The Bonfire is once again burning. Ahead of the Fire's match against Vancouver at Soldier Field, Tim is joined by Joe Chatz to preview the match.With John currently doing whatever the exact opposite of a vacation is, the duo wax poetic about Puso Dithejane's first international goal for Bafana Bafana, before casually mentioning that Robert Lewandowski got a hatty and a yellow for country. The latter matters because it means that he'll be back in Chicago and set to join his Fire squad as they take on the team at the top of the west.
The Fire went to Nashville looking for their first win in the Music City.... and left disappointed. It continued a downward slide by the Fire that's extended a month at this point, as the team's now winless in seven games.John and Tim break down the performance, but they spend most of their time focusing on what's not clicking with a squad that once looked like it was about ready to go toe-to-toe with teams like Nashville.
Former Fire assistant Marko Mitrović came to town and snapped the Fire's undefeated streak, turning it now into six straight without a win. Alex joins John and Tim around The Bonfire to break down Thursday's 2-1 loss to the New England Revolution as the trio talk about what didn't go right on Sunday before switching focus to a tough date in Nashville on Saturday.
A club-record crowd were at Soldier Field to see the Chicago Fire once again take on Lionel Messi and Inter Miami and once again, the GOAT was unable to score against the Men In Red and the teams landed with a 1-1 draw, with the Fire's goal coming from a beautiful Lewandowski strike.So naturally, John is pissed as hell. It might be because it was a draw, marking the fourth time in a row where the Fire had a draw in league play. As Tim tries to talk him off the ledge on that one, the two debate what isn't clicking with the Fire as they head into the toughest stretch of the season, starting with a discussion of the next team on deck, with Marko Mitrovic's New England Revolution coming up Sunday.
It was an absolute goal fest on the shores of Lake Ontario. Maren Haile-Selassie got his second brace. Lewandowski scored and set up one of Maren's goals and Walker Zimmerman couldn't stop himself from helping Gregg out for old time's sake by adding an own goal. That would have been great except for the fact that Josh Sargent scored a hat trick and Derrick Etienne Jr. added a stoppage time goal that kept the Fire from all three points in the Battle of the Great Lakes.With John out on the IR, Joe Chatz joins Tim to make sense of it all as they look towards the Fire's upcoming game against Inter Miami and the battle of Barça alums coming up at Soldier Field on Wednesday.