Chicago Fire FC head coach Raphael Wicky, defender Francisco Calvo, and goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth react to Wednesday's 1-0 defeat to FC Cincinnati at Soldier Field.
The Fire return home Saturday to face the Philadelphia Union at 7 p.m. CT.
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Raphael Wicky
On being concerned about job security…
“That's out of my control. Obviously I like being the head coach here. I like working with my staff, with the players. I know we don’t have results but this question you have to ask not to me. There's always pressure and when you don’t have results obviously, yeah, there's not many arguments. The only thing I can say is that I'm here, 100 percent committed. I go every day to work hard. We work hard for our staff and that's all I can say. The question has to go to other people”
On the fan response at the end of the game…
“I appreciate all the fans who support the team, who push the team to good performances and they come over many years. I know how this works. I've played 15 years and I’m a coach a long time so I know how it works. We don’t have results. I don't have arguments. I am responsible for this so there is not much I can say to that. I just say thanks to the fans who always come to the game, who came to Columbus, and who come here supporting the team. But it’s not about me. It’s about the team.”
On if the players are still bought in...
“When I see the second half, I still believe that. I believe that. I think the second half was much better. It was a very interesting second half. We had a lot of chances and I think the players fought until the end. We can see that. So yes, I think first half we were not good. We were without confidence. The confidence level was low and you could see that. But then the reaction in the second half I think was much better.”
On the team showing a lack of passion in the first half of the last two games…
“ Well, I don't think in the first half we were clearly less good or outshot because of a lack of passion. We gave up a lot of easy balls. I think after the first one, two mistakes, you could see that the confidence level of the players drops. We still wanted to play our football, which means, yes, we play out of the back because that's what we do since I'm here. But then we had way too many easy mistakes and then the confidence level -- when you are in a bad place result wise, when you don’t win, obviously the players are humans and they maybe start doubting a bit. I think that's the reason why the first half we couldn't create anything and we gave up so many chances. But it's not today a lack of passion. Not at all, that’s not my feeling.”
On if the team was rotated because of so many games…
“For me right now, this is not the moment for players to be tired. We are just starting to have a game on Saturday and then today and on Saturday. If that happens for many, many weeks, yes then maybe at one point you have players who are tired. Right now there is no reason for that. You have to be able as an athlete to be able to perform three games in a week.”
On how the team moves forward from here...
“ Like I said, right now it's all in the head. It's the confidence level. So part of my job, of course, is giving them instruction, giving them a system, telling them how to play. I think we have seen a good second half. We have seen football. You have seen lots of chances. Right now my job and the job of my staff is to lift them up, to give them confidence and show that we believe in them. Right now when they are on the bottom and on the ground, they are feeling bad. We don’t need to (punish) them. That's part of my job. It's a short turnaround to Saturday and that’s what my job is going to be. There’s not much training. There's recovery, preparation and play again and you have to lift them up and prepare them well for the next game. But it’s up here now (points to head).”
Chicago Fire FC Defender Francisco Calvo
On what’s gone wrong this year...
“I mean, I think we are trying to get a good thing going. We had one year, last year, so we don't have the excuse anymore that we are a new team. We cannot make excuses. We need to take responsibilities, we as the players need to take responsibilities, because we make the decisions on the field. We make mistakes in the back and in the front. The only thing is that the mistakes in the back hurt a little bit more. Me, as a defender, as a centerback, I put my head and my face in front of it.”
On the locker room and being behind Wicky...
“Of course. We support Wicky all the way. He's our coach and he's going to be our coach hopefully for many years. I think he is a great coach. He's a great person. He's an amazing person and we're going to be with him all the way. He deserves more that this. And we deserve more than this. The Club deserves more than this.
The locker room, we are trying to stay positive and trying to stay together but trust me, it's hard. It's hard. We don’t have a divided room, but it’s hard to always be in a good mood when you are not having results. How I said before, we need to wake up tomorrow, recovery, Friday we train and try to play on Saturday.
We aren’t not going to show. We need to go and play again.”
On the reason for the first half issues…
“I think Cininnati pressed us well and we were just playing long balls and that’s not our style. We play good football. This Club and with these players, we play good freaking football and when we play long balls, we play the game that the opponent want and we don't have to play that kind of game. Yeah, they did pressure. Sometimes we need to play long and we need to be smart and have the courage to come ask for the ball.”
On what the team struggled with against Cincinnati...
“No, I think mistakes are going to happen always. We’re humans. We don't want to do mistakes. Trust me, we don't want to step on the field and say we are doing mistakes, no, never. Mistakes happen, maybe it's a communication thing, maybe it's a technical mistake, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure that everybody is focused and everybody is trying to be concentrated during the game. We just need to keep going. That's the only thing that I can say. It's a bad moment for us. It's a sad moment but that's the only way.”
On what to expect on Saturday...
“Yeah, we are going through a little bit of a complicated time. Things haven't quite gone our way but we have like you said another game coming up and we have to put our best face forward against Philadelphia which is a great team. This is a man’s game and we just have to go ahead and look forward. We can't put our face down. We have to surge ahead and obviously we are at home so it's something we have to take on our shoulders and keep surging for.”
Chicago Fire FC Goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth
On the team’s start to the season...
“It's hard going through a season like this and the only way to get through it is to keep grinding and keep working and get your head down and push forward and we've got to continue to work in training and clearly there are a lot of things that we need to work on and continue to work on. But we're frustrated. We couldn't be more frustrated. We are talking about this stuff in our locker room and meetings and, unfortunately, it’s not happening for us right now. And the only way to get out of it is to pull ourselves out of it and do what we have to do.”
On what happened that required him to make so many saves…
“I think first of all they have a lot of dangerous players. They have a lot of guys that are good in one-v-one situations. I think that we were trying to play out of their press and they were pressing us really well, We weren't really finding solutions in the first half. Ultimately we went to try and play a little bit longer and we were finding a little bit more success with that.
But I think the first half we gave them too many chances off too many turnovers in bad areas and it’s something we have to make an adjustment in the game to know that if this isn't working, that we have to find different solutions.”
On the feelings in the locker room and whether the team is still behind Raphael Wicky…
“First I want to answer and say 100 percent I think Rapha is a great manager. He puts us in positions to succeed and we go over the stuff in training. We train this stuff, we’re told in meetings. As players we have to take responsibility sometimes for not stepping up and doing what the manager asks us to do. So 100 percent I can speak for the team and myself that we are behind Rapha.
As far as snipping at each other and that kind of stuff, I think when you're in a season like this, a little bit of holding each other accountable and grinding at each other and all that kind of stuff is a good thing. I think if we were all sitting in there laughing and joking right now, we shouldn't be professional players and we shouldn't be here.
So I would say the frustration levels are high, of course. We’re 1-7. If there are happy guys in the locker room, they shouldn't be here. They are in the wrong place. So I think a little bit of it is good. That said, we have to remain positive. When we come in, we go over the stuff we are not doing well and when we get to a game day we have to approach it with positivity and try to turn the corner.”
On Cincinnati’s goal and what caused his injury…
“I just landed on the bar that’s kind of attached to the goal. I got hit in the ribs pretty bad. It just knocked the wind out of me. I’ll have to look at it again but I think the foul leading to the goal is soft. I don’t think it’s a foul. I think it’s very questionable. But I think it's a good free kick. I haven't watched it again so I'd have to look at it to know what kind of happened there and what we can do better. But that being said, I don't think it's a foul, and I think it's unfortunate. It just seems that's kind of the way things are going for us right now at the moment.”
