Match Recap | Chicago Fire FC Wins Fifth in a Row in 2-1 Victory over Portland Timbers at Soldier Field

CHICAGO (Aug. 16, 2026) – Chicago Fire FC (10-6-2, 32 points) earned a 2-1 victory over the Portland Timbers (7-9-3, 24 points) Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field. The result gave the Fire their fifth win in a row across all competitions and lifted them to third place of the Eastern Conference.

Chicago continued its hot offensive form right off the bat, opening the scoring before the 10th minute. Midfielder Dje D’Avilla won the ball in his own half before passing back to Andrew Gutman. The defender looked up and lofted a ball behind the Portland defense and into the path of a sprinting Robin Lod, who chested it down and finished cleanly for the 1-0 lead.

Five minutes later, the Men in Red struck again as Maren Haile-Selassie arrived in the box to finish a play he started. With his back to goal and defenders coming in, the Swiss winger passed back to D’Avilla, who took a touch before unleashing a stunner from outside the box to make it 2-0.

The onslaught continued into the second half, as Robert Lewandowski curled a nigh-perfect shot to the far post that James Pantemis was able to get a hand on for the save. The Portland goalkeeper kept his team in the match with another strong point-blank save as teammate Finn Surman halved the deficit in the 85th minute. But the goal was too little, too late, as Chicago reached double-digit victories for the regular season.

NEXT MATCH: Chicago Fire FC kicks off a four-game MLS road trip with a midweek match against Orlando City SC at Inter.co Stadium in Orlando, Fla. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday, Aug. 19 and the match will be broadcast globally on Apple TV, and transmitted locally on wlsam.com in English and TUDN Chicago 106.7-HD2 and Uforia by TREBEL app in Spanish.

Match Notes:

• Dje D’Avilla recorded the first match with multiple goal contributions of his career. The midfielder opened with his second assist of 2026 on Robin Lod’s opening goal before notching a game-winning goal – the first of his career – in the 14th minute of the match.

• Assisting D’Avilla’s game-winner was Maren Haile-Selassie, who recorded his seventh assist of the season. That was also his 27th assist with Chicago, lifting the Swiss winger to eighth all-time among Fire players in the category.

• Chicago recorded its first five-game winning streak across all competitions since 2000, when the Fire won four in a row to end the regular season before winning the first of a three-game series against the Dallas Burn.

• The Fire recorded their 100th regular season victory at Soldier Field on Sunday. In 194 games at the iconic venue, the Men in Red have a record of 100-55-39, with 332 goals scored.

• Midfielder Sergio Oregel Jr. (Lower Body) and winger Chris Mueller (Not Due to Injury) were unavailable for selection alongside midfielder André Franco (Lower Body), who remains on the league Injured List. Defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi (Lower Body) was recently announced to be out for the season and has been placed on the Injured List as a result.

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Box Score:
Chicago Fire FC 2:1 Portland Timbers

Goals:

CHI - Lod (4) (Gutman 4, D’Avilla 2) (WATCH) 9’
CHI - D’Avilla (1) (Haile-Selassie 7) (WATCH) 14’
POR - Surman (1) (Bye 3, Lassiter 4) (WATCH) 85’

Discipline:

POR - Bye (Caution) 51’
CHI - Lod (Caution) 57’
CHI - Salétros (Caution) 79’
POR - Janssen (Caution) 90+4’

Chicago Fire FC: GK Brady, D Barroso (Dean, 72’), D Rogers, D Elliott (capt.), D Gutman, M D’Avilla, M Salétros (Pineda, 82’), M Zinckernagel (Dithejane, 60’), M Haile-Selassie, F Lod, F Lewandowski (Bamba, 60’)

Subs not used: GK Cohen, D Radojević, D Waterman, D Cupps, M Poreba

Head Coach: Gregg Berhalter

Portland Timbers: GK Pantemis, D Bye, D Surman, D K. Miller (Fernández, 88’), D Fory, M Velde, M Basset (Ortiz, 61’), M Chará (capt.) (Caicedo, 76’), M Da Costa (Janssen, 76’), M Antony (Lassiter, 61’), F Kelsy

Subs not used: GK Muse, D McGraw, D E. Miller, F Guerra

Head Coach: Martí Cifuentes

Stats Summary: CHI / POR
Shots: 7 / 11
Shots on Goal: 4 / 2
Saves: 1 / 3
Passing Accuracy: 83.4% / 89.2%
Corners: 0 / 4
Fouls: 15 / 6
Offsides: 2 / 2

Venue: Soldier Field (Chicago)
Attendance: 30,168

Referee: Chris Penso
Assistant Referees: Gerard-Kader Lebuis
Fourth Official: Fotis Bazakos
VAR: Daniel Radford
AVAR: Tom Supple