Brady Out for Fire-Union Game 2
Chris Brady has been ruled out for the Chicago Fire's MLS Cup Playoffs First Round Game Two match against the Philadelphia Union. Jeff Gal will start in his place, making his first career postseason start after being a second-string for all of 2025.
Gal, 32, has only made six starts this season for the Fire, having served as the team's third-choice in 2023 and 2024. During that time, he occasionally played for the second team in MLS Next Pro but did not debut for the first team until a Brady first-half red card in May saw him enter and keep a shutout for close to an hour.
As the Fire only have two goalkeepers on their MLS roster, Bryan Dowd has been called up to the first team to sit on the bench as the #2 tonight. Dowd is in Slot 31 on the roster and technically loaned to Fire II, meaning he can only be called up in cases of extreme hardship or within the constraints of a normal MLS Next Pro player. Here, Brady's injury counts as extreme hardship. Dowd is yet to feature in MLS this season and has only made six appearances in MLS Next Pro, having been usurped previously by Patrick Los and Patryk Stechnij and more recently by David Molenda and Owen Pratt.
This game is by far the biggest of Gal's career, having spent most of his professional seasons in Sweden. The Bartlett, Illinois native does have some experience with playoff soccer at SeatGeek Stadium, having featured for Fire II in an MLS Next Pro playoff win last season against Orlando City B, but that is nothing comparable to this stage. The game did go to penalties, but Gal did not save any as Favian Loyola hit the post with the decisive kick.
