CHICAGO – A season opener always has a fair amount of excitement for a club, but there was added intrigue for supporters of Chicago Fire FC last Saturday.
For one, they had a number of players making their debut against Inter Miami CF in Fort Lauderdale as the club sought another shake-up following their fourth-straight year without an appearance in the MLS Playoffs.
That included heralded midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, forward Kacper Przybylko, and defender Rafael Czichos, who took the pitch in the Starting XI on Saturday.
But at the same time, a new on-field leader was beginning his tenure with the Fire in the biggest moment of his coaching career to date.
Ezra Hendrickson made his MLS managerial debut on Fort Lauderdale as he finally gets the chance to lead the team in the top league for the first time since he began his career as an assistant in 2009. Before Saturday, he’d only been the on-field leader for Seattle Sounders FC’s reserve team from 2015-2018, but the Fire has given him a shot in MLS starting in 2022.
It’s a debut that Hendrickson spoke about in his news conference on Wednesday, as he started his managing career with the draw. Like his entire experience so far, it’s been one that he’s enjoyed both before and during the opener against Inter Miami CF.
“It brings joy to me,” said Hendrickson of being manager. “For me on Saturday, even though we didn’t get a win and we were a little disappointed because we thought we could have put that game away in the first half, just to see the players grasp and buying into what it is that we’ve been teaching them the past six weeks, that brought joy to me, and so I’m a very happy guy, and I just want to continue to push these guys, push them to achieve what I know that they can.
“We have a lot of potential on this team, and this team could be really, really good.”
Przybylko will likely play a big part in that since he was acquired to bring the scoring punch that he had in Philadelphia to help bolster the offense in Chicago. As Hendrickson bestowed praise on the players for their potential, the forward returned it to the manager on Wednesday.
I”t’s very impressive just to believe that it’s his first year as a head coach because he’s doing such a good job. He’s such a good motivator,” said Przybylko of Hendrickson. “He speaks to everyone. He has a great philosophy. He has a great mentality that he brings into the team. Ezra is doing such a good job, there’s nothing really negative you can say about what he’s doing here as a coach.
“He brings so much soccer into this team. He brings so much tactic and pretty much everything like what we need as a team to go into as a team still. So I’m really excited.”
Both Przybylko and Hendrickson will make their home debut this weekend as the Fire host Orlando City SC for their Soldier Field opener on Saturday at 5 PM, a match you can see on WGN-TV Channel 9. It will be another first for the manager, and like the season opener, it’s going to be something which he’ll find joy in over the course of the early evening.
“We get to come home and play our first home game to open the home game stretch here, but it’s a wonderful opportunity for me,” said Hendrickson. “I’m just enjoying every minute of it and just loving teaching the guys.”