10 things on Chicago Fire

The Impact kick starts a four-game home stint on Wednesday night, as Chicago Fire will visit Stade Saputo (TVA Sports, TSN, 98,5fm, TSN Radio 690 – TICKETS). The Montreal squad will need to put on a good showing during this series to keep its hopes of reaching the MLS Cup playoffs alive. Here are 10 things on Schweinsteiger’s teammates.
Context
The arrival of a certain Bastian Schweinsteiger, a World Cup champ with Germany, launched Chicago to third place in the East, but it’s not all rosy at the moment: three losses, all away, in four games have put a shadow over the good performances in 2017.
Current form (across all competitions)
L-W-L-L-D-W
Head coach
Veljko Paunovic (19-23-15 all-time as Chicago Fire head coach) became the team’s head coach on November 24, 2015, after leading Serbia to a U20 World Cup title in June. The Fire job is Paunovic’s very first at club level, but the Serbian coach did get acquainted with MLS in 2011, when he played 17 games for the Philadelphia Union before retiring. Pauno, who plied his trade at Partizan Belgrade, Atlético Madrid, Hannover and Rubin Kazan, among other clubs, has been tasked with making the Fire a ball-playing and proactive team – but mostly, he has to bring results: the club has only made the MLS Cup Playoffs once in the past seven seasons.
Current top scorer
Nemanja Nikolic (16)
Players to watch
1. Dax McCarty (#6) – McCarty leaving the New York Red Bulls took the entire MLS family by surprise. But the Fire did need that kind of safety net.
2. Michael de Leeuw (#8) – Since joining MLS, de Leeuw’s been scoring at the respectable rate of one goal every three games.
3. David Accam (#11) – 12 goals, seven assists: watch out for the speedster on the wings.
Team profile
The Fire heated up the kitchen and created a new midfield from scratch after a miserable 2016 season. Trading for Dax, the Red Bulls’ captain, taking former Galaxy player Juninho (no, not that one from Lyon, he’s retired) on loan from Tijuana and, most of all, signing Schweinsteiger allowed Paunovic’s team to play with the ball. In the MLS top third for possession, Chicago is also lethal in front of goal, notably thanks to a dream season for Nikolic. There is a but, and it’s a big one for Wednesday’s tie: while at home, it’s all Fire, dropping only two points – against the Impact – in 2017, while playing away, it’s much more difficult, as a record of two wins, six losses and four draws shows. And out of the 28 goals conceded this season, 23 (!) have come outside Toyota Park.
In 2017 :

*Source for all data is Opta
Tactical formation
With newcomers McCarthy, Juninho and Schweinsteiger, Paunovic always plays with three in the middle, either in a 4-3-3 or in a 4-2-3-1. Lineup against Columbus Crew SC (August 12): Lampson; Doody, Meira, Kappelhof, Polster; McCarthy, Schweinsteiger; Solignac, de Leeuw, Accam; Nikolic.
Most recent games against the Impact
Schweinsteiger’s debut in North America was made against the Impact and, quite obviously, he found the back of the net, but Montreal came back through a Mancosu header and even went ahead thanks to Ballou Tabla’s first first-team goal in stoppage time. Solignac allowed the hosts to retain a point, but Chicago still dropped points in its own stadium for the only time this season.
Injuries, absences and call-ups (as of August 15)
G Jorge Bava (elbow)
D Brandon Vincent (thigh)
D Michael Harrington (illness)
M Daniel Johnson (knee)
M John Goossens (ankle)
M Juninho (knee)
Upcoming games
Chicago Fire v Toronto FC (MLS, August 19)
Chicago Fire v Minnesota United FC (MLS, August 26)
Montreal Impact v Chicago Fire (MLS, September 2)