Chicago Fire 3:2 FC Cincinnati
Preseason Friendly
Recap
Veljko Paunovic, Chicago Fire head coach
On the performance overall:
“For me, most importantly is that the whole preseason is working good for us. I think the guys are very committed. Every game we played well. More than the result, it’s very important to perform the way we want to play in the season. I think we’re capable of playing the same way, repeating it from game-to-game, and then growing as a team…growing in confidence, growing in what we are trying to do and how we want to do it. That’s very important so far. So today, the game, obviously the first 45 minutes and the second 45 minutes were two different teams, but we didn’t notice any difference between the approach, between the performance. At the end, the mentality was very tough and very important for us."
On the performance of homegrown players Djordje Mihailovic and Drew Conner:
“I think they are doing well. They are taking advantage of the time and minutes they’re getting in the game. For them, it’s very important and a great experience. Obviously we are looking further to see how they develop, how they get to the same level as the senior players. But they are important to the team like the rest.”
On what adjustments the team made to counter Cincinnati’s high press:
“I think the team did well. Basically we were focused more on our game plan and on our style and how we want to play. That went very good. I’m very happy; I’m very happy with the mentality where we really don’t have any difference between who we are playing. It’s just our plan, our focus on trying to perform well, and executing it. At this point, that’s what we are looking for and at this point we are very happy with the performance.”
On what he’s looking for heading into the final match of the preseason against Toronto on Saturday:
“We are increasing now in all the levels of demands for the competition that is coming, preparing for the first week where we have to play Columbus. We also have to work on more details of how we want to perform, how we want to play when we have the ball, without the ball, but all these games are very helpful to challenge us, to challenge our style.”
