Gregg Berhalter's Chicago Fire are doing something weird: they're scoring | OneFootball

The Chicago Fire not have a perfect team start to the MLS season like the Vancouver Whitecaps, and they might not have the league's surprise top scorer so far in Philadelphia's Tai Baribo.

But you could argue what new manager Gregg Berhalter has accomplished already is just as impressive when compared to what Chicago teams have accomplished in previous seasons.

Mainly, he's coaching a team that is scoring more goals. A lot more goals.

Chicago's nine goals through four games puts the Fire already nearly 22% of the way to what would be their highest goals output since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. That's a stretch of five full seasons in which Fire fans have seen their team score 40 or less. (To be fair, their 33-goal total in the 2020 campaign came in just 23 matches.)

Chicago Fire scoring, 2020-2025

The Fire have scored multiple goals in all four matches, their longest such stretch since the 2022 campaign. They haven't found the net multiple times in five games since the summer of 2017, when Nemanja Nikolic fired his way to the MLS Golden Boot and Bastian Schweinsteiger answered embarassing questions about his new MLS team potentially winning the World Cup.

Hugo Cuypers has emerged as a darkhorse Golden Boot candidate this season with four goals in his last three matches. And most encouragingly, the Fire are relatively good value for their goals output; they've overachieved their expected goals totals by about two so far, but they were also pretty unfortunate to have an apparent third goal in Saturday's 2-1 win at Toronto FC disallowed for a very soft foul by Maren Haile-Selassie against TFC 'keeper Sean Johsnon.

It hasn't exactly been Jogo Bonito -- Cuypers alone has scored once from the penalty spot and twice on headed rebounds -- but this feels like an improvement Fire fans can legitimately buy into after so many disappointments in recent seasons.

Berhalter isn't perfect, and he deserved his fate when he was finally dismissed as U.S. men's national team manager following the 2024 Copa America. But he remains an excellent coach and personnel man at the MLS level, an everyday role that is probably better suited to his personality.

And while the Fire's sudden potency may be unexpected, perhaps it shouldn't be unexpected given Berhalter's past track record of unlocking attacking talent at the MLS level.

Here's the list of Berhalter's year-by-year top MLS scorers from when he managed the Columbus Crew in 2013 through 2018.

Crew year-by-year top scorers, 2013-18

Every name on that list except Ola Kamara posted a career MLS high during their time with Berhalter. And Ola Kamra posted the highest non-penalty kick goal total of his MLS tenure (16) during the 2017 campaign.

Chicago's early schedule has been kind, including matches against D.C., Dallas and Toronto sides whose early performances suggest they'll be near the bottom of the table when the season ends. The Fire aren't going to finish with 77 goals, which is their current pace and near an MLS record.

But this doesn't feel like a mirage. And even if a modest improvement in results only means returning to the fringes of the MLS playoff picture, they're going to be far more enjoyable to watch than at any point this decade. That alone would be enormously refreshing for Fire fans, who have endured far too much boring soccer in recent seasons.