ST. LOUIS (August 6, 2022) – Chicago Fire FC II fell to St. Louis CITY2 on the second leg of a three-game road trip, losing by a score of 2-1. Missael Rodríguez scored the opening goal of the match, his second in as many games, but CITY2 scored twice in the second half to pull away with a home victory. Second-place St. Louis made up some ground in the Western Conference with the result, while the Fire fell to 4-8-5-2 for the season.
Chicago Fire FC II Head Coach Ludovic Taillandier and defender and captain Carlo Ritaccio spoke to the media following tonight’s match in Southern Illinois.
Chicago Fire FC II Head Coach Ludovic Taillandier
On his thoughts against a strong St. Louis side…
“It was a tough game against probably one of the best teams in this whole league, a team preparing to start in MLS with some players that potentially will be some starters for their first team in a few months. That was definitely a tough opponent for us. We can be proud of the fact that we are able to compete. The first half for us was interesting. It was always difficult, of course, with the pressing, with the physicality, but we're able to play our game to be able to try to break the pressure and to create some chances. Even though in general, they were on us, and we felt like when the game was going, that they were more and more, ours. And we had to resist in the second half, that was pretty much us trying to resist much closer to our goal. And we did it pretty well. Or so we're able to block a lot of the possibilities there were shots. I would say that they deserved the win. But we can be proud of our young players.”
On the recent performance from Missael Rodríguez…
“It is good. It’s good for him to get like way more minutes. He needs to play. He needs to play to find some runs with his teammates. And I think he's doing better. He's doing better and better and he was rewarded with some goals. He could have scored another one in the beginning of the second half. But that's good. We can see improvements game after game.”
On how the team plans to rebound next weekend…
“I mean, there is disappointment, of course. But at the same time, it's a good game. It's a good game in the sense that we played our game. We tried to have a good mentality. We were together trying to resist a better team. You know, they were a little better than us at the moment. And well, we are learning from each game. And I think that's just a game that will last and that we’ll recover from pretty smoothly. Because again, that was a good learning experience, more than a bad loss, I would say.”
Chicago Fire FC II Defender Carlo Ritaccio
On defending a vaunted St. Louis attack…
“Yeah, it was very tough for sure. I give St. Louis a lot of credit; they were resilient, they were going at us all the time. But I give even more props to the whole team, overall, the collective effort. We stuck it out; unfortunately, we couldn’t keep them all out but the boys really put in a shift today. I’m proud of them but it’s on to the next match.”
On the Fire attackers’ contributions in the match…
“Like I said before, it’s a collective effort on both sides of the ball and I give a lot of props to our attacking players. I know it’s a very physical matchup against a team like St. Louis, where they’re a lot more mature than us. But we were resilient, we kept on trying to attack them and create opportunities. I give a lot of props to our forward line because they just wouldn’t quit. That’s what we’re about: we’re about not stopping and giving everything we’ve got until the last whistle.”
On the importance of Missael Rodríguez to the team…
“A lot. As a forward, sometimes we need a goal to give us a little bit of life and he did that. I give a lot of props to Missa, I know it’s hard, especially the way we play. But like I said before about the team, he’s resilient, he won’t stop and he does anything he can to score, he does everything he can. Massive props to Missa and the whole forward line.”
