Chicago Fire FC, who have a six-year postseason qualification drought, is the team that has been less familiar with the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs over the past ten or so years. Their supporters would be the first to point out that this is a proud club that has only missed out on that milestone once in their first twelve seasons of existence.
However, the Fire return in 2024, this time feeling really optimistic about the talent head coach Frank Klopas has at his disposal. The team’s main additions this season are Hugo Cuypers and Kellyn Acosta, who made their official media debuts on Tuesday at the Swissôtel Chicago in the heart of the Windy City.
“The entire vibe is different in my opinion. The attitude has changed,” stated Georg Heitz, sporting director.
“These two players have a track record of success. They will instill in this club a winning attitude that we may have occasionally lacked in the past.”
Cuypers, a prolific scorer in Belgium’s top division who won the Golden Boot with 34 goals in 56 games across all competitions with KAA Gent last season, is, on the one hand, the latest high-profile addition by Fire owner Joe Mansueto. Chicago paid a club-record transfer fee of reportedly $12 million plus incentives to acquire Cuypers.
He is presently ranked fourth in the FIFA World Rankings and is considered a dark horse for this summer’s Euros by the Belgian national team. He is now tasked with leading a comeback at one of the MLS’s sleeping giants as a designated player.
It’s already something I thought would be really nice a couple years back, and then the opportunity came this winter transfer window for me, because of the European calendar, to come here,” said Cuypers, who will don the No. 9 shirt for the Fire, of his Stateside adventure. “And it was a very conscious decision, because I think the league is growing. Everybody knows it. Everybody sees it. It’s also, I think, a league that suits my style of play as well.
“I’m at a stage in my career where I needed and I was looking for not only a great project, but also an environment where – because I feel I still have growth potential, and I felt that Chicago was really giving me that environment to progress. The efforts they are putting to make the franchise grow are just massive, the new training facility they are building, the staff that’s growing, and their ambition is just really big.”
Following his assumption of the Men in Red’s leadership in September 2019, Mansueto has made significant investments. Since then, the Fire have added all five of the most expensive signings in club history, including star Xherdan Shaqiri, whose two seasons of generally underperforming have Heitz and Klopas hoping a more dependable finisher like Cuypers will turn around.
“Many, many reasons,” said Heitz when asked why the Belgian was the right choice. “First of all, his numbers are amazing, I think in a very competitive league. Also, the data, the metrics, when you compare how he covers a lot of ground; he is a very speedy player. He’s a highly intelligent player. He knows where to run. He not only runs, but he knows where to run. He can score goals with both feet, with headers, he’s only 27.
“So he should be in his prime, and I think he can also handle the pressure because the Belgian league is not an easy league.”
Acosta represents the other side of the coin: An MLS veteran with deep knowledge and a proven track record of success in the league. Chicago craved his box-to-box skill set and free-kick expertise – the Fire added a full-time set pieces coach to their staff this offseason – and courted him assiduously from the moment he became a free agent after helping LAFC reach the final of both Concacaf Champions League and MLS Cup last year.
“Everybody is just super excited, and you can feel that energy and you can feel it with the team. Just being part of the group for the last couple weeks, there’s something special brewing here,” said Acosta.
“From my standpoint, I’ve won, I think every trophy in the league besides Champions League,” added the FC Dallas academy product, who won a Supporters’ Shield-US Open Cup double with his hometown club in 2016 and a Shield-MLS Cup double with LAFC two years ago. “For us as athletes, you always want to build a legacy, and being here is an opportunity to do just that. I’ve been in different environments but like I said, there’s something just truly special here. I’ve never been part of a team where there’s a collective voice of really wanting to drive the sport forward in the city. And I know the city is eager to have a winning team, right?
“There’s trophies out there for us to win, and it would be a disservice for us if we are not putting our best foot forward and competing and doing just that.”
Given a second opportunity to forge a successful route following four lacklustre years in his position, Heitz highlighted the MLS experience gathered by Acosta, native-son fullback Andrew Gutman, Tom Barlow, and Chase Gasper in this winter’s squad.
The Fire’s opening weekend matchup against the Philadelphia Union, the team that has won the most games in the league over the past five years, will be a tough test for that theory on Saturday (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). Acosta and Cuypers joined the squad in the later parts of Chicago’s preseason, during which the team dropped just one game, so it’s unclear from the outside whether they will be ready to start that match.
But the Fire think they can be a serious contender, regardless of what happens at Subaru Park.
“My goal isn’t to merely enter the playoffs undetected. If that were the case, I would be enjoying my wife’s company and summer vacation on the Greek islands from the sidelines. One of Chicago’s most enduring figures as a player, coach, and executive, Klopas stated, “I came back, I love the club, I will do whatever it takes to help this club, and I’m here because I want to win.”
“We are here because we want to compete and win, not just to sneak in in the playoffs.”
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