Chicago Hearth head coach Gregg Berhalter believes they’ll discover out “the place we’re” as a staff once they face 2025 MLS Cup champion Inter Miami on Wednesday.
The Hearth entered the World Cup hiatus on a robust observe, transferring into third place within the Japanese Convention with three straight wins.
Chicago additionally made a major addition to the staff in the course of the hiatus, with the addition of Robert Lewandowski as a free agent from Barcelona.
Nonetheless, Hugo Kuipers, who’s presently the main scorer in MLS this season, is near becoming a member of Liga MX facet CF Monterrey.
Regardless of this, Berhalter believes Chicago might enhance the staff as a complete with Kuipers’ departure, whereas additionally praising Lewandowski’s early affect.
Coach Berhalter mentioned, “We wish to be a membership that values its gamers. We additionally wish to be a membership that makes choices with perception.”
“Hugo got here to us and expressed a want to go elsewhere. For us, it was about seeing worth in that deal.
“I believe this provides us some flexibility. For us, our focus now could be on strengthening our staff in different areas.
“On Wednesday we are going to see the place we’re (as a staff). We’ve a number of respect for Inter Miami. For us, we simply wish to maintain bettering.”
“One factor I can say about Robert is that (he) has an unbelievable work charge. Contemplating the gamers coming into the staff, he had jet lag all final week, however he nonetheless helps the staff in coaching and together with his work afterwards.”
“You’ll be able to see why he’s an expert and why he has scored extra objectives than anybody in Europe during the last 15 years, as a result of he’s an absolute skilled.”
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— Chicago Hearth FC (@ChicagoFire) July 16, 2026
Miami received 4 straight video games earlier than the break and is in second place within the East, 5 factors behind the Hearth.
The Herons are more likely to be with out Lionel Messi and Rodrigo de Paul after they featured for Argentina in Sunday’s World Cup last.
Featured gamers
Inter Miami – Luis Suarez
In Inter Miami’s final sport earlier than the suspension, Luis Suarez scored three objectives in a win over the Philadelphia Union.
It was Suarez’s second hat-trick in his MLS profession, becoming a member of Messi (twice) as the one Herons gamers to attain a number of hat-tricks within the common season.
Chicago Hearth – Robert Lewandowski
Hearth new signing Lewandowski has scored at the very least 14 league objectives up to now 15 seasons with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
There have been 10 particular person seasons in Chicago historical past through which a participant has scored 14 or extra objectives within the common season.
Match Prediction – Inter Miami Win
Inter Miami outscored their opponents 17-9 in these video games and entered the break with 4 straight wins. In MLS historical past, solely two groups have scored 26 or extra objectives in 4 regular-season video games: the Colorado Rapids in 1998 (the 2 intervals overlapped) and the Miami Fusion in 2001.
Chicago has 26 factors after 14 video games this season, the second-most factors in membership historical past at this stage within the season (27 in 2001).
The Hearth received their final three league video games earlier than the suspension and are aiming for his or her first four-game profitable streak since June-July 2017.
Chicago defeated Miami 5-3 of their final assembly in September of final yr. 4 of the final 10 conferences between the 2 groups have resulted in at the very least 5 objectives, with each groups averaging 3.6 mixed objectives per sport.
Odds of profitable OPTA
Inter Miami – 46.3%
Draw – 22.4%
Chicago Hearth – 31.3%
