QUOTE SHEET
Chicago Fire FC 2:0 Atlanta United
Match Recap
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Raphael Wicky
On the significance of earning two victories in a row…
"It always gives you confidence, right? We spoke from the beginning that, obviously, it's not always black and white: when you lose, you're bad and when you win, you're good. Still, wins always give your team confidence. And then, when you win in a good manner, that we play well, we create a lot, that obviously just gives the team even more confidence to move on. So I think it's, yeah, I'm very happy with what I saw. Two wins in a row, it was actually very important for us to come back into the race for the playoffs."
On the performances of Robert Berić and Fabian Herbers…
"Look, first, I have to say it was a really good team performance again. I don't want to lift up one player, I don't think that will be fair. It was a really good team performance again. But yeah, Robert is doing what we all knew or what I knew he can do. He's scoring, he creates opportunities. I think that is very important, obviously, always for a nine. He had a little period where he didn't score. I think it's important when, as a striker, you don't score for a while, you just keep working hard and believing [in] you. He has proven everywhere that he can score so he also knew he'd be able to score here. So it's just a matter of time and keep working hard and believing. And Fabi, this is something we spoke with him in the beginning of the season, that if he can add, if he can convert some of his chances into scoring points, then he can make the next step, and I think he's on the way to doing that. I'm very pleased with what he adds to the team. But again, he has to keep working hard, keep getting better and then he can keep doing what he does."
On working with the starting midfielder trio…
"No, it's not something we worked on this week. Between these games, you don't really have time to work. It's something we worked on since we started playing, that we want to have movement, that there are certain movements we want as a team. Those three understand each other quite well and find the spaces. Fabi is really good in finding these pockets, these spaces, so that's probably what it is. But it's obviously work over the period of the last, let's say, let's put pre-Covid aside, because that was in January, February, March; but since we started again, I think it's the work we do and things we ask them to do and they do it. But it's not something we trained this week, no."
On including Gabriel Slonina on the bench…
"Yeah, we decided this week to have Gaga on the bench. We want to give him a little bit of that feeling, of that getting these experiences of these games and see how he reacts to that. And that's it."
On the differences in consistency since the start of the season…
"Like you said, I think since many games, we actually played quite good football, we create; we're still in the process of finding each other, of building a team. I try to give the team a lot of consistency because we didn't play much together before Covid, we had a lot of new players. So I think, with consistency, you will be able to build something. It's just good to see that your work, or that the guys actually reward themselves for the hard work they put in and that's the biggest difference. We always said when we have meetings with the team, even when we lost, look, a loss is always tough and there's certain games we didn't know how we lost them, certain games we maybe didn't deserve to lose, or we saw they could have drawn, or won those games. We just always try to say, okay, these and these points we have to do better, these and these points are really good, we have to keep working, keep believing. Obviously, this week was important for us. We now have two wins in a row, which gives the team confidence. Look, tomorrow's a new day, we have to keep working again this week. That's the beauty of this sport, you can enjoy, they should enjoy, but we cannot relax, there's no reason for us to relax, we haven't achieved anything. We're on a good way to build something, to build a team, but we have to keep working hard. That's what we're going to do."
Chicago Fire FC Midfielder Gaston Gimenez (translated from Spanish)
On the back to back victories and the team's confidence...
“Yeah, we were feeling very comfortable here playing at home. We have to learn to also play on the road outside of our home as well. But, yeah, we really needed these two consecutive wins. The back to back wins. Because it's good for the confidence within the team. Gives us confidence in what we had been doing. We had been working hard and continuing to work on all the things that we had been learning and putting together. We had been creating chances, we had been playing well, and we just lacked a little bit of that effectiveness in scoring. We were creating so many goal-scoring opportunities, but we weren't finishing a lot of them. So definitely the two back to back victories reaffirm everything that we had been working on. And it always feels good to win at home. And so we're happy to be at home, and to have won at home and we're also happy to have maintained the clean sheet.”
On if the preparation is different heading into a game on the road…
“No, the preparation is the same whether we play at home or we play on the road. Obviously we've gotten better results at home than we have on the road and that's a good thing. We need to be strong at home. We want that when we are visiting as well. But our preparation doesn't change. We don't modify it in any way, when we play on the road than when we play at home. We want to keep doing what we're doing and focus on our game, and win.”
