Game week two of the Major League Soccer season and the teams have had a few days to digest the first match. Here's the New England - Chicago Fire preview:
We should expect both teams to be fresh and ready for this match, as there is some time since both teams last played. Let's have a look at how the teams are doing!
1-3-6 (wins/draws/losses). These are the numbers for Chicago Fire when playing away games on artifical turf, which is not the surface they have on their own home stadium (which has grass). Their goal statistics from those ten matches are 11-17 (scored/conceded).
It's quite the trip for Chicago Fire when visiting New England as the cities are 1500 kilometers apart.
New England form and stats
New England faced defeat in their previous match, away at Montreal Impact (1-2). Prior to that, an away loss at Atlanta United.
The hosts are modest favourites in this match, with the bookmakers estimating the chance of a home win at about 50% +- five percent. It's interesting to look at how New England have performed under similar circumstances, so here are some numbers: When modest favourites like this (we found ten games) they have won five times, drawn two and lost three.
Last season, New England's league statistics were 11 wins, 12 draws and 11 losses, resulting in a 7th position in the Major League Soccer. Over these 34 matches they scored 50 goals and conceded 57. Playing at home last season New England managed 8-4-5 (win-draw-lost) with 23 goals and 19 conceded.
Chicago Fire form and stats
The visitors' first away game in the Major League Soccer ended in defeat. Last season Chicago Fire had these away match statistics: Played 17; won 2, drew 5 and lost 10.
Chicago Fire lost away at Seattle Sounders (1-2) in their previous game and are perhaps starting to feel homesick. Before that one, a nice away victory 5-2 at Orlando City.
Late heartbreak for Chicago Fire in the Seattle Sounders match, as the deciding 1-2 goal came deep into overtime.
Chicago Fire are the outsiders in this one, but not by much. Their performance in similar games (being the away team and moderate outsiders) is two wins, two draws and seven defeats. From a total of eleven matches.
1 goal so far away for Chicago Fire, while their defence has allowed the opposition to score 2. All from 1 league match away.
Let's have a look at how Chicago Fire performed last season in the Major League Soccer: They landed a 8th position in the league table after playing out 10 victories, 12 draws and 12 defeats. In total they scored 55 and conceded 47 goals in these matches. The numbers for away games only are: Won 2 - drew 5 and lost 10 with 18/29 goals scored/conceded.
Head 2 Head
Head-2-head stats last ten meetings: three - two - five (New England wins - draws - Chicago Fire wins). As for goals, eight matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), two had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  T. Bunbury 1 goals |   R. Berič 1 goals |
New England missing players
Chicago Fire missing players
| New England | Chicago Fire | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Played | P | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Won | W | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Lost | L | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Scored | S | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | Conceded | C | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | BTTS | BTTS | 0% | 100% | 100% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Clean Sheets | C S | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | 0 | 0 | Total Shots | T S | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | Shots on Target | S O | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 17% | 0% | 0% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 0% | 33% | 33% |
| New England | Last season | Chicago Fire | |||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 35 | 17 | Played | P | 17 | 34 | ||
| 11 | 8 | Won | W | 2 | 10 | ||
| 12 | 4 | Drew | D | 5 | 12 | ||
| 12 | 5 | Lost | L | 10 | 12 | ||
| 50 | 23 | Scored | S | 18 | 55 | ||
| 58 | 19 | Conceded | C | 29 | 47 | ||
| 94% | 94% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 88% | 91% | ||
| 86% | 88% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 65% | 76% | ||
| 54% | 41% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 47% | 50% | ||
| 34% | 18% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 35% | 41% | ||
| 20% | 6% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 24% | 26% | ||
| 60% | 47% | BTTS | BTTS | 53% | 59% | ||
| 17% | 24% | Clean Sheets | C S | 18% | 26% | ||
| 29% | 35% | Failed to Score | F T | 41% | 24% | ||
| 4.8 | 5.4 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 4.5 | 4.9 | ||
| 5.7 | 5.2 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 5.4 | 4.6 | ||
| 2.1 | 1.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2.3 | 1.9 | ||
| 6 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 3 | ||
| 458 | 259 | Total Shots | T S | 222 | 473 | ||
| 147 | 64 | Shots on Target | S O | 64 | 159 | ||
| 34% | 36% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 28% | 35% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | New York RB | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Atlanta United | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Montreal Impact | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Columbus Crew | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | Toronto | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Orlando City | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Cincinnati | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 0 |
| 8 | Chicago Fire | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 0 |
| 9 | DC United | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| 10 | New England | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 0 |
| 11 | Inter Miami | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 12 | New York City | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 13 | Philadelphia Union | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 |