MLS Regular Season
Chicago Fire (1-1-2, 5 points) 1:0 Philadelphia Union (2-2-0, 6 points)
April 2, 2016 – Toyota Park
Veljko Paunovic, Chicago Fire Head Coach
On getting the first win of the season
“It means a lot for me and for this locker room who works very hard. So far, I think winning this game gave us more confidence now and believe we are on a good path, which we always knew we were but it’s always very, very important to have proven our results, winning games. As we said before, I believe we did a very good job against a very good opponent, who also did very well and for me, I would like to congrats to our fans who were, on a day like this, supporting and I want also want congratulate our team. They were very outstanding today in a very difficult game from different points of view, especially because of the condition, especially because of the great opponent that we had.”
On possessing the ball more
“We improved our possession, we improved other parts of the game too. I think we, again, created a lot of opportunities. We have to improve our finish, our finishing needs to be improved because even though Kennedy had a great goal, the winning goal, which matters a lot but still we have to convert all these opportunities that we are, as a team, building together, it’s very important in order to grow, we have to convert everything. It’s always a matter of conviction, it’s always a matter of concentration, those moments count, we need to work on that. Very happy about possession. Defensively I think we have to be more consistent defensively, again, great opponent in front but I think they had a lot of opportunities, very good opportunities, and we have to recognize that defensively we could be better.”
On Philadelphia creating chances
“That was for sure the most difficult game for me coaching MLS for Chicago but I would say from the other, I was very confident every time the team read the game well, which means to control the game in possession and try to come and I was confident we could score, at least have more opportunities to score. That was our goal in the second half, that was our goal when Goossens came in and LaBrocca came in. This win helps us to grow, to grow to the next level of confidence, the next level of believing what we are doing. But still we have a long path in order to become the team we all want to be.”
On bringing Goossens on in the second half
“It was a part of the plan before the game started, as you said. And we spoke to Goossens and then Arturo after both of them being injured after the last game against Columbus and the recovery that they did, they recovered very well but we don’t think they are ready to play 90 minutes between them because both of them and everyone in our locker room are very important and they will all participate and have opportunities to help the team and to enjoy playing soccer so the thing was, before the game, as you said, this is our game plan, the part of the game plan was to play Goossens in the second half and then also it depended on what was happening on the field. We had to make other decisions.”
On the performance of the back line
“For sure I believe that they did very good. We will have statistics up later but I think that both of them, the stops, they blocked many, many shots for us and one of our rules is, in the locker room is, ‘No cross no goal,’ but no shot no goal, which is very important to those tackles and blocks that they did very well. But I would say, as you can see so far, we switched from one system to another system, everyone is involved – almost everyone. The season is long and we need all our guys engaged, and so far we are very happy with how our defense is doing but both of them, both Meira and Eric are coming back, and other guys who are involved in defense. But again, defense is the same thing as attack: it’s teamwork. And we really, we always to highlight that teamwork and always say that altogether we defend and all together we attack and we score goals together. The defense today worked very well but when we scored it was a play that we as a team built up and finished with Kennedy which is very good. Everyone liked that, at least I liked when the team plays as a team. We have our very good players, talented individuals, who know that, when to play together and how to play together in order to win games.”
Kennedy Igboananike, Chicago Fire forward
On changes from last season
"I think this year is very different for us because we have a new coach, new leaders, everything is new. I just don't want to talk about last year because it's in the past, so we just have to focus on this year. Whatever happened last year, we're just going to correct it this year. Last year wasn't good for us, so we're moving ahead."
On playing in bad weather
"Absolutely, to play in this weather is very difficult because you never know what you get; it's snow, it's cold, it's windy, it's a very difficult situation for us. But you have to be mentally strong and believe that the weather can't stop you from winning. Winning is what we're looking for, so we're not giving up. We have to go out there and give our best, come out to be successful and get three points."
On playing on a different side of the field
"For me, I don't think there is a problem. I'm always a professional player, so I'm ready to play any position that the coach needs me to play. If he needs me to play right wing, left wing, attack, I'm always ready for anything."
Razvan Cocis, Chicago Fire Midfielder
On playing through the weather conditions
"The conditions were crazy. I have never played in this condition ever. I've played on snow, but not in this wind. For me, it was hard. You have to put more effort on everything you do, and I think we did that, so that's why we deserved to win."
On improvements from last season
"There are things we improved, like for example, we had two clean sheets, we had the first win. It's good, it's better, and we train every day to do better, to be the team that everybody wants us to be."
On the relief of getting the first win
"You feel a little bit of pressure before the game because we had two games at home until now; this was the third one, and we didn't have a win yet. The win gives us time to breathe, I would say. We can come Monday or Tuesday, when we meet, and come more relaxed and focused on our next game, which is a good thing mentally for the team."
On playing after a long break
"We had two weeks. If you have a weekend without a game, or two weeks without a game, you can get out of shape, but it's good that we practiced and got to improve on things we needed to improve on. We focused on that in the last two weeks. In the end, the final result from today makes me think that we're doing a good job practicing and doing the corrections that we had to do."
On establishing a style with a new team
"In the preseason, we had good possession. This was supposed to be our style, to have possession, but with some teams we couldn't. It's a new team, and that can be a factor for why we didn't have possession in the first games. Hopefully from now on, after this game, we can show that we can have possession, win the game, and keep doing that. This is what we train for."
On playing further up the field
"I played that position a long time before. I'm used to it; I was playing a lot of positions when I was young, so I'm used to playing different positions. I felt okay, I enjoyed it."
