Can Joel Waterman use trade to Chicago Fire to cement spot on World Cup squad?

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After spending over five years with CF Montréal, Joel Waterman is heading to a new club, as he joined the Chicago Fire in a trade this week.

Everyone's new favorite Canadian is here 🇨🇦

We have acquired defender Joel Waterman from CF Montréal 🔥 #cf97 pic.twitter.com/zzUHc0Yexn

— Chicago Fire FC (@ChicagoFire) August 20, 2025

The latest name to leave Montréal as they continue to embark on the rebuild they started this summer, Waterman might be one of their biggest departures, too, as he was one of the club’s co-captains and the second-longest tenured player on their first team behind Samuel Piette. 

Having made 158 appearances with the club since his arrival from Cavalry FC in 2020, scoring five goals and adding seven assists, he’s proven to be a steal of an acquisition for Montréal, who signed him for an undisclosed fee, making him one of the first CPL players to join an MLS outfit. 

Now, though, he’ll get a fresh start with the Fire, who themselves are also going through a rebuild under former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter, but find themselves much further along in that process, currently sitting in a playoff spot in their first year under their new bench boss.

Certainly, Waterman should be a good fit under his new coach, too, who asks his teams to play a controlled, possession-based style of play, which is exciting for a defender best known for his ability on the ball. Given that they haven’t quite hit the heights that they want to in that area this season, sitting with an average of just 48.4% of possession per game, and bottom 10 in MLS in progressive passes, passes to the final third and completed long balls, Waterman is expected to be a big asset in that regard, too. 

Therefore, while it’s been a tough season for Waterman, who recently earned his second red card of 2025 in a Leagues Cup match - for context, he’d been sent off just twice in his first five years in Montréal - he’ll hope this move can be the fresh start he needs to find his form. 

Cet arrêt sur la ligne avec moins de 10 minutes à jouer 💪

Goal line heroics from Joel Waterman 😤#CFMTL pic.twitter.com/GbqNHpRCAD

— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) July 28, 2025

Yet, this shows why this move is a win-win one for both parties. 

For Montréal, they get to move on from an older player (Waterman was the third-oldest member of Montréal’s squad, only behind Fabian Herbers and Piette) in exchange for a healthy return, despite him having a bit of a down year (they received $500 000 in upfront GAM across 2025 and 2026, plus $100 000 in potential add-ons), which is a textbook rebuilding move. 

Meanwhile, for Chicago, they get an experienced MLS centre back that fits their system and has 10 caps for the CanMNT, which is not a bad acquisition for the price they paid. 

Lastly, most importantly, this is also a win for Waterman, who gets that fresh start he might’ve felt he needed after how 2025 has gone for him. In particular, the timing of this move is quite key, as he remains in a battle to earn a spot in Canada’s World Cup squad next summer.

Based on his play for Canada this summer, where he did well to improve his stock in four appearances (three starts), he has every chance at making that World Cup team as a fourth centre back behind Moïse Bombito, Derek Cornelius and Luc De Fougerolles, but he’ll want to improve his form to really cement that spot with other centre backs pushing around him.  

With Chicago, he has the chance to do that, although it’s worth noting that he’s joining a side with a decent amount of depth at his position. 

Under Berhalter, they’ve preferred to use a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, the two formations he has used for most of his coaching career, sticking with two natural centre-backs (usually his back four turns into a back three in possession, which can open the door for a centre back to play as a full back off the ball) One of those centre backs has almost always been Jack Elliott, as the former Philadelphia Union defender leads the team with 2474 minutes in all competitions, but alongside him, Sam Rogers (1510 minutes), Mauricio Pineda (1459 minutes), Carlos Téran (536 minutes), Omar Gonzalez (489 minutes) and Christopher Cupps (284 minutes) have all earned time at the position. 

To be fair, Gonzalez is more of a veteran leader who provides emergency depth, while Cupps is a 17-year-old yet to fully breakthrough in the first team, but between Elliott, Rogers, Pineda, Téra and Waterman, that’s still a pretty loaded group battling for two spots. 

What that shows, though, is that someone surely could be on the way out - Rogers and Pineda are fair candidates for a trade given their age and status as domestic players, while Téran could be a loan candidate. 

Certainly, given this move to bring in Waterman, he’ll be expected to play a decent amount at his new club, so it feels like he and Elliott have the least to worry about - in fact, they should hope to form a strong partnership, one that helps them improve a defence that has conceded 44 goals in just 26 MLS games this year. 

Returning to Waterman, though, it’s important to ask two questions: 1) What are the Fire getting from him in this acquisition? 2) How legitimate are the concerns of a 2025 regression?

GOAL 🔔

Joel Waterman ties it up for @cfmontreal in the TELUS #CanChamp with a great strike following a corner 🍁

🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/KL7BWn0OVB

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) May 1, 2025

To begin with #1, the answer is pretty clear - he’s a strong ball-playing centre back, one who, despite not being the most fleet of foot, is an aggressive defender who likes to step up and break up play instead of dropping back and anticipating it. 

That’s been part of the reason why he’s earned a bigger role in the CanMNT under head coach Jesse Marsch, who likes his defenders to be aggressive, with his ball-playing ability being a bonus in that system - ironically, the opposite will likely be true with Chicago (although again, given their defensive record, they’ll hope he helps as much with that as he does their play on the ball). 

