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The Fire, who finished third in the Eastern
Conference and also in the race for the Supporters' Shield last
season, then must travel to defending MLS champion Toronto the
following weekend.
"I think we have to just stick together, work on improving,
getting better, fixing things," Chicago coach Veljko Paunovic
told MLSsoccer.com after his team's latest loss, a 1-0 home
setback to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the LA Galaxy last Saturday at
Toyota Park.
The loss to the Galaxy was the second home defeat of the season
for Chicago, matching it's total for the 2016-17 campaign when
it finished 16-7-11 overall.
Now comes a road game against the sixth place Red Bulls (3-2-0,
9 points) who are a perfect 3-0-0 at home and have scored at
least three goals in each win while compiling a plus-9 in goal
differential.
New York is also 4-0-2 in the last six regular-season meetings
with Chicago and sent the Fire packing with a lopsided 4-0 road
victory in the knockout round of the MLS Playoffs last October
at Toyota Park.
"I think they're a team that needs a result," Red Bulls coach
Jesse Marsch said of the Fire to MLSsoccer.com. "We know that it
is a quality team, that it will be personal with them after
knocking them out of the playoffs, so we have to be fully
prepared for a really tough match."
New York bounced back from a 1-0 aggregate loss to Chivas de
Guadalajara in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League
to defeat Montreal, 3-1, last Saturday as forward Bradley
Wright-Phillips scored his fourth goal of the season and added
an assist. The 33-year-old Phillips has 90 career MLS goals,
including eight against Chicago, which hasn't won at Red Bull
Arena since a 5-4 victory on May 10, 2014.
--Field Level Media
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