On his assist to Fabian Herbers’ goal in the 7th minute...
“Yeah, I remember that their midfielder, one of their central midfielders, received the ball with his back turned, and when he controlled it, I noticed a little bit that the ball went forward so that's where I stepped in and was able to take the ball and move it forward and then pass it for (Fabian) who was already looking towards the goal.”
On what it was like adapting to his new team and playing with new teammates…
“Yeah it’s very important. Of course when you're getting positive results it becomes easier. But it wasn't very easy when we first got together because the majority of us were all new. And so we had to adapt quickly and learn what the staff wanted from us and adapt quickly to each other, which we did. But then you have to quickly learn the little details of each of your teammates, you know, what they can give you, what you can give to them, what they can or can't give to you. And so that's something that you can only get with games, but I think that now we're becoming a team, a more cohesive unit now, so we have to keep doing those little things on and off the field. That'll help us get to know each other and be better and get better results on the field.”
Chicago Fire FC Defender Jonathan Bornstein
On acclimating to Soldier Field and finding success at home…
“Yeah, I think, you know, from the beginning, we actually wanted to come in and make this our fortress. Somewhere we could come in and when the teams get over here that they're scared to play us here. They know it's gonna always be a tough game, and it's a place where we want to always get three points. Like you said, you know, three out of five we've been able to take the three points. And even the Columbus game, we were winning 2-0 at halftime. We let that one slip away so I think in general, overall, we've done a pretty good job of making this place harder for other teams. That it was hard to play against us and going forward we have to continue to do that. We're going to enjoy this one, you know, big three points for us to push ourselves into the playoff race, and then now it's time to continue to keep this rhythm going and see how many times we can win in a row.”
On his relationship with Head Coach Raphael Wicky and thoughts on his management so far this season…
“I think he actually has come in and introduced a lot of new ideas to the guys. A lot of good ideas and I think we're all finally catching onto what system and his principles that he's trying to instill in us. Obviously I played with him one season. He was plagued by injuries that year but you know he was a great player. He had always had great ideas on how he wanted to play. And he's kind of transitioned that over to coaching. And so I think you know we're finally seeing the fruition of all the hard work we've been putting in. It's just the beginning. Obviously there's still a big road ahead of us to become a team that everyone is scared of, and that we can prove that any team we play against we can beat. But, you know, I think everything that Rapha was teaching us, the principles he's trying to instill in us, you know, they’re very good. I think the team's buying into everything. And so, only with time can we see more of what will come of Rapha and also this team.”
On if the team has switched anything up, or stayed on the same course in order to find positive results...
"I mean it's a little bit of both I think. Whenever things are going well, you try to build on what is going well and when things are going bad, try and fix the mistakes. I think that's something that Rapha and his coaching staff have actually really really good at - pointing out what we're doing wrong, what we need to fix. And throughout training we've been able to to work on those things, and I think now you're kind of seeing it all come together right now. A big thing that we were lacking was finishing, we would create a lot of opportunities in all the games but we weren't finishing our chances. So now the last game, especially the last two in specific, we've been able to score early, which always gives the team a bit of relief and something to build on. And so I think, you know, we've been able to score early. Defensively, we've been able to not give up easy goals again, you know that's something that was plaguing us. And so the last two games especially, two clean sheets and six goals to our favor, which is always good. And we got to keep building on that.”
On playing with Ignacio Aliseda on the left side of the field…
“Yeah, I mean, with whoever I play with, whoever's in front of me, I try to stay extremely connected with that player and try and get him in good spaces defensively more than anything, so that we make it hard on them to play. And I think he's been doing a great job of just, you know, when I tell him to go left a little bit, he puts himself in a good position, and then I try and give him the most freedom possible so that when he gets the ball attacking-wise, he can just go and he doesn't have to worry about tracking back and stuff like that. He's been doing a great job defensively more than anything, helping me on the 2v1’s. And so I think that connection is so important. And for me, you know, just getting the opportunity. The last two games have been extremely grateful and we've done well, so as long as the team is winning, and you can be a part of that, you know, that's always so important and I'm really happy to be playing in behind Nacho (Ignacio Aliseda). And I think the only thing lacking now is him to get a goal, and for all of us to celebrate together with him.”
