Chicago Fire technical director Frank Klopas on denied that veteran goalkeeper Jon Busch was a casualty of cost-cutting of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, and added that the team had long intended on promoting backup Andrew Dykstra to the No. 1 spot. “This decision was not made because we’re bringing someone else in. That’s inaccurate,” Klopas said. “This decision was not made because of the players’ union came to an agreement on the CBA. This decision was made over the course of time in preseason.”

Dykstra did not appear in a MLS regular season game during his rookie season in 2009 but still managed to beat out Busch, who appeared in all 30 games for the Fire each of the past two seasons. “You go into preseason, there are no guarantees,” Klopas said. “Obviously we felt that Andrew was going to be our No. 1 goalkeeper going in, and this was something that was discussed with Jon by our coaching staff. And I support that decision 100 percent. Those decisions don’t come in one day – it takes a while to make a decision like that, and we felt like it was time to move in a new direction.”