The Chicago Fire Aren't Feeling Any New Pressure After Two Winless Matches

The Chicago Fire aren’t feeling the pressure just yet.

Chicago is without a win in their first two matches under new director of football and head coach Gregg Berhalter, though they were seconds away from a win over DC United in their home opener last weekend.

While they’ve only taken a point from their opening two matches of the 2025 MLS season, the pressure level hasn’t changed within the Fire’s locker room ahead of travelling to FC Dallas in their first three consecutive road matches.

“I wouldn't say pressure,” Berhalter said during his weekly media availability. “We know what business we're in and we want to win every game, right? So when we're looking at how these two games unfolded: against Columbus, there's really good pieces of it for a certain time period, and then against DC, we fought to get back in the game and really get the lead again. And then a crazy, unfortunate play in the last second, literally, of the game changed the course of that result.

“So we remain calm, we remain focused. We know we have three away games in a row. We're just going to be focused on playing the game.”

The Fire have dealt with nearly an entire lineup’s worth of injuries over the last few weeks and have yet to get a full run from club-record signing Hugo Cuypers, even after he scored twice against DC United. Berhalter provided an update on the striker’s status after Cuypers told reporters last weekend that he was optimistic about his fitness levels heading into the contest against FC Dallas.

“He's not at 100% yet and, again, that's something we just have to deal with. We know he missed all of the preseason for us again. We’re urging patience to keep getting him to where he needs to be, but it's certainly great when you're not 100% and you're scoring two goals.”

The Fire have shown progress this season despite not collecting a win in either of their two matches. Chris Brady has a larger role in the Fire’s build-up, a staple for goalkeepers in Berhalter’s system, and the Homegrown ‘keeper spent the offseason preparing himself for the increased touches.

Brady followed up the Fire’s season-opening loss with a five-save performance against DC United that earned the 21-year-old a spot on Major League Soccer’s Team of the Matchday Starting 11 for Matchday 2. He thinks there is still a lot of room to grow after the improvement between the first two matches of the season.

“It’s still really early in the season, there’s a lot of progression yet to take place,” Brady said. “But compared to what I was experiencing and how I was feeling about playing the ball with my feet and just overall confidence, I think, two games in, it is definitely higher.

The Fire’s dressing room is clearly confident heading into their contest in Texas, but a result at Toyota Stadium will be crucial to maintaining the good vibes during a three-match road trip.