Fire hope to bask in sunshine against CF Montreal

The Fire’s match Saturday at Soldier Field against CF Montreal is a relatively rare occurrence. No, there won’t be any mega-watt international star or some glitzy halftime performance to wow the crowd.

Simply, the game will be played during the day.

Since Major League Soccer moved its broadcast rights to Apple TV+ in 2023, the vast majority of matches have kicked off Saturday or Wednesday nights a little after 7:30 local time. Last season, the Fire had one kickoff before 5 p.m.

The upcoming match, which is slated to begin around 1 p.m., is actually the first of three consecutive afternoon starts for the Fire. In preparation for the match, the Fire (0-2-1, 1 point) moved their training sessions to 1 p.m. to get their body clocks synced with the opening kick.

Coach Frank Klopas said the team has been “on top” of when the players get up and eat so their bodies are in the right place to face Montreal (2-0-1, 7 points).

“We are doing whatever we can to make sure that the guys adjust in that way and they are ready to go,” Klopas said. “[There’s] nothing else we can do other than train the right way, practice at the same time. Those adaptations are important to the players, also, and we’re doing that.”

Even though he has gotten used to the night-heavy schedule, goalkeeper Chris Brady prefers the early games.

“For those early games, the benefit is maybe you wake up, have breakfast and you get to go,” Brady said. “There’s no time-wasting. There’s no waiting to see how the day might end up. There’s no time-killing. There’s just wake up, breakfast, head to the stadium, play a game and you’ve still got the rest of your day.”

Perhaps Brady would think differently if the match were scheduled for a summer day. Ten years ago, then-LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena and forward Robbie Keane delivered tirades about facing the Fire in Bridgeview on a steamy early June afternoon. Keane, who spent most of his career playing in Europe with its fall-winter-spring schedule, was especially blunt, wondering “who makes these [expletive] stupid decisions,” among other profane remarks.

Unless there’s an unseasonable burst of hot weather, heat won’t be an issue Saturday. After their preparations, Klopas is confident the Fire will be fine when it’s time to play.

“The guys will be ready,” Klopas said.

The Fire will need to be ready regardless of what the clock says.

Though Klopas has liked their performances against three of the better teams in MLS, the Fire have only one of a possible nine points. Montreal, which has won two consecutive matches, will present another test for the Fire.

“I know that there’s a lot of people talking about the actual points we’ve gotten away from those three games, but I will say that I have seen growth, the coaches have seen growth and us as players have seen growth in the chemistry, effort and tactically and technically what we are trying to do on the field,” Brady said. “I would say they have not been very representative of how we feel we’ve been doing, but sometimes that’s just the game of soccer.”