Chicago Fire gameday

Columbus Crew vs. Chicago Fire: Gameday Guide and How to Watch

After a three week break, the Fire are back in action tonight in Columbus

By Patrick McCraney@patrickmccraney Jun 19, 2021, 8:15am CDT

Chinonso Offor and his Fire teammates train at SeatGeek Stadium

There are many, many storylines heading into tonight’s match between the Columbus Crew and the Chicago Fire (6:30 p.m. CT, WGN-TV & CFFC Live), but there’s one that rises above the rest—it’s the final match at the old Crew Stadium.

After tonight, the Crew will move into their beautiful, new, $320 million stadium near downtown Columbus. But before they do, the Fire will visit the old building for one final match between the two Midwest rivals, and it’s expected to be a capacity crowd.

“We know they want to celebrate, but that’s nothing which plays a big role in our preparation,” Fire coach Raphael Wicky said. “We go there and we want to play our role. We want to play our game and we want to get a result. That’s what we are focusing on and if the stadium is full, then that’s better for everyone.”

New logos all around!

The Fire dropped their new, fan driven logo last night, and it’s receiving a lot of acclaim. Nearly anything would have been better than the Fire Crown, but the Fire really did get this one right. It’s an exiting, refreshing bit of hope heading into 2022.

READ: See more of the Fire’s new crest here!

As for the Crew, well, they recently replaced one of the better logos in the league with an odd, exclamation point looking mark that looks like it belongs as the logo of a casual chain restaurant from the ‘90s. Fans there have already revolted to make sure the logo actually contains the word “Crew,” so maybe they’ll be able to overhaul this one entirely.

Arlo’s Debut

NBC has sent their No. 1 Premier League announcer, Arlo White, on loan to the Fire, and he’ll call the next four matches alongside Tony Meola, before jetting off on Tokyo Olympics duty. The Fire’s regular play-by-play guy, Tyler Terens, is off tonight, but will return for sideline duty for the next three matches, before resuming his regular role after White departs.

Actual Soccer News

With just one win and four goals scored all season, the Fire are bad. But, over the last three games, the team seems to have cleaned up most of its defensive issues, allowing only two goals during that stretch. The team will be without two regular starters who are away on international duty—Gastón Giménez and Przemyslaw Frankowski.

The Crew juggled injuries and Concacaf Champions League early in the year, and got off to a slow start in MLS. They have several key players listed as out or questionable tonight (see the full list below), but you can bet they’ll come out flying trying to win one for the capacity crowd in the final game at their old stadium.