The Chicago Hearth suffered defeat of their opening MLS match of 2025, however Brian Gutierrez walked away as one of many few vibrant spots.
Gutierrez recorded his first MLS brace within the Hearth’s 4-2 highway loss to the Columbus Crew on Saturday evening. The attacking midfielder started the brand new 12 months by making his U.S. males’s nationwide staff debut and continued his optimistic begin by scoring his first MLS targets of the brand new season.
Gutierrez’s right-footed missile within the thirteenth minute opened the scoring from Decrease.com Area earlier than the 21-year-old scored 5 gap on Patrick Schulte 9 minutes later.
His targets have been the one ones for Chicago on the evening, offering an early glimpse of Gutierrez’s long-term potential this season.
“Yeah, I imply, it was coming from deep; each, I performed a by way of ball, and I got here from deep and I made these runs into the field. Yeah, fortunately these two targets went in,” Gutierrez stated about his targets.
“It’s an emotional group,” Berhalter stated about Gutierrez postgame. “[Gutiérrez] cares quite a bit, and he needs to win soccer video games. Typically younger gamers lose emotional management, and , all gamers lose emotional management. For him, it’s about actually understanding how good he may be and what’s going to gas him. I believe you see the targets that he scored, and the way he can play, how he can work. He’s an incredible participant.”
Gutierrez has featured as each a midfielder and winger previously however seems to be to be transferring right into a central position underneath the previous USMNT boss. With Gutierrez scoring two targets in his first 90 minutes of the season, the shift by Berhalter seems to be to be paying off already, however the Hearth finally want extra to be a risk within the Jap Convention.
There’s nonetheless 33 matches to go within the MLS season, and though Chicago wished to get off on the proper foot, Gutierrez is eager for what’s to come back.
“I believe it will get the most effective out of all of us,” Gutierrez stated about his shift to midfield. “I believe I’m extra of a midfielder, and I believe Gregg sees that, as properly, and I believe what we applied and what we have been working towards on. And I believe we’ve these, , pacing wingers, and we are able to exploit them.
“After which us as a 3, we would like the ball within the midfield,” he added. “You recognize, simply rotating as a 3 within the midfield, I believe we’re simply–we have to work on it extra. And I believe it’s like I stated, it’s a protracted season, and I don’t suppose we have to dwell on this consequence.”