Dejan Joveljic has vowed to “bring goals and help win games” for Seattle Sounders after his trade from Sporting Kansas City, with Chicago Fire set to be his first game.
Seattle have struggled recently and are on a nine-game winless streak, though they ended an eight-match losing run with a 1-1 draw at FC Cincinnati last time out.
During that run, they have scored just five goals, but Brian Schmetzer will be hoping Joveljic can change that, with the striker already scoring eight times in MLS in 2026.
And Joveljic is under no illusion about the task ahead of him, and understands the expectations on his shoulders.
“I’m here to bring goals and to help win the games,” said Joveljic.
“I’m the striker who works hard, who is helping the team in every possible way.
“I can score with left, right, head – it doesn’t matter. If Seattle is playing the way they played the last couple of years, I’m gonna score a lot of goals, I’m sure, and I’m ready for it. “
Checkmate. pic.twitter.com/wXjF8ALZRg
— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) August 25, 2026
While Seattle have fallen down the Western Conference table to sit 13th – though they are only three points off the final playoff spot – Chicago are flying high in the East.
The Fire are third, just three points behind Inter Miami above them, with a game in hand, and they are unbeaten in their last four league matches (W3 D1).
They were knocked out of the Leagues Cup by Monterrey in the quarter-finals in midweek, suffering a 2-1 loss, and head coach Gregg Berhalter was left to rue mistakes in recent games.
“It’s [giving up aerial goals] something we need to discuss,” he said after the Monterrey loss.
“I think that when you look at the size of our group, we’re too big to be giving up goals like we are. We’re very disappointed with the performance on that side of the game. It needs to get better.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Seattle Sounders – Kalani Kossa-Rienzi
Since returning from the World Cup break, Seattle have scored five regular-season goals with Kalani Kossa-Rienzi tallying two of those.
Prior to the break, Kossa-Rienzi had just one of Seattle’s 17 MLS goals this season.
Chicago Fire – Chris Brady
Chris Brady recorded five saves on Saturday against the New York Red Bulls, bringing his regular-season total to 348 saves since he became the starting goalkeeper for the Fire in 2023.
The only MLS goalkeepers with more saves in that time are Brad Stuver (484), Kristijan Kahlina (400) and Roman Burki (363).
MATCH PREDICTION: CHICAGO FIRE WIN
The Sounders and Chicago have faced off 20 times across all competitions with the Sounders winning 12 of those (D4 L4). All four meetings since 2020 have been decided by a single goal, with each club recording two victories in that time.
Seattle are back at home in search of their first MLS win at Lumen Field since May 13 after losing four straight home regular-season matches.
That is more losses than they had in their previous 42 home regular-season matches (W23 D16 L3) entering the streak.
Chicago have scored in each of their last 17 regular-season games, tied for the second-longest goalscoring streak in MLS this season (FC Cincinnati – 18). The Fire’s longest single-season streak of scoring a goal in the regular season is an 18-match run in 2001.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Seattle Sounders – 33.6%
Draw – 24.2%
Chicago Fire – 42.2%
