Exclusive Interview: Chicago Fire's Chris Brady on Being Called into USMNT Training Camp

The Chicago Fire’s Chris Brady finally got the call and it was the best wake up he’s ever had.

The Fire’s starting goalkeeper, 21, will replace the injured Patrick Schulte on the United States Men’s National Team roster for their upcoming training camp, per an announcement from US Soccer.

This will be Brady’s first camp with the senior USMNT, but he has history with the federation. Brady won the Golden Glove at the 2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship after helping the U-20 MNT win the tournament.

The USMNT camp begins on June 1 in Chicago and will include friendlies against Türkiye in Connecticut on June 7 before they face Switzerland on June 10 in Nashville, which will force Brady to miss the Fire’s match against D.C. United on June 7.

Brady is in his third full season as the Fire’s starting goalkeeper and has amassed 77 starts in Major League Soccer in that time. The Naperville native has provided stability in front of goal despite his side’s struggles in recent seasons. Now he will potentially get his first appearance with the USMNT after flirting with the possibility of representing Scotland internationally.

The call-up was made official to the goalkeeper when he woke up on Tuesday morning in Chicago.

“I woke up and the [USMNT] admin texted me and said, ‘I know we spoke earlier, but now I'm looking forward to working with you this summer.’ And I was like, what does that mean? And then I checked my email, there the email was and I was super happy. I had just woken up. So I was processing it.”

It’s been a year of adjustments in 2025 for Brady as he and the entire Fire squad have had to change their style of play to conform with how Chicago's director of football and head coach Gregg Berhalter wants his club to operate. Those adjustments on the club side have taught Brady what he needs to do in order to adjust to the expectations with the USMNT.

“I've learned that although I was closed-minded in the beginning, over time I was able to open my mind and then also apply what I was learning fairly well. I kind of surprised myself, even, but all of the new things that have been introduced over – what are we halfway through the year now – the application towards both training and game has been really surprising to me. So things like, you know, building out of the back, playing with the ball at my feet, the way we want, the way I manage the game, taking crosses, positioning claims in the box, managing spacing behind the back line, those are all things that we've had sort of a new approach to this year and I've had to keep an open mind and apply those things to my game.

“I'm anticipating there's going to be a lot more fields of the game that I'm going to have to adapt to in this camp, but that's part of it.”

Intensity will be the name of the game when Brady arrives at training camp, which will begin on June 1 and will initially take place at the Fire’s Endeavor Health Performance Center, as USMNT boss Mauricio Pochettino has identified the goalkeeper spot as a position where someone needs to challenge incumbent starter Matt Turner.

“My goal would be to make the best impression I can, make a lasting one so that [Pochettino] knows I'm here…

“I take pride in this opportunity, and I'm not going to take it lightly. This is something I've been working for, and I'm happy it's finally here. But I have to make a good impression.”

Brady was on the USMNT’s preliminary 60-man roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup but wasn’t initially selected for the pre-tournament training camp. The goalkeeper spot became available after the Columbus Crew’s Patrick Schulte, someone Brady has been teammates with on youth national teams in the past, suffered an injury that will keep him out for an extended period of time.

“I was sad to see that, hopefully it's not as long as they said it would be, but sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. My goal is now to learn and absorb as much information as I can and help the team out in any way I can. He'd do the same and that's my job now.”

It hasn’t been the easiest month for Brady with his club as he started May with a red card in the first half against Orlando City and then dealt with another tough scenario when Chicago went down to ten men in the first half before eventually losing 3-1 to NYCFC.

“It was managing a lot of the lows, and I think now that I'm at a neutral headspace, those lows helped really elevate the highs and helped me just feel how good the highs can feel. But I think I learned that I needed – time is the biggest thing when healing things like that. So you talk about the Orlando game or talk about this last game, those are all lows in my mind, but only time will heal them.

“My biggest feeling when those things happen is, like, I just want to get back to work, get to the field as quickly as I can, and start training again. But it's part of it and I understand now that it's a whole learning process.”

The Fire still have a contest against Orlando City this weekend, and Brady will be in goal as he looks to make up for his mistake in the reverse fixture. The contest in Florida will also allow the goalkeeper to remain focused on his club soccer before joining the USMNT. Once he gets to camp, the flip will switch to fully focusing on his role with the USMNT.

“I'm trying not to move on mentally too quickly to camp, we’ll finish out the week strong down in Orlando. Thinking about the type of mindset I have to get into for the camp, it's just going to be absorbing as much information and adapting to yet another new way of goalkeeping. And I think that's what this whole year has been about. So I'll be doing my best to keep an open mind, and I think I'm going to need that, especially going into this camp.”