Chi-Lights: The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

PREFACE: Being a Chicago sports fan is never easy. However, it was nights like Saturday night that fans wish it wasn’t always hard. It was an all-to-pieces disastrous Saturday for the Stars, Fire, and the Hounds. While the Hounds are likely to make the playoffs in Major League Rugby, they need to avoid losses like the one in Utah. More on that later. As for the two soccer teams in Chicago, questions need to be asked.

FIRE: When the coach has to apologize for the performance, that’s bad. The 7-2 loss to Nashville was the second-worst in club history. It was also the first time the Fire had conceded seven in a match. It was 7-0 before Phillip Zinckernagel and Hugo Cuypers got goals to make the scoreline somewhat less humiliating.

It goes without saying that the performance against Orlando this coming Saturday needs to be exponentially better. This team cannot be this bad defensively without Carlos Teran who is set to miss quite some time. Up until this match, while the Fire were winless in four coming in, the consensus was that the Fire were making improvements that they would be better in the long run. Matches like last Saturday render that consensus to being a null hypothesis just asking to be rejected. (My degree is Statistics so live with it!)

This result is unacceptable in every sense of the word and asks questions about whether the squad has the will to finally lift this club and make the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

STARS: While the Fire were hitting all the flat notes in Nashville, the Stars were just flat after conceding before halftime against San Diego. It was the sixth straight home loss dating back to last season and the Stars returned to the bottom of the league at 1-5-0.

The attendance figure was not listed last Saturday, but the Stars are again dead last in average attendance in the early going (2,591 after two games) and it’s barley more than half than the team above them (Racing Louisville at 5,055).

This team needed a #10 (a proverbial #10, not Shea Groom who wears #10) and did not get one. We do not know when (or if) Mallory Swanson will return from whatever personal issues she is going through. Still, this team cannot be that bad without Swanson.

Questions needs to be asked of Laura Ricketts and her group over several things besides the status of Swanson. First, with the lease on SeatGeek Stadium set to expire after this season, what are the long term plans in terms of home for 2026 and beyond. They want a new stadium, but like the Bears and White Sox, want it to be partially funded with public money. Yes, the fully public-funded SeatGeek Stadium is not everyone’s cup of tea–not the least of reasons its location. However, it is not the only stadium in either MLS or NWSL that is in a suburban locale and/or not ideally located in a downtown setting or right off a highway. One major reason why the Fire couldn’t draw flies before moving back to Soldier Field in 2020 and why the Stars are not drawing now is that they are losing.

As much investment the Ricketts have made so far with the Stars, it’s apparent that more needs to be done if they do not want to be cut adrift from the rest of the NWSL.

SIDEBAR: These are dark times for Chicago soccer fans. Not only are both the Stars and Fire not playing well, they will be watching the Club World Cup, Concacaf Gold Cup, and the 2026 World Cup from their homes (thanks, Rahm Emmanuel). Last September’s Premier League Fan Fest proved that Chicago can be a soccer city. It can be a true soccer city again if the Stars and Fire start to win again. Last Saturday felt like an opening of old wounds from years past both teams need to do much more to treat those wounds before there is an infection of more doom and gloom that there already is in Chicago.

HOUNDS: On Saturday, the Hounds saw a 31-12 halftime lead turn into a 41-31 loss at Zions Bank Stadium in Utah against the Warriors. Mac Jones scored two tries for the Hounds, but then in the second half, the Warriors would rack up 29 unanswered points in the second half featuring a pair of tries by Joey Mano and one try each by Nic Benn and Tu Vugakoto.

The lass drops the Hounds to second in the Eastern Conference, one point behind New England, with six matches to play. The next match is a home match on Sunday against the Miami Sharks at SeatGeek Stadium. Kickoff is at 3pm CT on ESPN+ and Fox Chicago+ (WPWR).