In the 82nd minute of Thursday night’s match against Columbus Crew SC, Chicago Fire Homegrown product Brian Gutiérrez got his first taste of MLS.
Subbing in for fellow 2020 Homegrown signee Mauricio Pineda, the 17-year-old became the 13th Fire Homegrown player to earn his professional debut with the Club and the second of the season, following Pineda’s debut back on March 1 against Seattle.
Fire play-by-play man Tyler Terens was on the call:
The Bridgeview, Ill. native spoke earlier this week about how earning his first professional minutes had been driving him throughout what has been a unique and unusual rookie season in MLS
“That’s my goal right now -- my pro debut,” Gutiérrez told ChicagoFireFC.com. “It’s a really good motivation for me to take my first step into what I want to achieve.”
Prior to Thursday night’s match, head coach Raphael Wicky spoke highly of the work Gutiérrez had been putting in at training.
“I have to say that I'm very, very pleased with the Guti, the young home grown, Brian Gutiérrez who is 17,” Wicky told media on Tuesday. “Not only the last three weeks, he trained very well in the last six, seven weeks and he has progressed a lot since January, February.”
“It’s important for him to keep training like that, keep improving and then he's in a good way to actually earn some MLS minutes in the next weeks,” he added.
Gutiérrez will get his next chance to see the field when the Fire return to Soldier Field at last this coming Tuesday, Aug. 25 against FC Cincinnati (6:30 p.m. CT | WGN-TV, ESPN+, 105.1 WOJO HD-2).
