• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Union-Fire Preview

Jun 4, 2010 - 9:06 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Philadelphia (2-5-1) at Chicago (2-3-4), 8:30 p.m. EDT

The Chicago Fire were hoping to take advantage of a seemingly easy portion of their schedule and head into the World Cup break near the top of the Eastern Conference.

So far, that hasn't worked out.

The Fire try to stop a four-game winless streak Saturday night when they host a Philadelphia Union team looking to build on a thrilling victory.

After winning its final two games in April, Chicago (2-3-4) appeared to have a good chance at making a move in the standings over the next several weeks. The Fire's schedule featured matches against Chivas USA, Toronto FC, Kansas City, FC Dallas, Philadelphia and Colorado - all but one of which is in the bottom half of its respective conference.

Chicago has failed to take advantage, going 0-1-3 during the stretch to fall 11 points behind East-leading Columbus.

The Fire, outscored 8-5 during the winless streak, showed little urgency in a 1-all draw with Dallas last Thursday, managing three shots on goal. Brian McBride scored his team-leading fourth goal, his second in as many games, in the 40th minute on a header.

"One point isn't acceptable against Dallas at home," veteran C.J. Brown told the Fire's official website. "I expect a little more from this group and we're not getting it right now.

"A lot needs to change. We're not finishing. We're not winning games. We're out there and it's not what it should be."

Snapping the winless skid is imperative for Chicago. The Fire play three of their first four games after the break against the first-place Crew, West-leading Los Angeles and defending MLS Cup champion Real Salt Lake.

"Hopefully we can take the three points and finally get the season started because that's what we want," forward Collins John said. "We have two wins against Houston and D.C., but that's just not enough. The team that we have, we should be up there."

The Union (2-5-1), three points back of Chicago, managed to end their five-game winless streak with an impressive 3-2 win at Houston last Saturday.

After Danny Mwanga fed Sebastien Le Toux in the 69th minute to tie the score at 2, Le Toux set up Mwanga's winning goal three minutes into stoppage time. Le Toux leads Philadelphia with five goals, while Mwanga is second with two.

"I think for the team, it means the work paid off," said Union coach Peter Nowak, who played for the Fire from 1998-2002. "This is still a very young group who wants to work and win games, and for me it's a work in progress. We are eight weeks in the season, and we have 22 games in front of us."

The expansion Union, who went 0-4-1 in their previous five, will be trying to win back-to-back games for the first time.