CHICAGO (CBS) — The Chicago Fire are set to open their season Saturday with new Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson at the helm.
As CBS 2’s Matt Zahn reported, the new-look Fire squad begins their 25th season of Major League Soccer in Miami Saturday night. It will be the first game for Hendrickson, who took over for Rafael Wicky.
Wicky was let go after just two years with the club.
The Fire will be trying to improve after winning just nine of 34 games last season, and they’ll be trying to make the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
One of those wins last season did come against their opening opponent, Inter Miami CF. Entering their third year in the league, Miami does feature one of the league’s best scorers, Gonzalo Higuaín.
“Higuaín is a very dangerous player. He’s going to be looking to sometimes come in the midfield and create overloads in the middle of the park – so we’ve got to be aware of that, and try to push everything wide,” Hendrickson said. “So we just are planning to just stay compact, stay narrow, and make sure anything they get is out wide, and then that’s one of our triggers to press them to step up. I think defensively, we’re sound and we’re ready for what we’ve seen from them so far in the preseason.”