Fire Season Preview: Red Rising?

CHICAGO, IL–On Tuesday, Chicago Fire FC formally introduced their two newest signings in forward Hugo Cuypers and midfielder Kellyn Acosta. It was also the Fire’s annual Season Kickoff Luncheon benefitting the Chicago Fire Foundation at the Swissotel in Downtown Chicago. There is optimism for the Fire after an offseason where they offloaded a couple of bad contracts and brought in a revamped defense which includes the homecoming of Andrew Gutman, a “Number 9” in Cuypers, and a midfield stalwart in Acosta. Also, there’s the Fire returning to red for primary kits this season for the first time since 2019. (The meme is that Xherdan Shaqiri tends to play better wearing red, so who knows?)

For Cuypers, coming to Chicago is being part of a great project and he feels would give him chance to progress in his career.

“I thought would be really nice a couple years back, and then the opportunity came this winter for me, transfer window, because of the European calendar, to come here. And it was a very conscious decision. Because I think the league is growing; everybody knows it. Everybody sees it. It’s also, I think, a league that suits
my style of play, as well,” said Cuypers.

“I’m at a stage in my career where I needed and I was looking for not only a great project but also an environment where — because I feel I still have growth potential, and I felt that Chicago was really giving me that environment to progress. And I mean, the efforts they are putting to make the franchise grow are just massive, the new training facility they are building, the staff that’s growing, and their ambitions is just, yeah, really big

Cuypers mentioned that he had options to move from KAA Gent last summer, but nothing came to fruition. When the winter transfer window opened up, he was sold on what the Fire are trying to build here.

Acosta came to the club via free agency after his time at LAFC. The process to land him in Chicago finally got over the line last Wednesday.

“It wasn’t really a difficult process to get over the line. It was more so just the process of free agency itself. This is the first time in my career where I had kind of the ability to choose my destination. From my standpoint, it was one of those things where there’s a lot of things you have to weigh in on,” said Acosta.

“But from the first minute, you know, just talking to staff here, the ownership, I mean, it was just an environment I wanted to be in. They have been super proactive from the first day, and as a player, you want to be in a place where you’re wanted and celebrated. And for here, I felt that from the first day.”

Fire sporting director Georg Heitz has been here since 2020 and it appears he has learned a few things during his time at the club.

“One of our main objectives was to get a core group of players who know the league,” said Heitz mentioning the signing of forward Tom Barlow and defender Andrew Guzman, plus the return of Chris Mueller from injury. “The other thing is, it is clear now that turnover takes a bit time. And when you make a mistake and we’ve made a couple of mistakes, I’ve made a couple of mistakes, It takes time to correct the whole thing, but I am very confident that we will have a really strong side.”

Joe Mansueto’s ambitions for Chicago Fire FC are unquestioned from the new training facility set to open later this year to the 75% year-over-year increase in season tickets mentioned by business director Dave Baldwin. He was frequently noted both at the press conference as well as the luncheon.

Frank Klopas’s passion for the club and city of Chicago is also unquestioned. He took the job full time this season after finishing out the 2023 season just missing out on the playoffs. He says he didn’t come back just to ‘sneak into the playoffs’.

“I think that every time we enter into a tournament, we enter to win it,” said Klopas. “That’s the mentality we’ve always had. I’m not here just to sneak into the playoffs. If that’s the case, I’d be on the sideline and join the family time and my wife and the summertime’s in the Greek island. So I came back. I love the club. I would do whatever it takes to help this club, and I’m here because I wanna win.

“I think that’s the same what I say. That goes to what [Georg Heitz] is saying, [technical director Sebastian Pelzer], [director of soccer operations Eddie Rock], and [Joe Mansueto]. And you can tell by the commitment we made in bringing the players out in front of us and the other group of players. So we’re here and our mentality is that we will do whatever it takes for this club to have success.”

The start of the schedule does the Fire no favors though as they open their 27th season at Philadelphia Union on Saturday (6:30pm CT, Apple TV), then the home opener against Supporters’ Shield holders FC Cincinnati on March 2nd (7:30pm CT, Apple TV), and then a March 9th contest at MLS Cup Champion Columbus Crew (6:30pm CT, Apple TV).

Everything is being built in line for the Fire’s success after years in the MLS wilderness. Only time will tell if it starts to come to fruition on the pitch starting this year and avoid being just the second MLS side to miss the playoffs seven straight seasons (Toronto FC, 2007-2014). It is going to be difficult against a stacked Eastern Conference–especially in Ohio–and it’s difficult to break out of the cycle that’s practically existed for better part of the past 15 years for the Fire. The ambitions of the owner and the passion of the coach are there as well as the desire of the fans of Chicago for a winner to cheer for. It’s now up to the play on the pitch to match all of that and restore the Fire to the elite of Major League Soccer.

Playoffs will be a step forward, but getting through the first three matches of season will be the first of more than a few difficult tests.