Head Coach Veljko Paunovic
On feeling unlucky after the first couple goals scored against the Fire
“I don’t believe in being unlucky, I just believe in performance and I think that in those situations we could react better for sure. Not exactly when that moment came, but before that, to avoid that situation, that critical situation when you have respond reactively, it’s more, that’s what was more concerning to me than the other thing. I also want to congratulate Philly on 3 points, on the win, and also I want to say thanks to the fans of Chicago Fire who came here, and also for the warm welcoming I had with Philly’s fans, so thank you for that.
On any emotion coming back to Philly
“Of course there is always emotion, I spent very good time here and as I said, people treated me very well, so again, I want to thank them for that. And now it’s a different time.
On some things that Philly made difficult for Chicago tonight
“I think that they were very efficient, I think that their efficiency was great. They created chances, they were very accurate with those and that’s what makes the difference. I think we had our chances, we weren’t that accurate, but even we did, we were close to tying the game and you never know if we could score that goal on time, the goal to tie the game, we could even win the game. I always believed that you have until the last second you have a possibility to win so that’s how we played we switched out formation, we moved people out in front, we pressed higher . As we said, we said that when I came to Chicago that we will fight every single game until the end and that’s what we proved. Of course that’s not enough, we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to win games, overall we have to improve.
On disappointing response after Accam’s goal
“Again, no disappointment. There is no failure, it’s just how you’re ready, how you prepared, and how you respond to those things. I firmly believed that we could win this game, we started very well, but then we lost that good momentum that we had so we’ve got to improve.
On change in formation in the back helped the team come back
“Well, it’s… it’s what you have. You have the team that you know, you know how they can play in that formation. I think that with 3 in the back we played very well. Offensively and defensively we struggled, so we had to adjust formation with the layers that we had. I think that was the best help to us. Then the guys that came from the bench Goossens and Rodrigo (Ramos) did very well and then Morrell, we tried with his pace to even get closer to the goal and have more opportunities but it didn’t happen.
Chicago Fire midfielder Razvan Cocis
On the goal that he scored
Yeah, we opened the game to Rodrigo with the pass, he was wide open. I wasn’t offside, I knew that but as soon as he looked in the box, I just made a move inside, opposite side of the post so I cannot be offside. I attacked the ball and it was a perfect ball in front and I just went for it.
On the positives to take away from the game
Positive is, this one and I think even in the last game in the cup, I think we can comeback. Even though today was not a comeback, just 4-1 to 4-3 but we have potential. As long as we fight and we give our best, as we did in the second, and evn in the first half. But there were some mistakes, and we conceded three goals but eliminate the errors, and we are working on it, I think we are going to doing better. We still have time, that’s the positive thing. We are now going to focus on the cup game, the next game. We have Columbus at home, and we try to do our best in this cup. Then try to get a good result.
Chicago Fire midfielder Khaly Thiam
On the overall game, and what’s ahead for the team
"We needed this goal, I just feel sorry that we weren’t successful to bring points from here but the team, we fight till the end and I really like the character that we had in the game. I hope that the next game we can’t wait to fight to get the points."
