The Stadium Has Improved, But The Chicago Fire Haven’t

The Chicago Fire kicked off its 2021 MLS season at Soldier Field, the club's original stadium where they mainly played between 1998 and 2005. The 2020 campaign was truly the team's return to this excellent stadium, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was this season that saw the long-awaited inauguration with the heart and soul of the sport: the fans.

In Chicago's first home game of the season, the Fire and New England Revolution played to a 2-2 draw that was witnessed by 8,102 fans. The atmosphere of the match — a year in the making — was wonderful. Fans behind the south goal beat drums and gave the match a familiar soundtrack typical of Fire games.

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After a negative road trip to the stadiums of Atlanta United and the New York Red Bulls, where Chicago lost both games, the Fire hosted the in-form Philadelphia Union on Saturday, who came to Chicago as the only MLS team in the semifinals of the Concacaf Champions League. It was expected to be a tough match for the Fire, and indeed it was in front of a crowd of 6,457.

The first half ended with the score 0-0, but it was not a boring first half — even if it was scoreless. A total of 12 scoring chances were created between the two teams and it was a very even first half. The Union were slightly superior but by a narrow margin.

The second half was similar in terms of scoring chances, but this time the visiting team took advantage of two of their opportunities and scored in front of the Chicago fans and their entertaining drumming. The Fire had more possession after the goals, they tried to get into the box and score with accurate crosses, but were unsuccessful in the face of a flawless performance by the visiting defense.

"This is a frustrating game, again," said Fire manager Raphaël Wicky. "It's very disappointing right now because, again, we were in the game, we had good moments. ... So we went into the game with that mentality and we were competing at halftime and then, yeah, two goals again."

Chicago's form in its first games of the season is not ideal; they are 13th out of 14 teams in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only FC Cincinnati (who have a game in hand). While we're expecting an improvement in the team's form, the Fire has at least made a significant improvement in its structure. Soldier Field is much better than SeatGeek Stadium, and it's much more accessible to the fans as it's in an excellent location in the heart of Chicago, and not in the distant suburb of Bridgeview, Illinois.

Chicago Fire at Soldier Field! Amazing venue for our hometown team! @ChicagoFire pic.twitter.com/RJoGNNxPS0

— Suzanne Giacotto (@SuzanneGiacotto) May 8, 2021