Red Bulls Blow into The Windy City To Face the Fire

By Daniel Feuerstein | Harrison, NJ | May 7th, 2026

Red Bull New York is going to try again and end this winless streak. Currently with five in league play, but six in all competitions, the Red Bulls need to find a way to end this jinx so they can make an attempt to climb up the standings in the Eastern Conference table and put themselves in a better position. Traveling on the road to face the Chicago Fire, the Red Bulls know they must find a way to score goals and take a lead against a red-hot side that is currently in fourth place. This will be a real test for these young kids, and they must find a way to break through.

This will be the first time that head coach Michael Bradley will match wits with Gregg Berhalter inside their respective technical areas, as both men were a part during their own time with the U.S. Men’s National Team. We remember Berhalter on that historic 2002 World Cup Team defeating Portugal, drawing with Co-Host nation South Korea, losing to Poland, but got help from the host nation defeating Portugal to put the U.S. into the Round of 16, and knocked out Mexico before facing Germany in the Quarterfinals. Michael Bradley was a part of two World Cup squads. 2010 in South Africa, when he scored that big equalizer against Slovenia in the second group stage game, and 2014 in Brazil, finally getting revenge on Ghana, took a point against Portugal, and went into extra time but fell to Belgium in extra time.

Both men will manage their sides as best as they can in this afternoon’s tilt at Soldier Field, and there is a level of respect from both men. While Bradley is trying to bring a strong and attacking style from start to finish with his young squad, Berhalter is already looking to dominate with a veteran group that wants to bring back the Fire to where they used to be when they were managed by Michael’s father, Bob Bradley, when he started that club back in 1998. So this will be a real challenge against the Fire and for Bradley, trying to outwit Berhalter.

“Gregg is a really good coach. He’s proven that everywhere that he’s been. He has really, really good experience as a player, now as a coach. Obviously, I know Greg pretty well. He loves football. He’s a hard worker. And I think any team that he’s involved in always has a real idea of the way that they want to play and will always be ready when they step on the field to… tried to to present problems for the opponent. So we’re excited for the match. Obviously, Chicago got off to a good start this season and we understand it’s a big game,” said Michael Bradley

The World Cup is almost here, as the Red Bulls and everyone around the league have four matches remaining (Except the U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals). After facing Chicago, the Red Bulls will host the Columbus Crew in midweek, then the Hudson River Derby hosting NYCFC next weekend, and then the following weekend, they travel to the Midwest and face Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park. It’s very important for Bradley to break this winless streak and right the ship before the month and a half long break does come into play.

“Yeah, it’s a really important four games. There’s no two ways about it. Obviously, you look at the table in the Eastern Conference and things are very… very tight. The separation between a few places from the top and a few places from the bottom is very small. And so we understand that over these next four games, it’s a real… Really important opportunity for us to continue to improve, continue to move ourselves along, continue to take the points that we deserve, and take the points that will set us up for a really good second half of the season when we come back from the World Cup,” said Bradley.

The only player who was managed by Berhalter with the U.S. Men’s National Team was starting Goalkeeper Ethan Horvath. He was called up to the National Team to be the backup or the third-string goalkeeper during the Gold Cup, World Cup Qualifying, and the Inaugural CONCACAF Nations League Semi-Finals and Championship Final. He came in as a second-half substitute for an injured Zack Steffen and pulled off a massive save for the U.S. Men’s National Team against their Southern Border Rivals in Mexico. The match went into extra time as Horvath had to stop a penalty from Andreas Guardado and stop him from a third equalizer in the game. The USA won the inaugural Nations League Championship at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado.

“It would be really nice to see Greg again. I haven’t seen him in quite a while, so it would be nice to see him. But no, he’s a great guy, you know. He did an amazing job with us. He did an amazing job with us as a group. The meaning behind what it takes to be a national team player, not just to play for ourselves, but you know, to play as on and he really did an amazing job of bringing us together as a family. We all come from, say, take the World Cup squad, 26 guys, 26 teams. Background so you know, he did an amazing job making sure that we all understood each other as one.

Yeah, like I said, a really really good job of making us feel we are like one big family, and as we like to call it back then, a big brotherhood. You know, we all looked out for each other. Yeah, and going back to that night, it’s, yeah, it’s an amazing feeling. It was something I’ll never forget, and you know, it means a lot to me, you know, when you never want to see your colleagues go down like that. But, you know, it’s given me the opportunity, and I was able to take it and contribute and help the boys out,” said Ethan Horvath

This will be a difficult matchup for the club. While it’s great to see they are all bought in, you hope that they can turn it around and find a way to defeat the Chicago Fire as Soldier Field has always been a difficult place to play for this club and they need a strong start to put themselves into the match and work themselves into a strong offensive effort, but improve their defense to get them into a positive performance and make the move up the table.

The match begins at 2:30 PM Eastern – 1:30 PM Central at Soldier Field on Apple TV. Your Broadcasters ENGLISH: Neil Sika & Kyndra de St. Aubin SPANISH: Sergio Ruiz Torres & Walter Roque

MATCH OFFICIALS:

REF: Allen Chapman
AR1: Michael Barwegen
AR2: Gianni Facchini
4TH: Sergii Boiko
VAR: Carol Anne Chenard
AVAR: Tom Supple

Red Bull New York travels for their next road match as they take on the Chicago Fire in an important match to right the ship and get a victory to end a five match winless streak, six in all competitions.

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