St. Louis City SC faces the Chicago Fire for the second time in four days when the two teams meet in MLS play for the first time ever at Soldier Field.
Goals by Maren Haile-Selassie and Fabian Hebers staked Chicago to a 2-0 lead before Miguel Perez ensured a nervy finish, but the Fire held on to advance in the U.S. Open Cup.
In league play, St. Louis saw their game with Dallas suspended after 50 minutes with the score at 0-0. The league announced that the match will be resumed on June 7th.
Chicago were 3-0 losers at Nashville last Saturday with Hany Mukhtar scoring a hat-trick in what proved to be the final match in charge for manager Ezra Hendrickson.
The Fire are unbeaten in their last eight home matches (3-0-5) in all competitions and have gone 13 regular season games unbeaten against Western Conference opponents (8-0-5) with their last loss coming to Seattle in March 2019.
Team news
Jonathan Dean has an adductor injury that will keep him out of this match.
Rafael Czichos (adductor), Maren Haile-Selassie (concussion), Victor Hezerra (left upper leg) and Carloa Teran (leg) are all questionable.
Leading scorer Joao Klauss is set to miss his third consecutive game after injuring his left hamstring three weeks ago against Colorado while Rasmus Alm (abdominal) and Joakim Nilsson (knee) join him on the sidelines.
Predicted lineups
Chicago Fire: Richey; Souquet, Omsberg, Czichos, M. Navarro; F. Navarro, Gimenez; Haile-Selassie, Shaqiri, Mueller; Kamara
St. Louis City SC: Burki; Nerwinski, Hiebert, Parker, Nelson; Perez; Lowen, Vassilev; Ostrak, Stroud, Giocchini
Ones to watch
Brian Gutierrez (Chicago Fire)
The controversial decision to not release him for selection to the USMNT U-20 side looked to be a good decision as he picked up the assist on Hebers' match-winner and is a foundation piece for the Fire going forward.
Eduard Lowen (St. Louis City SC)
With Klauss absent, much of the offensive burden falls on the German, who has a team-high six assists, set up Perez' goal last Tuesday and has nine total goal contributions.
Previous meetings
The two sides met just four days ago in the Round of 32 of the U.S. Open Cup with Chicago coming away with a 2-1 victory.
After just two minutes, the Fire took the lead. Maren Haile-Selassie latched onto a clearing header from Mauricio Pineda that backup goalkeeper Ben Lundt flung himself at.
The lead was double with 15 minutes to play after a major error by Lundt. His inability to control a pass back to him inside the 18-yard box led to a turnover, Brian Gutierrez feeding Fabian Hebers in front of the St. Louis City goal.
Miguel Perez grabbed a consolation goal for the expansion side, his first in a St. Louis City shirt.
How to watch
The match will be streamed nationally on Apple TV + with Nate Bukaty serving as the play-by-play man and Kyndra De St. Aubin as the analyst.
Kickoff is set for 1pm Eastern time.