Brian Gutiérrez named to MLS Team of the Matchday
Brian Gutiérrez was named to the MLS Team of the Matchday the league announced this Monday, receiving well-deserved recognition for his man of the match performance against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday. The 20-year-old marked the start of the new season with a goal and an assist, finding the back of the net with a rocket from outside the 18-yard box late in the first half.
"I just didn't think about it," Gutiérrez said postgame. "I just said, why not shoot it, and I shoot it. Honestly, it was a great goal."
This week marks the seventh time that "Guti" has earned such recognition, as he made the Team of the Week twice in 2022 and four times in 2023. With his goal, the midfielder also became the first ever Fire homegrown to score in an opening game for the club.
In addition to scoring the game's first goal, Gutiérrez also created a goal for teammate Fabian Herbers. With the score tied 1-1 late in the second half, Guti played a simple pass to Herbers, who scrambled the ball in to hand the Fire an unlikely lead. While the Union would come back to find a stoppage-time equalizer through Dániel Gazdag, the assist returned the favor for Herbers' flick that had set up Gutiérrez for his screamer in the first half.
"Guti can be a difference maker for this team," Herbers told MIR97 Media postgame. "He's a young guy, he has a lot of talent, and he's super confident and quick on the ball. I see it sometimes in training, once he gets the ball on the half turn it's really hard to stop him. He has the ability to make the final pass but also to shoot, so it's nice to see him getting on the scoresheet and hopefully, he can do that many more times.”
While MLS did not nominate Gutiérrez among the four finalists for Player of the Matchday, his performance earned recognition from the media nonetheless. The homegrown actually finished third in the voting among media members and finished in the top four overall despite not being made available for the fan vote. D.C. United's Christian Benteke easily won the award, though, after his hattrick downed the New England Revolution in a 3-1 win at Audi Field.
CONCACAF announces Nations League prelim rosters
In other news, Gutiérrez was a notable omission from the U.S. Men's National Team's 60-man provisional squad for next month's CONCACAF Nations League finals today as well. While the player has expressed his desire to get recognition at the international level, it is yet to come from national team coach Gregg Berhalter, who confoundingly preferred midfielders like Diego Luna, Benjamín Cremaschi, and Tanner Tessmann to the budding starlet. To the delight of USMNT fans, though, Guti was also not named to Jaime Lozano's Mexico list.
New Fire acquisition Kellyn Acosta was named to the preliminary roster but is not expected to breach the final 23. Defensive midfielders such as in-form Betis star Johnny Cardoso, MLS Cup champions Aidan Morris, and breakthrough Bundesliga recruit Lennard Maloney are perceived to be ahead of him in the depth chart.
