• Matchday 15: New York City FC vs Chicago Fire FC
• Date and Time: Sunday, May 25, 3:00 pm ET
• Venue: Yankee Stadium, The Bronx, NY
• Forecast: Cloudy, breezy 66F/19C
• Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Jessica Charman and Devon Kerr (English), Jesus Acosta and Carlos Suarez (Spanish)
• New York City FC Radio: Glenn Crooks and Matty Lawrence (English), Roberto Abramowitz and Ariel Judas (Spanish)
• Officiating Crew: Rosendo Mendoza (referee), Adam Wienckowski and Gianni Facchini (assistant referees), Thomas Snyder (fourth official), Jorge Gonzalez (VAR), Joshua Patlak (assistant VAR)
• Kits: New York City will wear the sky-blue Excelsior Kit; Chicago will wear the self-explanatory Return to Red Kit
New York City FC heads to the Bronx to face Chicago Fire FC in an afternoon matinee on Matchday 15. It's NYCFC's second consecutive home game, and they'll try to build on last week's convincing 2-0 win in Queens over New York Red Bulls in a grudge rematch of the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Semifinal.
That victory gave New York City their sixth win this year, lifting them to 7th Place in the Eastern Conference at the start of the Matchday. A team that has looked shaky in the back and indecisive up front suddenly had a defense that kept the game on lockdown, and an attack that made Red Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel collapse like a marionette that had its strings cut.
NYCFC will want to take that momentum into this afternoon. They will soon lose their two best players to international duty when striker Alonso Martínez and goalkeeper Matt Freese join their national teams, which means they have three games to log some points before head coach Pascal Jansen will be forced to get creative with the Starting XI.
Chicago are riding a hot hand, with four wins and one draw in their last five played in all competitions. The most recent victory was a 3-1 road win over New England Revolution in the US Open Cup played on Tuesday night. It wasn't a straightforward win. Talismanic striker Hugo Cuypers started that game, and 21-year-old star-in-the-making Brian Gutiérrez came off the bench — head coach Gregg Berhalter began the night with a partially-rotated squad, but ended with something close to a best-XI.
NYCFC will like their chances today. It could come down to a battle between New York City's defense, which has allowed just two goals in five games, and Chicago's attack, which has scored 13 goals in that same stretch. Or it could be an opportunity for NYCFC's forwards to come alive against a Chicago defense that allowed Nashville SC to score seven goals on April 26 in one of the most catastrophic defensive performances in Major League Soccer this year.
The X-Factor just might be the location: Chicago has never won a game in New York City, while five of NYCFC's six wins in 2025 have come in home matches.
New York City vs Chicago H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 34 | 22 | 12 |
New York City dominates the historic head-to-head competition between the two teams: Chicago's three wins are the fewest for any team that NYCFC has faced more than 20 times. New York City's last loss to the Fire came back on September 29, 2021, in SeatGeek Stadium in Chicago, eight meetings ago.
Not only that, Chicago is winless in New York City. The hosts have an imperious record of 8W-3D-0L when playing in the Five Boroughs — and Harrison, NJ.
But Chicago has done some damage in Queens: Last August's 2-2 draw at Citi Field saw Cuypers score in the 78th and Gutiérrez in the 90+4th minute to wipe out an Alonso Martínez brace.
Matthew Mangam
New York City Scouting Report
• Player Availability: Malachi Jones (leg), Andrés Perea (foot), and Kevin O'Toole (leg) are unavailable due to injuries.
• Keaton Parks is off the injury list after being sidelined since May 5, when he hobbled off the field just 26 minutes into the 1-0 win over Cincinnati.
• Andrés Perea is back on the injury list after missing five games earlier in the season — and after making the Starting XI in the five most recent matches.
• Jansen will have options in midfield despite missing Perea. A team that features Maxi Moralez, Aiden O'Neill, Parks, and Jonny Shore still looks solid on paper.
• Will we see Birk Risa at left-back again? The left-footed defender was sharp when starting on the left in the team's last two matches, while Justin Haak and Thiago Martins anchored the defense in the center. Both of those games were clean sheets for NYCFC.
• Speaking of, will Freese log another shutout? If he does, that will bring him to seven this season, a new career high. It will also put him in a five-way tie for Fourth Place all-time among NYCFC goalkeepers.
• Martínez rediscovered his scoring touch against Red Bulls last week, finding the back of the net for the first time since April 26, when New York City beat Toronto FC on Matchday 10. Will the rest of the squad step up if he's silenced this afternoon? The others on the team combined for just one goal during Martínez's three-game drought.
• Now for the $2 million question: Will Mounsef Bakrar snap a scoreless streak dating back to August 31, 2024? Chances are the striker will come on as a late substitute – it happened 10 teams already this season – but he hasn't been able to do much with the 10 to 20 minutes of game time he sees.
• For everything you need to know about Gregg Berhalter's Fire, read the latest installment of Oppo Research in which our Matthew Mangam spoke to Joe Chatz of On Tap Sports Net about the threats of Hugo Cuypers and Jonathan Bamba, the defense's rough 2025, and the team's playoffs-or-bust expectations.
Matthew Mangam
