Sergio Oregel Looking to Carry Positive Momentum into Larger Role with 2025 Chicago Fire

It’s already been a busy 2025 for the Chicago Fire’s Sergio Oregel.

The Fire’s Homegrown midfielder was with the United States Men’s National Team U-20s for their January camp in Florida before rejoining his club at the end of their time in West Palm Beach. Oregel, who has been a mainstay at youth national team camps for years now, had the opportunity to impress new senior USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino as the U-20s trained alongside the senior national team.

For the Fire’s young midfielder, the camp and the two friendlies they played in during that time created momentum that he parlayed into a goal for his side against Sporting Kansas City in a 2-0 win in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

“I think it was good, we played Nashville, so being able to play against them and then play against Kansas City kind of felt a little easier than just coming straight into it,” Oregel told a small group of reporters after the Fire’s first training session at the Endeavor Health Performance Center. ‘It's great for my confidence, but it's not my first time scoring a preseason goal. Hopefully, I can move on from this and get some more playing time.”

Oregel wasn’t lacking. The San Jose Earthquakes’ Cruz Medina and Columbus Crew’s Taha Harbroune were among those within the USMNT U-20’s whose talent stuck out to the Fire midfielder, but there was one opponent from their friendlies who made an impression: Fire teammate Brian Gutiérrez.

“I made sure to stay on the other side of the pitch [laughs], so I really didn’t get much one-on-one against him. You could just see the way he drives at players and is so technical but so athletic. He doesn't look like the fastest, but with the ball, he's so quick. He's someone I look up to, so it was great to play against him.”

Oregel is looking to finally break into the Fire’s first team for good in 2025. The Fire Academy graduate was consistently called into USMNT youth camps when the Fire’s new director of football and head coach, Gregg Berhalter, was in charge of the national team.

They have a similar style to the national team, the way we want to play and stuff, very focused on the ball, pressing team, off it. I think it kind of fits my playing style, I enjoy the way we're playing. The group sees that there's a lot of growth and a difference. So I'm excited for this year.”

There are a lot of new faces in the Fire’s locker room as offseason additions Philip Zinckernagel, Jack Elliott and others have started to join the club for training. Oregel loves the experience that has been brought into the fold in Chicago.

“It's good to have a fresh group and get to meet them, see that everybody's had different careers. So it's great to learn from everything that they've been through.

“Another thing I see is this team is young, so we have a lot of energy. We have the older guys we can look up to but also the young guys that are energized and ready to make the move on the first team.”