New on Sports Illustrated: Revolution-Fire Preview

Winning has not come all that easy for both the New England Revolution and Chicago Fire this season.

Each side hopes to change that starting Sunday night when they meet along Chicago's lakefront.

Both the Revolution (2-2-5) and Fire (2-5-2) are sitting on two victories, ideally not the number they were hoping for even during this unprecedented campaign. However, New England currently owns a better status within the Eastern Conference, while Chicago is below the playoff line. That said, the Revs have just one official victory in their last six matches.

Their 1-0-4 stretch ended with a 2-0 loss to New York City FC this week. It was the third time in the last five official matches that New England has failed to score, but also just the second such occasion in which it's conceded more than two goals.

"I think overall we need to be better," Revolution midfielder Diego Fagundez told the official website of MLS. "If we keep playing the way we've been playing, people are going to punish us ... We need to learn (from the NYCFC loss) and make sure we start the right way and finish the right way."

This will be the second time in 2020 that New England and Chicago hook up. Back in early March before the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic, the teams played to a 1-1 draw at Foxboro, Mass. Adam Buksa opened the scoring for New England in the 28th minute, but Fire veteran Jonathan Bornstein equalized for the visitors in the 70th.

Chicago is 1-2-1 since the resumption of regular-season play and is coming off a scoreless draw with FC Cincinnati from earlier this week. That's also the same opponent the Fire beat in their only home game to date in 2020, 3-0 last month.

"There's things that we need to improve on, and you know, we need to go over (the FC Cincinnati match from this week) video and we need to try to keep improving on those things, hopefully for Sunday," goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth told the Fire's official website.

Mauricio Pineda and Robert Beric each have two goals apiece for the Fire, who have managed just eight in 2020 and four over their last six matches.

Gustavo Bou leads the Revolution with three goals on the season. Bou had scored in two straight matches before he and his teammates were blanked by New York City FC.

September 05, 2020 at 12:05AM
Revolution-Fire Preview