A prediction for the Union-Fire game

Union manager Jim Curtin hasn’t hesitated to say that he’s prioritizing the Champions League over the regular season right now. He said it after Wednesday’s 2-2 tie at Atlas, and he was even more blunt about it on Friday: “The Champions League is the priority.”

But as the Union return to league games on Saturday at the Chicago Fire (8:30 p.m., Apple TV, paywalled), Curtin knows he’ll encounter an even rarer sight these days than the Union being in the Champions League semifinals.

For the first time in years, the Union enter a game against the Fire from outside the playoff places, while the Fire are in them. Chicago’s 2-1-3 record (9 points) isn’t too much to gloat about, but it’s better than the Union’s 2-4-1 mark (7 points).

The Fire haven’t lost since their visit to Subaru Park on March 11, when it took Joaquín Torres’ late goal to bring the Union three points.

Though all the points the Union have dropped since then count equally, they weren’t all created equally. Curtin is still annoyed about his team’s late collapse at CF Montréal on March 18 and a scoreless tie at home against Sporting Kansas City on April 1.

“I think we all recognize we don’t have the amount of points in the league that we’d like to,” Curtin said Friday. “I think we’ve performed a little better than the output of points, but the reality is the table tells the truth. … I have full confidence and faith that this group will get going in the league, but there is a sense of urgency and it starts this weekend.”

Jack McGlynn also acknowledged that he and his fellow players “need to get points in the league now. We’re not where we want to be in the league, so we’re all focused on that.”

» READ MORE: A voice of the Phillies’ World Series and Eagles’ Super Bowl runs will call the Union-Fire game

That kind of focus should help against a Fire team that has familiar faces in former Union players Kacper Przybylko and Fabian Herbers, and a veteran of a record 10 MLS teams in Kei Kamara. There are also intriguing young prospects in goalkeeper Chris Brady and winger Brian Gutiérrez.

But the Union still have better talent, including two players who didn’t play midweek: Torres and Andrés Perea. This feels like a moment to give them an extended run, then bring players like Mikael Uhre and McGlynn off the bench for the late stages of the game.

The vibes were bad going into last weekend’s game at FC Cincinnati. They are not this time.

Prediction: Union 2, Fire 1.

» READ MORE: Julián Carranza shows again that he’s a big-time player with his goals against Atlas