The Josh Gatt Experiment Appears To Be Over

The Chicago Fire have released an updated preseason roster as the team returns to the Second City. Having spent the better part of a month in Florida, the Men In Red are back in town to resume preseason training at Toyota Park. Several members of the squad will also be in attendance for tonight’s season kickoff luncheon (for which the media has been pointedly uninvited).

One notable change in the roster since last week: the absence of Josh Gatt. The former Colorado Rapids winger was welcomed into camp earlier this month as an unsigned trialist, hoping to land a spot with the Fire and start the process of rehabbing his stalled career. Those hopes have apparently not come to fruition.

Alan Gordon, on the other hand, did return to Chicago with the rest of the squad. (Ugh.)

The Fire have also taken in Kevin Ellis as a trialist. The 26-year-old defender is a former Sporting Kansas City Homegrown player. He had a career season in 2014 but couldn’t leverage that into a regular starting spot. Ellis was relegated to spot-starts and appearances off the bench until being released by SKC this past offseason. There’s no telling what Ellis has to offer, but the Fire aren’t really in a position to dismiss potential defensive depth out of hand.

Here’s the full updated roster:

GK: Stefan Cleveland, Richard Sanchez

DEF: Jonathan Campbell, Jorge Corrales, Christian Dean, +Kevin Ellis, Johan Kappelhof, Grant Lillard, +Maxi Moreira, Matt Polster, Rafael Ramos, Brandon Vincent

MID: Mo Adams, Brandt Bronico, +Omar Castro, Drew Conner, Daniel Johnson, Aleksandar Katai, Dax McCarty, Djordje Mihailovic, Bastian Schweinsteiger

FWD: Jon Bakero, ^Diego Campos, ^Elliot Collier, Michael de Leeuw, +Alan Gordon, Nemanja Nikolic, +Albert Ruiz, Luis Solignac

^Unsigned SuperDraft Pick

+Trialist