Chicago Stars fire Martin Sjögren after disastrous season, bring back Lorne Donaldson

Four wins all season, nine goals scored and 33 allowed. With numbers like that, something had to give at Chicago Stars. What gave was the bench: the club fired Martin Sjögren as head coach, just months after hiring him.

The Swedish coach, a former Norway national team manager, had arrived in Chicago at the start of this season following his stint at Hammarby in Sweden's Damallsvenskan. The excitement did not last long. The Stars sit at the bottom of the NWSL table with a record of 4 wins, 13 losses and 1 draw, and head into this break on a five-game winless streak. The club also let go of his assistant, Anders Jacobson, who had arrived alongside Sjögren.

The offensive drought stings the most: no one in the league scored fewer goals than Chicago. On the other end, the defense offered no relief either, conceding 33 goals, the worst mark in the league. With that record, the upcoming match against Seattle Reign, set for Friday, arrives with the house already under renovation.

A familiar face returns

To fill the gap right away, assistant coach Karina Báez will take over as interim head coach for the rest of the season. But the bigger surprise is elsewhere: Lorne Donaldson, who had already coached the Stars before, returns as interim director of coaching.

Donaldson is no stranger to Chicago. He led the team until he was removed from the position in April 2025, in his second season with the club. Before that he had posted a record of 10 wins, 14 losses and 2 draws in his first year, enough to get the Stars into the playoffs. His name also carries weight for something bigger: he led the Jamaica women's national team to the round of 16 at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Donaldson himself did not hide his excitement about the return.

This is a group of players I truly care about, and I'm very happy to be back with the Chicago Stars for the next few months. I'm excited to reconnect with some familiar faces, to have the chance to get to know new players, and I look forward to working alongside the coaching staff to pick up wins down the stretch of the season.Lorne Donaldson

With the bottom of the table already locked in for all practical purposes, what remains of the campaign for Chicago is about something else: rebuilding a footballing identity that, under Sjögren, never quite came together.