CHICAGO FIRE HEAD COACH FRANK YALLOP
On the feeling after the 2-2 draw after going up a man
"Not good. I thought it was probably the best we’ve played in a long time in the first 44 minutes. There could have been more. I just talked to the guys in there and I’m just disappointed in how we handled the second half. We just stopped playing. I think the goal right before halftime obviously gives them hope, then you’ve just got to get one goal to get a tie. I just felt that we allowed them to play when we shouldn’t have. We had chances to bury the game as well, but still, we shouldn’t give them a chance. We’re just disappointed.”
“I credit New York City because they didn’t give up. They kept coming and kept probing and they got a draw out of it. We’re not happy, but sometimes you’ve got to accept what the other team did and they went for it and they got a result."
On Razvan Cocis' goal and return from injury
"Well we work on different set plays and I’ve used it for years, especially free kicks wise, I like to take them as early as we can and we did. It’s good to have Razvan back. He’s a good, solid player for us.”
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER HARRY SHIPP
On the 2-2 draw
“I think we didn’t play the second half. The first 44 minutes and 30 seconds in the first half we played so well and it’s just frustrating for us because you see the potential. You see the ability to potentially play and I think giving up the goal right before halftime gave them energy and it gave them life. They stuck up high and tried to prevent us from knocking it around. We panicked on the ball. We didn’t play in the right spots and ultimately we didn’t play well enough to get a win.”
On what New York City FC did in the second half
“I think they played with more desperation. They stepped up higher. They put more pressure on us and I think we were afraid to lose the ball in our own half, which if you’re afraid to lose the ball in your own half you end up just dumping it too much.”
On the team's play in the first half
“You can look at it as encouraging or frustrating because it’s easy to be frustrated when you see the potential to be a really good team and I think we show flashes of that, but we don’t often put together a full 90 minute performance.”
CHICAGO FIRE MIDFIELDER SHAUN MALONEY
On what was behind the change in momentum in the second half
“The first half was probably as good as we’ve played all season. I think as a team and as a whole we have to be really brave when we are in this position. We have to pass even more than what we normally would. I mean we’re a man up and we have to pass in tight spaces. We have to do that to then create a space for the wide man like David (Accam) and unfortunately we just didn’t do that. We were a little bit too predictable. Without condensing the middle of the pitch and then going wide I think it was far easier for them to defend us.”
