Chicago Fire FC head coach Raphael Wicky and midfielder Fabian Herbers recap the team's 2-0 defeat on the road against the Columbus Crew on Saturday night.
The Fire return home on Wednesday to take on FC Cincinnati at Soldier Field.
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Raphael Wicky
On why Robert Berić wasn’t in the starting lineup...
“Robert was gone in the break. Robert was gone for about -- almost two weeks. He had to go to Europe for his visa. So was Luka Stojanović; he was also gone for about a week, eight days. That's part of the reason why I chose to go with guys who were here for the entire three weeks, and the other reason is that we have a lot of games. We have a lot of games coming up. We need everyone, and those are the reasons and why I choose today to go without Luka in the beginning and without Robert.”
On if he received an explanation to the first-half incident not resulting in a red card...
“No, I didn't get an explanation. I mean, I was right there. Look, I don't want to look for excuses. But for me, I don't know what you have to do in order to get a red card. He was going right into the face of the player, voluntary. It wasn't that he had to turn around or he didn't see the guy. He went into his face and pushed him away.
I don't know what else you have to do. But, they took the decision not to give him red. You have to ask the referee why. I just think that if we want to educate kids, if you want to educate young people to do sports, fair play, then we cannot show images like that and not sanction them. If we say, okay, this is good, you can do this, this is just a yellow, you can go into another player's face voluntarily, then I think we are on the wrong path.
But saying that, we didn't show up for a big part of the first half. That's why I say I'm not looking for excuses. This for me is a fact. But then there were reasons why we were 2-0 down at halftime, as well.”
On how the team can dominate stats and not get a shot on target…
“First of all, I haven't seen any stats and I'm not right now in the stats. I'm disappointed with big parts of our first half. We started quite well. But then suddenly we lost in my eyes a little bit of the passion, a little bit of the fire, a little bit of the urgency to win duels, to winning challenges and winning second balls and that's the base of football. That was the message at halftime. We can talk tactics as long as you want but we have to do the dirty work first.
And I missed the first half for a part of the first half, the basics of football, the basics of the game. That's to run, that's to fight, that's to win the duels and the second balls.
Yeah, then we showed an okay and good reaction. The second half we played some good football. We create some chances. The final product is just at the end of the day in these moments not good enough and we have to work on that. We have to keep working on that. But it wasn't good enough. It wasn't precise enough. You have to be precise. The last pass has to be precise. Your shot has to be precise and your decision-making has to be better or precise. That's, I think, what is missing. That's why the stats often look good but right now it doesn't go into results.
So if we can fix that, I think we make results. But first of all we need to fix that we fight for the teammate, 90 minutes, not 45, not 60, but 90 minutes and in every duel.”
On conceding the second goal…
“Yeah, that shouldn't happen. There wasn't pressure on the ball, so we shouldn't have a high line, and then we should probably drop. But first of all, we should have more pressure on the ball so it shouldn't happen.
I have seen the clip and it's very, very close. Again, it's very, very close to the offside, but obviously they have checked, so I'm not going against that. But it's very, very close. I think one of their strikers and their winger have a countermovement where Francisco first follows. That's why there is a little bit of a breakdown but obviously that's very, very easy to concede a goal.”
On how important the upcoming four-game homestand is…
“It's very important. I always told you, we take game by game. Now the next, the most important game is the Wednesday game. But if we go with the mindset that this is will be an easy game because they are also struggling, then we are on the wrong foot because I don't think that's the right mindset we can have. We cannot allow to not take anyone serious. I mean, that's for sure something we will talk to the players; that we are obviously taking every opponent serious and that's what we are going to do. I think it's very important that mentally you're ready, not thinking that, okay, now we have home games or we have an opponent who struggles and it's going to be easy.
But it’s very important and we have to analyze that tomorrow, talk about our game from tonight tomorrow in training and quickly prepare for Wednesday and be ready. That's a good thing that we now have a lot of games and don’t have much time in between to think.”
On his thoughts about defender Carlos Terán…
“Yeah, look, you could see in the beginning that he didn't play for a while, almost three months now. I think he had his preseason game in March and he was a long time injured and he didn't really play. He needed some time to come in, but after that, I think he showed what he will bring us. He showed his aggressiveness. He showed his strength in the air and he showed his strength in defending.
I think he needs games and rhythm, and then I think we can have a very interesting, very good defender in our team. But again, first half, he needed a little bit of time to come in.”
Chicago Fire FC Midfielder Fabian Herbers
On how important the upcoming four-game homestand is…
“Yeah, in general, you always want to win your home games. We have to win our away games, too. Today we lost 2-0 here at Columbus. Obviously we wished a little bit more from this game. Hoped to get a point or even three here. I thought we started well. Unfortunately we go back 2-0 in the first half and then we are chasing the game and it's always hard to come back in front of this crowd. Columbus playing at home, they are a smart side. Yeah, it's tough.
Obviously looking forward, I mean, I don't look four games ahead. I know we have Cincinnati and on Wednesday it's a quick turnaround. It's nice, so the 2-0 doesn't stick too long in your bones. We have a chance to make it up in front of our home fans and we are up for the task.”
On if he felt the team lacked fight and desire...
“It's hard to say. When I look at the game, I didn't feel that on the field. I mean, obviously when you are 2-0 down after 45 minutes, you don't have many arguments to be honest. I mean, there was the one incident where they could have gotten the red card maybe if the ref decides differently, if a guy punches somebody in the face and he doesn't give a red card, then I don't know what is a red card.
And you know, if that would have been a red card, the game could go differently. But yeah, it's hard to say if we weren't up for the fight. I thought we did play well. We created some chances but we gave up the goals too easily at the end. You don't have many arguments if you lose 2-0 after 45 minutes.”
On why the team is struggling to generate offense...
“Yeah, I'd agree with the stats; that we are dominant in possession. We move the ball actually pretty well I think. Even away from home, it's not easy to do. But then we get into the final third, I feel like we lack a couple of runs, creativity and maybe a lucky punch that we are missing, as well.
But zero shots on goal, that's just not dangerous enough. If you want to score goals, you have to shoot on the goal. Yeah, we are lacking a little bit creativity, the last bite, the willingness and aggressiveness in the box to really want to score the goal. That's something that Columbus had today and we didn't.”
On what it will take for the team to score...
“Yeah, I agree. Today we were really not that dangerous up front. I'd agree with that. But if I look back to the Montréal game, to the Miami game - the last two games - I thought we had several, several chances, good chances to put the ball in the back of the net. Yeah, hopefully we can improve that against Cincinnati.”
On how to stay positive based on the results...
“It's not easy, but what's the alternative? I mean, we can't put our head in the sand and I've said it before, we cannot just give up and not play anymore. That's the only way to do it is stay positive, stay focused, keep working hard in training and keep your head up and try to give it all for the fans. We had a couple hundred fans that traveled from Chicago today. Sad we couldn't give them the win today.
It makes me happy and makes me proud to see fans travelling and supporting us, and yeah, we want to give them the result obviously. But we are going to stay positive. We want to keep working hard and we want to give them the results that they deserve.”
On the new crest...
“Let's just focus on the game today. Maybe I can say that in the mid-week interview. I don't have any thoughts right now for the logo.”