Speaking of that ball-playing ability, though, how strong is he in that area of his game? Consider this - in 2025, despite playing on a Montréal side that averages just 47.9% of possession, he is still in the 89th percentile among MLS centre backs in passes attempted, 94th percentile in progressive passes, 89th percentile in passes to the final third, 93rd percentile in long balls completed and 79th percentile in progressive carries, per FBRef, showing that he is among the best in MLS in that area of his game.

Here's Waterman's stats from 2025, showing that his ball progression numbers have still been quite solid despite his and Montréal's struggles (FBRef)

That’s further reflected in his overall numbers from his time with Montréal - since arriving at the club in 2020, he’s averaged 58.06 passes (at a 89.5% clip), 6.13 long balls (at a 56.1% clip), 7.3 passes into the final third (at a 74.4% clip) and 0.98 progressive runs per 90, which are all very strong (numbers via WyScout). 

Yet, this shows why Berhalter will be ecstatic to work with a centre back of his profile, as Waterman likes to get on the ball and spray it around from deeper positions. 

Of course, with defenders, ball progression is but one part of their game, though. To that point, that leads to the second question - how is Waterman in that side of his game, and has there been a regression this year?

To start with part one of that question, the answer is that he’s pretty solid. His duel numbers are good, but not spectacular - with Montréal, he won an average of 57.6% duels (contesting 11.41 per 90), including 51.5% of his aerial duels (contesting 1.98 per 90) and 63.1% of his defensive duels (contesting 5.3 per 90), showing that he was stronger in his ground duels than those in the air - good thing for him that his new teammate Elliott is 6’6” and quite proficient in the air. 

Otherwise, Waterman makes up for that by having good interception and recovery numbers, averaging 5.55 interceptions and 10.88 recoveries, which are strong figures. 

Of course, the challenging thing to judge with defenders is the environment they’re in, as it can sometimes be better to be not as busy as it is always contesting actions, as defenders on good teams don’t need to do as much defending. Because of that, it’s interesting to remember that Montréal has typically been a middling to lower-end MLS team since Waterman’s arrival - they’ve finished between 17th and 20th in all of MLS during four out of his five seasons, otherwise finishing third in 2022, and they currently sit second-last this year. 

Yet, for what it’s worth, stats like duel win rates aren’t as dependent on how a team defends. Because of that, you can see how Waterman performed as an important piece of that 2022 team that pushed for MLS’s Supporters Shield under coach Wilfried Nancy, for example, given that he played over 3000 minutes across all competitions on that side - in theory, a season like that should help give an idea of what he can do in a better environment.

Here are Waterman's stats from his 2022 season, which was his best campaign to date, as reflected by these dominant numbers. Look for him to replicate that in Chicago (FBRef)

There, Waterman had his best campaign in terms of his percentage of duels won and percentage of aerial duels won - but he did also have his year with the lowest interceptions and second-lowest recoveries, which shows the trade-off of playing on a better team. 

Returning to this year, though, has there been any noticeable drop-off in any of Waterman’s key statistical categories, on both sides of the ball? 

TABLE: Waterman's stats with CF Montréal from 2020 to 2025, all competitions

When looking at those numbers, he has his lowest pass % since 2020, but is averaging way more passes into the final third - otherwise, not much stands out from the offensive numbers (although he’s not dribbling as much as before, which could indicate a lack of confidence). 

Then, defensively, there’s nothing out of the ordinary, other than one stat - this is by far the season with the most fouls Waterman has had, helping explain why he’s already had two red cards. In that case, what stands out is that perhaps Montréal’s struggles have led to some individual frustrations for Waterman, as otherwise, there aren’t any big dips to note in his defensive figures.

Overall, though, this shows why this is a move that makes a lot of sense for Chicago. Perhaps, because of Montréal’s desire to have a fire sale, Waterman’s age and some of his struggles, that lowered the price of this deal to a pretty reasonable amount, all things considered. 

Given Waterman’s past performances and his CanMNT pedigree, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to see him fetch closer to $1 million GAM in a different year, for example. 

Now, the big challenge for Waterman will be to find some of his past form again. Chicago should be a good place to do that, given the fit that he’ll have on day one, but he’ll also have to prove that he’s worthy of winning a starting spot and forming a partnership with Elliott going forward.

He does that, and his CanMNT stock should stay strong given how he fits into Jesse Marsch’s system. At this stage, his best-case scenario in the World Cup squad is likely to feature in a couple of games off the bench, but that’s still an excellent role to have, and something Waterman wouldn’t mind doing after being an unused substitute in all three of Canada’s 2022 World Cup games. 

Speaking of that 2022 World Cup, though, that’s likely what will fuel him when making this move. Having made that squad off the back of that aforementioned excellent 2022 season, he’ll hope a return to similar form can push him to make that World Cup appearance he didn’t make last time around, this time in his home country. 

As a B.C. native, he’ll know about how special it’d be to potentially play a World Cup game in his home province, too, with Canada set to play games at Vancouver’s BC Place, which only adds further motivation for him to hit the ground running with Chicago. 

That’ll only further excite Chicago, who won’t just be getting a player that fits nicely into their team, but one that joins with a lot of motivation to succeed at his new club, which is always nice - now, look for him to prove why this move makes a lot of sense for both him and his new side.