Sometimes things just work out.
On Thursday, the Chicago Fire played their last game of the 2008 Major League Soccer regular season, and it was also the last regular season game in the long career of defender Diego Gutierrez.
Gutierrez was in the starting lineup for the game (his 19th start of the season) because left back Gonzalo Segares was suspended due to yellow card accumulation.
Then, Gutierrez was in the right spot (far forward on the left side) when Chris Rolfe sent a 45-yard through ball his way, and he was then able to complete a rolling cross to the far post for Brian McBride for one of five Fire goals against the New York Red Bulls.
In between the start and the assist, Gutierrez was feted at halftime in a ceremony celebrating his upcoming retirement, and the rain-soaked crowd at Toyota Park got to say thank you for all of his years with the Fire.
It was a nice night for a very positive figure in the history of Major League Soccer.
"There are a lot of mixed emotions," Gutierrez said after the game. "I have good memories, a lot of people I love, and lot of guys whose memories I am going to cherish.
"But there is still a ways to go," he said. "We have four more weeks to go. Our goal is to go full circle, to win it 10 years after we set the bar the highest."
Gutierrez is a member of an unofficial group known as the Fire Originals, players who were with the Fire in the first season for the club, 1998. In that year, the Fire completed the U.S. domestic double, winning both the U.S. Open Cup and the MLS Cup with coach Bob Bradley, the current coach of the U.S. national team.
If a team can be legendary in just 10 years, than the 1998 Fire team qualifies. Among the members of the team are three members of the Fire's Ring of Fire: defender Lubos Kubik, forward Frank Klopas (the team's current technical director) and midfielder Peter Nowak (the recent U.S. Olympic team coach and current assistant to Bradley with the U.S. national team).
Chris Armas is an assistant coach with the Fire after retiring following last season. Current MLS players Ante Razov, Jesse Marsch and Josh Wolff are Fire Originals, as is D.C. United coach Tom Soehn.
Like Gutierrez, C.J. Brown is a Fire Original still with the team, although he has only played in three games due to injury.
Gutierrez's assist Thursday was his first point of the season, and he said he was pleased to remind everyone that he can still help the Fire offensively. For his 12-year career (including six years in Kansas City), Gutierrez has 12 goals and 44 assists.
"I have it in me to have an assist now and then," Gutierrez said. "In my younger years, I used to notch quite a few assists."
The Fire have repeated as U.S. Open Cup champion three times, but has not won a second MLS Cup. With their second-place finish in the Eastern Conference this season, they hope to get through the playoffs and notch a second league title. Their big win against New York Thursday made it appear they are primed to do it.
"I'm extremely happy our team looked like we looked (Thursday)," Gutierrez said. "It's a statement we made to a lot of critics, and it's a statement we make to ourselves. We know we have it in us, we have 90 minutes of concentrated soccer."
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
