30 pm ET | Univision, Twitter, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada), the home side will look to keep their strong run at SeatGeek Stadium going.
The Fire are five games unbeaten at the venue, beating their last two opponents by a combined 7-0 scoreline in Bridgeview, Ill.
“We’re kind of making this place a fortress and we want to keep that going into this weekend and through the rest of the season,” Fire midfielder Brandt Bronico said. “We want teams to not have fun when they come here and play us. I think that’s the most important thing going into the weekend.”
Bastian Schweinsteiger, with his vast experience, knows the Fire are enjoying a good spell at home. But what’s equally as important, he said, is bouncing back from last weekend’s 4-1 loss at the San Jose Earthquakes, in which Chris Wondolowski set the all-time MLS goals scored (148) record.
“Playing in front of our crowd makes it easy as well, but we always start at zero,” the German Designated Player said. “We have to perform, we have to start well and concentrate the whole 90 minutes. That’s very important for us.”
Also lingering is a 1-0 loss the Fire suffered at NYCFC back on April 24. To reverse course this go-around, the Fire must have a solution for a Cityzens team that’s unbeaten in their last seven games and won back-to-back contests on the road.
Particularly, Schweinsteiger had praise for a club that joins Seattle Sounders and LAFC as the only MLS teams with one loss on the year.
“They are a very good team,” Schweinsteiger said. “They have some pieces in the squad who are dangerous. They didn’t start so well, but they managed now to make many points in a year and have a very experienced coach with Domenec Torrent, who knows exactly how to play this kind of game.”
Bronico hopes the Fire have learned a great deal from that first meeting.
“I think it’s tough to beat a team twice,” Bronico said. “Having already played them and not getting on the better side of the result, I think it’s a great opportunity for us for when they come here. We’re definitely looking to take points back from them this weekend.”
