After taking over the Fire’s operations in 2019, Joe Mansueto transformed the club.
The Fire have a soccer-specific stadium coming and already have a state-of-the-art training center. Mansueto also has listened to fan feedback, quickly ditching the infamous Fire crown logo and restoring red as the club’s primary color, while modernizing the franchise’s business practices.
And thanks to what has happened this season, the Fire finally are showing progress on the field.
By beating Lionel Messi and Inter Miami 5-3 on Tuesday, they clinched their first playoff berth since 2017, two years before Mansueto bought out Andrew Hauptman.
The first five full seasons of Mansueto’s ownership were short on tangible soccer results as former sporting director Georg Heitz cycled through underwhelming coaches and designated players and never figured out MLS before departing last year.
That hasn’t been a problem for coach and director of football Gregg Berhalter. Hired by Mansueto last October, the former U.S. men’s national team and Columbus Crew coach needed no time to acclimate to the league and has made the Fire a successful and entertaining team in his first season.
“We know it takes time,” Berhalter told reporters. “But we never got carried away. It was really about just continuing on in that process of training hard and instilling the principles of play every week in training and continuing to build.”
The Fire makeover is by no means complete. By beating Miami, the Fire only clinched one of the top nine spots in the Eastern Conference and have a daunting path to contend for an MLS Cup this fall.
But unlike the last seven seasons, they at least have a chance.
“The beauty of the MLS playoffs is that once you get in, anything can happen,” Berhalter said. “And you know, I’m not going to sit here and tell you our new objective is to win it all, but our objective is to compete, every series we’re in, every game we’re in, because you know that can lead to an opportunity.
“That’s all we’re looking for, is an opportunity to compete.”
The Fire have given themselves that opportunity by winning a team-record nine road games fueled by 41 away goals. The victory Tuesday in Florida also showed the Fire’s resilience, a trait the team has lacked for years.
Despite taking 2-0 and 3-1 leads, the Fire were tied at 3 late in the second half. Instead of dropping points in a crucial game against one of the league’s most talented sides, the Fire retook the lead in the 80th minute on a goal by Justin Reynolds, then sealed the win in the 83rd on Brian Gutierrez’s goal.
In the final moments, Berhalter’s influence was especially evident.
“The most important thing was the culture and having that bond with the whole team,” Gutierrez said of Berhalter’s impact. “In recent times, we didn’t have that, and it showed on the field. You didn’t see that camaraderie. That culture was a big asset to what we needed and putting his philosophies [in place] and having a structure. That’s the most important thing.”
Before Tuesday, Mansueto and the Fire had put several things in place. Now, by reaching the postseason, they finally have accomplished another goal, perhaps the most important, for a soccer team.
“We’ve been in rough paths throughout these past years, and me being with the team and being through all these struggles and finally seeing that we reached what we wanted to do in such a long time, it’s honestly a great relief,” Gutierrez said. “Super proud of this team.”