The Deep Dish: Fire Not Releasing Brady, Gutierrez for U-20 World Cup

NO U-20 WORLD CUP FOR BRADY, GUTIERREZ:  When the FIFA Under-20 Men’s World Cup starts on May 20th in Argentina, the USA will be without goalkeeper Chris Brady and midfielder Brian Gutierrez. The Fire opted to keep them at the club and Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said in his weekly press conference that the decision was made during preseason.

“Yeah, you know, the answer to that is no, we will not be releasing those two players,” said Hendrickson. ‘We discussed it at length as a staff, with the front office. We feel that because these players are such an integral part of our team, two regular starters, having them being gone for such a long time during that time would be detrimental to what we are trying to do as a club and what our goals are as far as getting into the playoffs.

“You know, our May schedule if you look at it, it could be possibly seven or eight games in just
May alone. So to not have these players along with some of the injuries we have would not be
conducive to getting to our goal in the end. So in that aspect, we decided that, you know, we will
not let those two players go.”

Hendrickson said that the decision was made during the preseason in February.

“Well, this had been back early in the year, I think February or so, sometime during preseason. And myself and (Sebastian Pelzer) and Georg (Heitz) sat down and spoke with them and explained to them the reasoning. And of course, every player wants to represent their country. A U–20 player, a U–20 World Cup really wants to go there. But we just explained to them our reasoning. And I think after a while, they understood. Of course, they really wanted to go. They expressed that it was something they were looking forward to, and we didn’t want to disappoint them and we didn’t want to disappoint the U.S.Federation.”

Brady is the top-choice goalkeeper for the Fire while Gutierrez has been getting regular minutes at central midfield in place of an injured Xherdan Shaqiri.

MARSCH, ARMAS TO ATTEND OPEN CUP MATCH:  Fire legends Jesse Marsch and Chris Armas will be attending Tuesday night’s US Open Cup Fourth Round match against St. Louis CITY SC at SeatGeek Stadium (7pm). With the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Cup triumph, which both Marsch and Armas were a part of, the pair will participate in a pre-match panel and meet-and-greet with Chicago Fire Season Ticket Members, who will also have the opportunity to be photographed with the 2003 U.S. Open Cup Trophy. Season Ticket Members will not need to RSVP to attend the pre-match event. More details on the event will be shared with members ahead of the Open Cup match.

Both Marsch and Armas are coming off a spell at Leeds United where the former was sacked in February after a poor run of results and Armas departing the following month. Marsch played eight seasons with the Fire (1998-2005) and Armas played ten (1998-2007) and both were key players during the club’s most successful spell.

WHERE TO WATCH NEXT TUESDAY:  The Fire’s Open Cup match on Tuesday will be streamed on the Bleacher Report app and the Bleacher Report YouTube channel at 7pm. All 16 Open Cup matches will be streamed either though Bleacher Report, CBS Golazo Network on Paramount+, or the US Soccer Federation’s YouTube channel.

WHERE TO LISTEN A WEEK FROM SATURDAY:  The March 13th league match between the Fire and CITY SC will be on wlsam.com in addition to Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass.