St. Louis CITY SC travels north to face Chicago Fire FC for the second time in a week, this time in MLS action at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. The match kicks off at 12:00 p.m. CST and can be seen on MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and heard by our radio partners on KYKY Y98.1 FM (English) and KXOK 102.9 FM (Spanish).
In their fixture earlier this week, Chicago edged CITY SC 2-1 to advance to the Round-of-16 of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The Fire’s Maren Haile-Selassie and Fabian Herbers found the back of the net, before CITY SC’s Homegrown player Miguel Perez scored his first professional goal in second-half stoppage time. With his goal, Perez became CITY SC's youngest goal scorer at 18 years and 11 days old.
Perez has featured in nine games while making five starts across all competitions this season. With his goal last match, he became the 12th different CITY SC player to find the back of the net across all competitions this season. CITY SC midfielder Eduard Löwen provided the assist to Perez’s goal in stoppage time, taking his assist tally to six and his goal contributions total to nine in all competitions.
With their previous MLS match against FC Dallas being postponed because of inclement weather, St. Louis CITY SC's 19 points are still the second most by an expansion team after 10 games in league history, behind LAFC’s 20 points in 2018. CITY SC has found the net in five of their six road games in all competitions, scoring 11 goals in that process. CITY SC currently sits in second place in the MLS Western Conference, a point behind leaders Seattle Sounders, with a game in hand.
Chicago currently sits in 14th place in the MLS Eastern Conference standings, following a 3-0 defeat away to Nashville SC in Matchday 11. With their win against St. Louis in the U.S. Open Cup, Chicago is unbeaten in their last eight home matches (3-0-5 record) in all competitions.
The Fire are unbeaten in their last 13 regular season home matches against Western Conference opponents (8-0-5 record). Chicago hasn't lost a home match to a Western Conference opponent in over four years, with the last time being a 4-2 defeat to Seattle in March 2019, per Opta.
Chicago has lost five of its last seven home matches against expansion teams in league play, including the last two in a row against Charlotte FC last season.
