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Chris Brady's remarkable debut season as #1 is only the beginning

Alex Calabrese

06 Nov 2023 — 4 min read

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When Joaquín Torres’ stoppage time blast slipped through Chris Brady’s fingers in the second game of the Fire’s 2023 season, some began to ask questions. It was Brady’s first game as the official #1 goalkeeper and just his second MLS appearance, and despite a strong goalkeeping performance for 89 minutes at Philadelphia despite his team being down a man, his last-minute gaffe meant that the Union walked away with a deserved three points.

From there, though, it was all uphill. Then-head coach Ezra Hendrickson kept his faith in Brady, much as he had with Gaga Slonina last season, and started him the next week. In the months that followed, and throughout the rest of the year, Brady repaid that trust time and time again, and even as the coach transitioned from Hendrickson to Frank Klopas, the 19-year-old keeper showed that he belonged.

“You need a lot of mental fortitude,” Brady said early in the season of responding following his blunder. “It takes a decent amount of strength, but I’m not here to toot my own horn. That's a mistake that I made, one that you guys will never see again. [W]e're a team. We make mistakes as a team, and we win as a team.”

Brady was officially named as the team's #1 ahead of the second game of the 2023 season. (via Chicago Fire FC)

After the first few games of the year, such mistakes were, in fact, never seen again. It was easy to forget just how young Brady was when he was, at times, single-handedly keeping his team in games. In April, he kept his first MLS shutout in a 0-0 draw with D.C. United, becoming the second youngest ever to do so in the league (behind Slonina). A flurry of heroic saves against Minnesota United a week later handed the Fire their first win at home, and he provided another crucial shutout in May as the Fire defeated St. Louis 1-0.

At the beginning of the summer, Brady was at the heart of the Fire’s incredible mid-season turnaround, as they won five of six games during a month-long stretch coming out of the June international break. Brady was the Fire’s best player in wins against Portland and Kansas City, as well as in an unfortunate loss at Orlando, where he still made six saves and was only beaten once from open play.

By the end of the summer, Brady was statistically the third-best shot-stopper in Major League Soccer. He only trailed eventual Goalkeeper of the Year Roman Bürki and new Chelsea signing Djordje Petrović, with a goals-added (G+) stat of 4.52. That’s also good for the best output from a Fire goalkeeper since Sean Johnson left in 2016 by a significant margin (the next best was Bobby Shuttleworth in 2020 at 1.61, followed by Slonina’s 2021 at 1.36).

Brady's shot-stopping ranks among the best in MLS, and he made an incredible 94 saves this season. (via Chicago Fire FC)

Though the Fire ultimately missed out on the playoffs by a single point, they were only in the race to begin with because of Brady. A truly remarkable performance by the goalkeeper at CF Montréal in September ended a five-game losing slide and earned a point in a 0-0 draw, while several big saves at the New York Red Bulls helped the Fire earn a first MLS win since July. Brady could only be beaten from the penalty spot in the thrilling 4-1 win over Inter Miami, as the Fire put themselves on the brink of the postseason before ultimately coming up just short on the final day.

It was clear over the course of the season that the Fire were increasingly dependent on Brady. That’s not necessarily the best reflection on the team as a whole, as one reliant on its goalkeeper is typically one lacking in quality further up the field; at the same time, it is a great compliment to a man who can’t legally buy a beer for nearly two years, that he can already be one of the better players in MLS in the hardest position on the field.

“It's a little new to me,” Brady said over the summer in response to hearing fans chanting his name at Soldier Field, “but it's a good feeling to know that the fans are behind me… it feels really good.”

Next season, Brady and the Fire will be hoping to do something they haven’t been able to do in the last four years and take a step forward on the field. With a better team in front of him, Brady could not only help his team climb the table but establish himself as one of the top elite goalkeepers in Major League Soccer and earn the recognition he deserves from fans, media, and the U.S. Men’s National Team. Though he'll still only turn 20 in the opening weeks of next season, he now has more than 3,000 MLS minutes under his belt, and he's only getting better; there's no limit on his ceiling right now, and no reason to believe he can't shoot for the stars.