Frank Yallop, Chicago Fire Head Coach and Director of Soccer
On the match
“From our perspective, I thought we played well enough to get at least a point from the game. Two set piece goals is difficult to take when you’ve got a chance to clear it, and it’s a dead ball situation, and we didn’t deal with it well. Maybe it’s a sign of new-ish team hasn’t quite yet gelled. I thought our football was decent. We created enough chances to at least get a tie but when you go two-nil down away from home, it’s always though. I was proud of my team the way they kept going and fighting and playing and doing the right things and a little unlucky not to get something out of the game.”
On the play of Sean Johnson
”I’ll have to look at the goals again but the first one he got blocked, I’ll have to look at the replays. Other than that, he didn’t have much to do but set plays are part of the game and we struggled as a team to deal with it, not just Sean.”
On the stadium
“It was funny, I walked out yesterday and got goose bumps. This is a place where I spent a good part of my career. I really enjoyed it, it’s a special place. They did a magnificent job on the stadium and it was a long time coming. It’s fantastic for the area. It was nice to be the first team to be here, unfortunate we didn’t win, but I’m pleased for everyone here in San Jose.”
On David Accam’s debut
“It was good to get David Accam on the field, that was important to us. We’re still a team that’s gelling but we’re heading in the right direction. We’re 0-3, which is not great but we can’t just worry about three games. We have to build something and keep building and see what ends up in the end. We never played away from home like that last year, I’ll tell you that. We played very well at home, I thought, against Vancouver. We’ve played well against the Galaxy, we played well in these games and that’s what I look at. Our performance in the next phase is now can we get results. It’s a long season, we have 31 games left so we have to make sure we pick the points up.”
On having Jeff Larentowicz on the backline
“We’re playing against a team that’s at home and has good players in Wondolowski and Garcia up front. I thought we did a nice job, if not all the game, most the game, of stopping two really good players. In general play, I thought our guys did okay. To go two-nil down it’s difficult to get something out of the game but we nearly did. I thought Jeff did really well. He missed a lot of the preseason being injured for one, and then with CBA stuff. It took him a while to get over that, LA was though, he played fine against Vancouver but he’s a good player back there, he’s cool, calm, good on the ball.”
On having all three Designated Players on the field
“You can’t click your fingers and it’s going to happen. You’re going to have some bad results, you’re going to come up against some adversity. Hopefully this is our spell to get over them early and get our team going and get our team moving. I’m pleased with who we’ve added. Some guys work out, some don’t. We’ll figure that out in June. We’re no different, I thought JJ, did well, Adailton did well, Shaun Maloney did well, David it was his first look. I thought he looked dangerous but I was pleased with everything other than the result.”
Jeff Larentowicz, Chicago Fire captain and defender
On the match
“We beat ourselves early, unfortunately. Put ourselves into too big a hole to come back from. The good part is we played well, on the whole. Goals aside, we were the better team but unfortunately goals are what counts. Tough start but you have to continue to fight.”
On if the new players need time to gel
“Possibly but we don’t have time. You can see these guys have talent but it’s just about making it work. Unfortunately six week preseason, three new guys, you have to make it work right away and you have to do it on the field. In games, you can see it building and building and hopefully we can make it work.”
On building chemistry
“It’s not easy but they’re all good people which makes it easy. The language is soccer, we just come together, we all put on the same shirt every day and that draws us together. I think we’re going to be alright.”
On the backline as a whole
“I think they got fortunate on the second goal, I’m chasing the man, one of their guys falls down, and I can’t avoid him, I fall down, they’re first to the ball and they’re first to the second ball. On the first one, it's another bouncing ball, it’s a fortunate play, it's not like they played in a great ball and they scored a great goal, it’s a ball that bounces around so it’s extra frustrating, it’s something we talked about and unfortunately we got beat.”
On the stadium
“It’s beautiful. It’s very nice. It’s a different style, the fans seem like they’re right on top of you. Its hard in this setting to make a stadium that’s not beautiful. It’s a good place to come and play soccer.”
David Accam, Chicago Fire midfielder
On making his Fire debut
“For me it felt great to be on the pitch again playing. I’ve been out for a long time and I just want to be out on the pitch. I’m really happy with the experience.”
On how he felt after the match
“I felt a little tight at the end but it shows that I’m not really fit but hopefully by next week with a week of training I’ll be good.
On the team’s performance in the second half
“For us, we lost the game in the first 20 minutes of the game but we picked ourselves up and it showed in the second half that we can be a good team. The way we played in the second half was good. If we keep that tempo in the next game, we’ll be good.”
On having all three Designated Players on the field in the second half
“To be fair it wasn’t just about the DPs, other players, Harry played well, most of the players played well in the second half. It wasn’t just the DPs, it was also other players. You can see the experience from Shaun and Kennedy, it paid off. We need to get together as a team and gel so we can play well.”
