Chicago Fire Notebook: Brian Gutiérrez, Gregg Berhalter, an Interesting Fire II Debut & More

It’s been a whirlwind of a 2025 season already for the Chicago Fire’s Brian Gutiérrez.

The Fire’s Homegrown midfielder has been adjusting to a role under new head coach and director of football Gregg Berhalter that has him playing deeper defensively than he has in previous years, while also being called into two separate USMNT camps by current national team boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Gutiérrez suffered a muscle injury during the last USMNT camp that kept him out of action in early April before he made his return against Inter Miami, when he played 71 minutes. The Homegrown played the full match against FC Cincinnati and scored from the penalty spot, which was his third goal of the 2025 season despite missing multiple matches due to suspension and injury.

Though he doesn’t have an assist in 2025, Gutiérrez is more confident in his new role alongside the Fire’s three-headed monster of Philip Zinckernagel, Jonathan Bamba, and Hugo Cuypers at forward.

“Five games into the season, my second game coming back from injury, it's kind of getting into the groove and obviously expecting what Gregg [Berhalter] wants from me and getting that chemistry with the front line, which I think is going well,” Gutiérrez told reporters at the Endeavor Health Performance Center. “I think we've been providing each other chances and creating stuff. I think we've always created opportunities in every game, so having those goal-scoring opportunities helps us, and I think we're on the right track for that.”

Berhalter noted after the Cincinnati match that Gutiérrez would be the club’s primary penalty kick taker, which the 21-year-old credited to his work on the training pitch.

“It all starts in practice. I think that's where you earn your spot on the list. I think just having the repetitions every day in practice, taking a PK. I think I'm really confident in what I can do, and I always have that confidence when I step up to take the PK. Maybe that's why they put me in.”

Gutiérrez has often been flanked in the midfield in 2025 by fellow Homegrowns Sergio Oregel Jr. and Mauricio Pineda. Despite the three being different ages, they’ve developed chemistry for years by training together in the offseason, and that’s starting to pay dividends on the pitch.

“It was our fourth time working together in the off-season. You know each player's quality and what they bring, and you push each other. We have arguments on the field, but it's honestly a good environment. We learn off each other. Having that experience in the off-season, working together, it just brings the best out of us, and we know what each player could bring on the field. Having that chemistry always works out on the field.”

From the Rest of My Notebook:

Gregg Berhalter on transfers

Major League Soccer’s Primary Transfer Window closed earlier this week, and the Fire, who added 15 new players in the offseason, didn’t make any last-minute additions or subtractions ahead of the deadline on Wednesday evening. Despite the lack of a last-minute move, the Fire’s roster isn’t yet complete.

“We're not done, either,” said Gregg Berhalter during his weekly media availability. “We want to keep working. We didn't want to necessarily force anything before the trade deadline just due to guys potentially coming back from injury and getting guys healthy again.

“We still think there's a couple positions we can reinforce that we’ll look to do in the summer and then that's the squad for the year. We think we’ll make, hopefully, some good signings that will help us through the end of the year. But I think this group, in particular, is more than capable of getting results and putting ourselves in the playoff picture.”

Availability update

Carlos Terán left the Fire’s match last weekend with an injury that Gregg Berhalter said is a “serious upper leg injury” that will keep the center back out “for the considerable future.

Rominigue Kouamé and Leonardo Barroso have not trained all week and aren’t expected to be available against Nashville.

Interesting Stat of the Week

The Fire have won exactly half of their 192 aerial duels through nine matches, per fbref.

Fire II

It was a weekend to forget for Chicago Fire II as they were beaten 5-0 by Huntsville City FC. It’s the second loss of the season to Huntsville for Fire II, and they’ve now been outscored 9-1 by their counterparts from Alabama in those contests.

Huntsville scored four times before halftime while Fire II’s Peter Soudan was sent off in the 24th minute. Fire II goalkeeper Patrick Los made some big saves to avoid an even more lopsided scoreline as Huntsville ended up outshooting Fire II 30-11 overall and ten-one for on-target efforts.

Fire II will take on Toronto FC II in Canada on Friday evening as they look to avoid three consecutive losses.

A Different Type of Fire II Debut

Fire Academy product Aleksander Kapciak was Fire II’s backup goalkeeper when they played Huntsville on Sunday, and he ended up making his MLS Next Pro debut, but it wasn’t at his natural position.

Fire II only had five players on the bench, including Kapciak, and they needed to replace Juan Calle in the match’s final moments, so the goalkeeper came on in second-half stoppage time as an outfield player.

Now Kapciak will be looking to make his proper Fire II debut in goal down as the season progresses (shoutout to Carlos at the Fire for pointing this out to me).

What’s On Tap Next?

The Fire will be at Geodis Park on April 26 to take on Nashville SC. The match is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.