With the Chicago Fire back home following a weekend defeat in Toronto, there was plenty to assess from the team’s first training after its Saturday night performance in Canada.
Speaking with local media via conference call Monday afternoon, Fire head coach Veljko Paunovic preached a disciplined approach to his team’s preparation process in advance of Wednesday’s home meeting with Sporting Kansas City (7:30 p.m. CT, CSN Chicago/CSN+) and ensuing road trip to FC Dallas (Saturday, 8 p.m. CT, CSN Chicago Plus).
“We learn from every game whether we win, lose or tie,” he said. “We learn from every game that there are still some adjustments that our team has to do in order to perform the way we all want -- to be a winning team. We learn, we understand, we do adjustments, and we work hard to get better. That’s how we work, how we believe. That’s the best possible way to move on.”
After Paunovic’s squad fell 1-0 to Toronto FC on Saturday night, he continued to praise the team’s effort in pushing for an equalizer and approaching the game with the right mindset.
“You learn from every situation and get better,” he said. “But as I said, nobody’s happy with losing. Nobody’s happy with being in last position. We’ve got to work hard. We’ve got to continue. We’ve got to stay positive and keep the spirit that we had the last couple weeks after winning two games in a row and believe. That’s the key.”
Paunovic’s focus now shifts to Sporting Kansas City, who thoroughly handled New York City FC in a 3-1 victory on Sunday night.
WATCH: Paunovic #TORvCHI Postmatch Reaction
“We’re turning to our next game against Kansas City, a very, very hard team, very difficult team,” he said. “A team that has a great coach, fantastic performance in the last years. We believe that it’s going to be a very tough game. They won yesterday against a very hard opponent -- the leader in our conference, New York City -- so that says how competitive they are and we know that we’re going to have a hard game. All of our focus now is to that game.”
Outside of the challenge Sporting Kansas City offers on the field, Paunovic sees shades in them of the team he believes his will become from a mentality standpoint.
“They play very good as a team,” he said. “They have a very good pace. In every line they are very well balanced. They have that tough mentality that we are also looking for. We have it too, but the level they have – and especially they have a team that has played together for a long time – a lot of experts in the league. All these things are very important for every team. We are looking forward to becoming the team that they are and be successful, be tough, playing the winning style where you always want wherever you play you want to win. This is what we expect now.”
The Fire have a six-match home unbeaten streak in all competitions at stake in Wednesday's contest, and a quick turnaround both mentally and physically will be key to increase that figure to seven.
“All of our focus is to our guys to recover them, to prepare for the game, to analyze the opponent and do our best to win,” Paunovic said. “Especially the games that we have at home, I think we have to amplify. These are our most important games.”
