PBP: Fire at DC United 5.13.26 6:30 pm Apple TV

The matches are coming fast and furious as the MLS crams in as many matches as possible before the World Cup (er, sorry, FIFA World Cup 2026™) and the Fire get a change to enact some revenge on another "lesser" team that beat the Fire earlier this season.

The Fire have had a very poor run of form, with bad breaks and boneheaded plays costing them points, before the embarrassment over the weekend.

The Fire have lost three in a row (in all competitions) and have one win in five. That said, the Fire are still in fourth in the East and a win tonight puts some distance between them and DC United.

The Fire have sputtered a bit on defense (giving up multiple goals in four of the last five), including the dreaded "late goals" three of those four matches, something which has plagued the Fire in recent years.
Cincinnati-OG in the 86th minute
St. Louis-77 and 78th minute
Cincinnati-PK 97th minute (after Cuypers had just had one saved)
NYRB-PK in the 81th minutes (thanks, Hugo, for pulling one goal back even later)

So, two late penalties and a late own goal cost the Fire points. Yeah, we still lose versus NYRB.

I like Washington DC as a city, but I am not really enamored of it. I have been there a few times, but I have not spent a great deal of time there (last time was in 2024, for a conference, but I stayed an extra couple of days to explore, which was awesome).

What I like:
-the history of the place, with all of the 'famous' buildings,
-the National Mall and the rest of the green space flanked by the Lincoln Memorial on the West and the Library of Congress/Supreme Court on the East, the White House to the North, and (basically) the Jefferson Memorial to the South,
-the odd layout (all of the "circles" with streets radiating out from them spokes on a bicycle wheel),
-the transit system,
-the museums (including the odd ones, like the International Spy Museum),
-the life (in some neighborhoods, at least) is terrific.

That said, it has lost much of the grittiness it had it previous decades, but, once again, I did not visit as much of the city the last couple of times I have been there.
It also has become extraordinarily expensive. Food and housing are nuts.

I have not driven in DC in about 30 years (last three times I was there I was without a car), but I imagine it just sucks.

I do not know where it ranks on my US cities, but probably lower top 10, I guess.

I was going to fill up the Poll with pot shots at Washington DC and its current disfunction, but opted not to do so.

The opponent tonight
DC United are doing well for themselves this season.
They sit fifth, one point below the Fire, but have played one more match.
They have 15 goals scored and 17 conceded in their 12 matches played, neither if very good.
They have six points from four home matches on the season (two wins, two losses).

We all remember what the Fire did to them the last time we played in the Nation's Capital.
Could we sign 'mighty' Tom Barlow again, just for this match?!?
Actually, if Barlow can do that, maybe a health Cuypers scores 5!

DC United are yet another team with no "big name" players, having let Benteke flee to UAE in the offseason.

DC United are led by Tai Baribo (one of their 2 DPs), who came over from Philadelphia in a $4,000,000 deal, after having a great season last year (16 goals, 3 seasons). He has six goals, but has only played in 9 matches and is iffy for tonight's tilt.

Next up is new Romanian forward Louis Munteanu. He joined DC as Designated Player from CFR Cluj for a 'record' transfer fee of $7,000,000. Why they would pay $7 million for a player who could not manage a match with Fiorentina, but bounced about in a few Romanian squads and has four caps for Romania, I have no clue.
He did have a monster season for CFR Cluj last year with 23 goals in 35 matches in the league (25 goals in 45 matches overall) and 2 goals for the national team. Not sure that equals such a high transfer fee, especially there were apparently no 'big' clubs interested in him. He is only 23 so maybe they are thinking he is a "star" in the making, so they can sell him for a profit in a year or two.
He has started well this season, with four goals so far.

Also, young "superstar" Caden Clark (who has bounced around from NYRB to Leipzig, to Minnesota to Montreal to DC and before the age of 22). Remember when he was the 'wunderkind' of MLS? Yeah, me neither, really.

Other than that, they have aging, but still very good ex-Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson in the nets.
My second all time favorite Fire goalkeeper (next to Zach Thornton, of course), and ten years on, dumping him is still one of the stupidest Fire personnel moves of all time.
He has four clean sheets on the season

All time the Fire have 24 wins, 22 draws and 28 losses versus DC United.
At DC, the Fire have 11 wins, 7 draws and 19 losses.

Berhalter has a good record against DC, 7-4-4 in 15 matches.

The Fire have lost once in DC since 2021, 2-1-1 in 2022-2025.
Fire players have scored hat tricks against DC United twice:
Damani Ralph and 'mighty' Tom Barlow

The Fire have conceded three hattricks to DC players.


Random trivia question!

Who has the most goals for the Fire versus DC United?
Hints: the player(s) scored five goals
the player(s) played for both teams

Highlight to see:
Marsch
Rolfe


Injury report (thanks @Pennsylvania Dave )

Chicago Fire FC

• OUT: Leonardo Barroso (lower body)
• OUT: André Franco (lower body)
• OUT: Robin Lod (face)

D.C. United

• OUT: Sean Nealis (shoulder)
• OUT: Gabe Segal (lower leg)
• QUESTIONABLE: Tai Baribo (thigh)

Also, Silvan Hefti is out having picked up a red card in DC United's last match.

Fire really need to win this match to right the ship and get back on a positive track.
One good thing is, like the Fire, DC United have been giving up goals by bucketful, with two or more in three of the last four matches.

I really hope the Fire blow this one open early and score often, but I do not think that happens.
I think the Fire are going to struggle, but will take the match.

2-1 Fire.

 

That was pretty dumb, especially as it was done just days before the season started. I remember also being pissed off about that, as was Jon Busch. I just read an article (linked below) about the situation to remind myself of how that happened.

Dykstra was 9 years younger than Busch AND we had just drafted Sean Johnson, so there was a certain logic to letting our high priced goalie go. Again, it was dumb, but if they had hopes for Johnson.

Also, Andrew Dykstra only played 17 matches between 2009 (Busch's last season, but Dykstra only played in the US Open Cup) and 2010 (Johnson's first season).
By late summer (Sean Johnson took over the No. 1 in August, 2010), Johnson had become the starting goal keeper for the Fire (playing 13 matches per ESPN in 2010 and 28 in 2011) and Dykstra was shown the door.

Plus, Busch had been goalkeeper for 3 seasons when he was unceremoniously dumped, and had not been the starting goalkeeper for 7 years, like Johnson was.

Of course, Jon Busch went on to start for San Jose for another 4 or 5 years (before his short return to the Fire), so that makes the Dykstra move even more dumb.
Dykstra, on the other hand, bounced around between MLS and lower leagues for another eight years, barely playing.

I guess the question is whether we would have preferred to keep Busch for another several seasons or have Sean Johnson in goal from 2010 onward.

Ideally, keeping Busch for another season or two and then transition to Sean Johnson would have been ideal.

We dumped Busch for Dykstra and, then, Sean Johnson..
We dumped Dykstra (after less than a year) for Sean Johnson.
We dumped Sean Johnson for, well, nothing.
We were in the goalkeeper wilderness for years.
2017 we had Bava (until he was hurt), Lampson and then Richard Sanchez was foisted upon us.



https://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/fire/post/_/id/161/fire-waive-goalkeeper-jon-busch