CHICAGO, IL– For the Chicago Fire’s season and home opener, there was a different goalkeeper for the first time in a couple of years. Spencer Richey got the call after Gabriel Slonina has moved on with his career and is now with Chelsea.
Richey wasn’t really supposed to be the starter to face New York City FC at Soldier Field on Saturday night, but he had heard that Chris Brady had an injury earlier in the week and was called upon for the opportunity.
The Fire ended up with a fair result of a 1-1 draw against NYCFC and Richey only allowed one goal for his efforts and the defense in front of him did a pretty good job in front of him.
“I thought Richey played well,” Chicago Fire head coach Ezra Hendrickson said. “We don’t put our keepers under too much pressure because we’re very organized defensively as a team. But when he had to come up with saves, he did. There were a couple of times where he had to make saves and I thought he did really well. So, we trusted him once Chris (Brady]) was out and we knew Chris couldn’t play, we knew we could count on Richey.
“So again, it’s all about having good competition in every position, and the guy that has to step up. Whether it be due to injury or tactical changes, he has to be able to do the job. I saw that from a lot of players, so that was very promising.”
As for the starting position in the goal and the status in goal, there appears to be some controversy, but Hendrickson seems to be leaning towards Brady at this point.
“Yeah, I think he was, you would say, he’s probably ahead as far as the starting position,” Hendrickson said. “But he just, a tweak in his thigh; he’ll be back on Tuesday. We just didn’t want to take a chance because it was cold out tonight, he might have to do a lot of kicks and reinjure that thing. So we want to be very cautious about that. But like I said, Richey’s number got called and I thought he stepped up for us.”
Richey knew in advance that Brady was going to be out and had no problem taking his opportunity in the net especially for the opener. He also earned his spot by making a couple of outstanding saves in stopping shots from NYCFC’s best players.
“I found out about a week in a half or so about it,” Richey said. “That’s when I got the heads up and he wasn’t going to be available this weekend. I was just getting prepared for it either way. I was a little bit nervous and was prepared for it either way. You want to take advantage and play well in any game you get a chance to play. It was a home opener and our season opener. It was a little funny to navigate with the rest of the league to play last week including New York City and we had to wait a week.
“It was a fun night and a resilient effort by the guys in the second half. We had a couple of injuries that took our sub windows away.”
As for getting the chance to play in taking the pace of Slonina, it wasn’t much of a problem for the first game of the season.
“I felt totally comfortable and confident,” Richey said. “Slonina was a very good goalkeeper and he’s onto big things. I’m an experienced guy. I’ve stepped in and played games and situations before. Maybe, I haven’t had many games, but we got through it. So, for me when you get your confidence and training, I take that seriously through the preparations.”
Richey had a solid opening night of the season and left the opportunity to maybe make a return back there for matches down the road for the Chicago Fire.
