CHICAGO (June 4, 2023) – Chicago Fire FC II earned three points on the road for the second time this season following a 4-2 victory at Columbus Crew 2 on Sunday. Harold Osorio recorded a hat trick of assists on goals by Justin Reynolds, Richard Fleming III and Luka Prpa, while Billy Hency added a goal with help from Noeh Hernandez. The Fire recorded its third win of the season as Columbus dropped its third decision in a row.
After the match, head coach Ludovic Taillandier, goalkeeper Mihajlo Mišković and defender Justin Reynolds shared their thoughts on the road victory.
Chicago Fire FC II Head Coach Ludovic Taillandier
On returning to winning ways…
“It’s a great feeling and I think it’s well-deserved. I’m very happy for the players that they can have this taste that we sometimes need to be addicted to, to win. It’s good. It has to be encouraging for many more, many more and we want to keep going like this, with this mentality.
The way we played today is close to what we plan to do. I would say, the first 60 minutes, we had a pretty good first half. There are moments where we need to defend together in our half that we did better than the last games. And there are moments where we pressed them and got some good turnovers that helped us in scoring goals.
In general, pretty happy with this performance. It was, of course, a little bitter in the end to concede two when you’re 4-0 up. We spoke about the set pieces this week in practice, knowing that Columbus is good at it and they put a lot of work into trying to have some combination on the set pieces. Then, conceding two goals late in the game on set pieces is something definitely that we need to address and do better next game. But overall, very happy for the players. They deserve [it], they worked very hard. That’s a fair win and I think we deserved it.”
On the resurgence of the Fire attack…
“We scored goals with a lot of composure. We spoke a lot about the fact that we try chances but we don’t finish them enough because sometimes we rush the last decision. Sometimes, we shoot when we should pass; sometimes, we pass when we should shoot. Then, we have had a difficult time since the beginning of the season to slow the game down in those key moments in or around the opponent’s box. I think that tonight, we had good composure – able to fake, to pass, to shoot with an idea. In all those aspects of the finishing, we were good today.”
Chicago Fire FC II Midfielder Justin Reynolds
On scoring his first professional goal…
“It means a lot for me because this is the Club I’ve grown up with. I’ve been wearing this uniform for over eight years. So to finally be able to help this team win by contributing a goal, it means a lot. And my parents were able to watch, too, so that’s a big plus.”
On the team’s offensive production and today’s performance…
“I think that we are always great offensively. I think our biggest problem has been to put the goals away. Today the main difference was that we finished and were more clinical in the final third and I think that overall everyone gave their all in the game. They all fought hard and we’re happy to get the win.”
Chicago Fire FC II Goalkeeper Mihajlo Mišković
On the confidence of the team following today’s win…
“You know, after a couple tough results that we felt we should’ve won. It’s nice to get back on the winning side and the locker room was pretty electric after the win.”
On how he felt after a strong performance in the victory…
“Felt great, always happy to get some minutes and help out as much as I can. But obviously the defense in front helped me out a lot, Noah (Egan), Andreas (Ueland), (Lamonth) Rochester, and (Eric) Leonard made some great tackles to keep the lead.”
On Harold Osorio’s defensive performance in the midfield…
“We’ve seen a big improvement from Harold defensively over the last couple weeks and I think today he took them off the ball and we even scored off a couple of those defensive plays, so yeah, great performance from him.”
