Match Preview: Nashville SC vs Chicago Fire FC
After a nice bye week to rest the legs and freshen the minds, Nashville SC return to action on Saturday on the road in the Windy City to take on the Chicago Fire. The Boys in Gold are on an all-competitions unbeaten streak that dates back all the way to April 19th, when they lost on the road to the Seattle Sounders.
The first match of that 10 game unbeaten streak? A 7-2 drubbing of Chicago at GEODIS Park. Since then the Fire have scored seven of their own, demolishing DC United at Audi Field by a score of 7-1 last time out.
Let’s take a look.
Match Details
Location: Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois
Date: Saturday, June 14th, 2025
Time: 7:30PM CST (local)
Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
Listen: WGFX 104.5FM The Zone
Referees: Alexis Da Silva (REF), Corey Rockwell (AR1), Bruno Rizo (AR2), Atahan Yaya (4TH), Kevin Terry, Jr. (VAR), TJ Zablocki (AVAR)
Head Coaches: B.J. Callaghan (NSH), Gregg Berhalter (CHI)
Injury Report
Nashville SC
OUT- Tyler Boyd, Maximus Ekk, Taylor Washington, Jacob Shaffelburg (int’l), Xavier Valdez (int’l), Walker Zimmerman (int’l)
QUESTIONABLE- None
Chicago Fire FC
OUT- Christopher Cupps, Rominigue Kouamé, Chris Mueller, David Poreba, Sam Rogers, Carlos Téran, Chris Brady (int’l)
QUESTIONABLE- Hugo Cuypers, Jack Elliott
Lineup Prediction
Nashville are less harmed by international duty than they may have been in recent years, as they’d already grown adjusted to life without Walker Zimmerman, so to speak. Now, Jacob Shaffelburg’s verticality played a tremendous role in Nashville’s success against the Fire last time out, but he’s away with Canada, so that role falls to others.
Joe Willis starts in goal, ahead of a back four of Dan Lovitz, Jack Maher, Jeisson Palacios and Andy Najar. The midfield pairing in this one, as far as I have it, is Patrick Yazbek and Eddi Tagseth.
Yazbek did just play in two games during Australia’s World Cup Qualifying window, so he may not start, but I’ve got him doing so here.
The front four of Hany Mukhtar, Sam Surridge, Alex Muyl and Ahmed Qasem will look to pick up where they left off.
Analysis & Prediction
The long layoff, the travel, it’s hard to gauge where exactly Nashville will be performance wise on Saturday night. This leads me to think conservatively, even with a Fire injury list the length of a CVS receipt. They’ve been much, much better since getting smacked in GEODIS Park as well.
Give me a 1-1 draw, with Nashville’s goal coming from their main man, Sam Surridge. We’ll see you after for a recap!