Through nine games and 796 minutes in MLS play, first-year Chicago Fire midfielder Anton Saletros had not been able to come up with a goal.
The 30-year-old star from Sweden did have an assist, but had yet to celebrate putting the ball into the net.
Perhaps that will change.
Though it wasn’t in an MLS game, Saletros broke the ice, scoring the first goal in his Fire career in the 63rd minute of a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 battle with St. Louis CITY SC. But the visitors came away with a 2-1 win over the Fire April 29 in front of a crowd of 3,426 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.
The Fire are eliminated from the Cup, but perhaps Saletros can become a scoring threat joining Hugo Cuypers (10 goals) and Philip Zinckernagel (four).
“So, it was nice to score that goal, but obviously frustrated to lose this game,” Saletros said after the St. Louis loss. “I think we were the better team the whole game. It’s just two bad plays and, yeah, that’s football.”
He enjoyed getting quality time playing and gaining chemistry with fellow midfielders Mauricio Pineda and Sergio Oregel Jr., who was born in Evergreen Park.
“We put an extra man in the midfield that allowed me to be a bit more mobile and advanced on the pitch,” Saletros said. “I think it worked great.”
Homegrown defender Dylan Borso, a Neuqua Valley grad who played at Wake Forest, made the first start of his Fire career and played 77 minutes from the start at right back.
“It’s always good for young players to get minutes,” Saletros said. “I trained a bit with Dylan in the offseason and he has great potential. So he just has to keep working and working hard and he’ll push through … just keep pushing.”
The Fire won five Cup championships, but the last one came in in 2006.
“In our minds, we’re out of one competition, and now it’s about putting our pure focus into the league, and that’s what it’s about right now,” Fire coach Gregg Berhalter said, “We wanted to win this competition and we have to come to the reality that we didn’t. The good thing is that we made five changes to the lineup, we got to see a different group.”
The Fire usually play their home games at Soldier Field in Chicago and occasionally play in Bridgeview. This was the first game of the season at SeatGeek Stadium for the Fire and it’s up in the air if there will be any more in 2026.
The Fire will move their MLS games to Bridgeview when there is a conflict with the Bears during the NFL season. The team will wait for the NFL to come out with its schedule to see if and when games will be moved to Bridgeview.
Meanwhile, the Fire returned to MLS action and lost 3-2 against Cincinnati on May 2 at Soldier Field when Patrick Evander scored his third goal of the night on a penalty kick in stoppage time.
Cuypers scored two goals for the Fire (5-3-3) who suffered their first MLS loss since March 14.
Chicago hosts Red Bull New York at 1:30 p.m. on May 9 at Soldier Field.