BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (Aug. 16, 2025) – Chicago Fire (11-9-6, 39 points) earned a 3-2 victory over St. Louis CITY SC (5-15-6, 21 points) Saturday night at SeatGeek Stadium. Forward Hugo Cuypers tallied to open the match before winger Philip Zinckernagel and midfielder Brian Gutiérrez scored unanswered goals to win it in the second half.
After controlling the early stretch of the match, Gutiérrez played the ball forward to left back Andrew Gutman on the wing. The defender then played a ball across the six-yard box, where Cuypers finished to put Chicago on the board in the 16th minute.
St. Louis came out of the halftime break with a response in hand. After a cross in the box was cut off by the Fire defense, midfielder Tomáš Ostrák recovered the ball before curling a shot into goal just two minutes into the half. In the 59th minute, Ostrák again came away with the ball in the box, switching to the left for midfielder Marcel Hartel to lash home for the visiting lead.
Chicago pushed back, finding an equalizer eight minutes later. Midfielder Dje D’Avilla fed the ball to Zinckernagel at midfield, who turned toward goal before weaving through the defense and tucking the ball to his near post.
With three minutes remaining in regulation time, Gutman swung the ball inside to Zinckernagel, who drew multiple defenders at the top of the box before laying off to Gutiérrez. The Homegrown midfielder took a touch before rifling a shot that snuck past the glove of goalkeeper Roman Bürki and into the net, completing Chicago’s comeback victory.
NEXT MATCH: Chicago heads to the City of Brotherly Love to face Supporters’ Shield contenders Philadelphia Union on Saturday, August 23. The match is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast globally on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and transmitted locally on wlsam.com (English) and Que Buena Fire via the Uforia App (Spanish). A replay of the match will be available on Marquee Sports Network on Monday, Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. CT.
Notes:
- Forward Hugo Cuypers tallied his 15th goal of 2025 to open the scoring against St. Louis. The goal tied him with 2013 MLS MVP Mike Magee (2013) and Nemanja Nikolic (2018) for the third-most scored in a single season.
- Philip Zinckernagel’s equalizing goal and game-winning assist raised his season totals to 11 goals and 13 assists. The combined 24 goal contributions are now tied with Ante Razov (2000) for second-most in a single Fire season, trailing 2017 MLS Golden Boot winner Nemanja Nikolic by four. His 13 assists is the third most in a Fire season, tied with midfielder Diego Gutiérrez (2000) and only one assist behind record-holders Jerzy Prodbrozny (1998) and Piotr Nowak (2000).
- With his eighth goal and third assist of the year, Brian Gutiérrez matched his career-high in goal contributions (11) for a season. In 2023, the Homegrown midfielder tallied two goals and nine assists. He is also now second on the team behind Cuypers (5) with two game-winning goals in 2025 for Chicago.
- Tonight’s result gave Chicago a 2-1-0 record all-time against St. Louis in regular season play. The Fire also were victorious in their inaugural meeting in the Lamar U.S. Open Cup, a 2-1 victory on May 13, 2023 at SeatGeek Stadium.
- Unavailable for selection were midfielders Rominigue Kouamé (lower body) and David Poreba (lower body). Midfielder Chris Mueller has additionally been placed on the Season Ending Injury list and will be out the remainder of the season.
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Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC 3:2 St. Louis CITY SC
Goals:
CHI - Cuypers (15) (Gutman 9, Gutiérrez 3) (WATCH) 16’
STL - Ostrak (1) (WATCH) 47’
STL - Hartel (Ostrak 2, Wallem 2) (WATCH) 59’
CHI - Zinckernagel (11) (D’Avilla 1) (WATCH) 67’
CHI - Gutiérrez (8) (Zinckernagel 13) (WATCH) 87’
Discipline:
STL - Hartel (Yellow Card) 36’
STL - Ostrak (Yellow Card) 61’
STL - Lowen (Yellow Card) 90+1’
STL - Bürki (Yellow Card) 90+3’
Chicago Fire FC: GK Brady, D Barroso (Dean, 78’), D Terán, D Elliott (capt.), D Gutman, M D’Avilla, M Oregel Jr. (Acosta, 70’), M Gutiérrez, F Zinckernagel (Pineda, 90+2’), F Cuypers, F Bamba (Haile-Selassie, 78’)
Subs not used: GK Gal, D Rogers, D González
St. Louis CITY SC: GK Bürki, D Orozco (Wallem, 57’), D Baumgartl, D Kessler (Fall, 57’), D Padelford, M Löwen, M Jeong, M Durkin (Morales, 69’), F Hartel, F Klauss (Becher, 85’), F Ostrak (Pompeu, 69’)
Subs not used: GK Lundt, D Totland, D Hiebert, M Girdwood-Reich
Stats Summary: CHI / STL
Shots: 19 / 13
Shots on Goal: 5 / 3
Saves: 1 / 2
Passing Accuracy: 87.9% / 85.1%
Corners: 6 / 2
Fouls: 8 / 11
Offsides: 2 / 2
Possession: 50.7% / 49.3%
Attendance: 17,485
Referee: Jair Marrufo
Assistant Referees: Gerard-Kader Lebuis, Tyler Wyrostek
Fourth Official: Alexis Da Silva
VAR: Daniel Radford
AVAR: Eric Weisbrod
