Chicago Fire FC have great chance to enter World Cup break on a high-note with a win over Toronto FC at Soldier Field

The Chicago Fire have an opportunity to end their first half of the Major League Soccer season on a high with a win in their final match before they take a break until July for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The Chicago Fire (7-2-4, 23 points, 4th in Eastern Conference) will host a Toronto FC side that is without a win in their last eight in all competitions going back to April 4 on Saturday night at Soldier Field and a positive result would greatly boost the Fire’s confidence entering the six-week layoff. 

The Fire built positive momentum last week when they won their road matches against D.C. United and CF Montréal, respectively, which was a massive boost after the they entered the contest at Audi Field on a run of three consecutive losses that all came about because of mistakes made by Chicago. Four different players found the back of the net for the Fire last week and Hugo Cuypers, who currently leads MLS with 13 goals, extending his goal-scoring streak to all ten league matches he’s competed in, which is good for the third-longest goal-scoring streak in league history. 

Cuypers’ goal-scoring run has happened alongside Philip Zinckernagel coming into form as the Chicago Fire’s representative at the 2025 MLS All-Star game has ten goal contributions in his last seven MLS matches including a goal and assist last weekend against CF Montréal. Zinckernagel, Cuypers, center back Mbekezeli Mbokazi and goalkeeper Chris Brady, who has already matched his 2025 total of six clean sheets in 2026, remain the Fire’s likeliest candidates to represent the club at this year’s All-Star festivities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Before the Chicago Fire can look ahead, they have to take care of business on Saturday against an injury-riddled Toronto FC squad that just hasn’t been able to catch a break in 2026. Robin Fraser’s group has not been able to find any success as they’ve lacked continuity on the pitch, though there is a chance club-record signing Josh Sargent, who only has two goals in seven appearances since joining from Norwich City in the winter, could be available for Toronto FC on Saturday for the first time since April 25.

The Fire are preparing for a tough contest on the lakefront despite Toronto’s recent run of dreadful form. 

“They are obviously a difficult team to play against and make it tough for opponents,” Chicago Fire center back and captain Jack Elliott said on Thursday. “You never know what can happen in this league. Just staying focused for 90 minutes for us is going to be a crucial part of the game, and trying to, again, enforce our way on the game and not get sucked into the way another team is playing and the way they want us to play. 

“It’s certainly a challenge. Those teams that are doing everything but not quite getting the result is always a difficult game to play in because they are hungry and want to do everything to get a result.”

The Fire’s midfield will get a boost with the return of Dje D’Avilla after he missed last weekend’s trip to Montréal due to a yellow card accumulation suspension. D’Avilla is expected to start in the middle of the park alongside Mauricio Pineda against Toronto FC as the statuses of Anton Salétros and Sergio Oregel Jr. remain in doubt despite the two taking part in training sessions over the last two weeks. 

A win over Toronto FC would be a massive boost for the Fire before they get some time to rest and recalibrate for the second half of the MLS season, which will coincide with Chicago trying to re-shape its roster in the summer window.

“The first thing is [getting] some rest,” Chicago Fire FC director of football and head coach Gregg Berhalter said about the club’s priorities during the MLS World Cup break. Rest for the players. Relaxation after Saturday. And then for the organization, it’s about how do we get better in the second half of the season, really evaluating how we performed in the first half, and then looking at how do we add to the squad to continue to improve. 

“I think most teams are going to be doing that in this break, in this lengthy break, so we need to make sure that we’re ahead of the curve and keep improving the squad.”