QUOTE SHEET
Chicago Fire 0:1 New York City FC
RECAP
Chicago Fire Head Coach Veljko Paunović
On his assessment of the game…
“I think we had a very good first half. I think we made a big mistake and they punished us on that one mistake that we had. In that counterattack after the corner, we just didn’t react. We weren’t aware of that rebound and, unfortunately, we couldn’t come back with all the opportunities that we created after that. In the second half, we kind of had the possession and we were close to getting to the right spots but we still didn’t find a way to seriously threaten them. It’s a disappointing loss. But we have a game right away in a couple of days in Montreal, a very important game for our team. We will recover. We will come back and we definitely want to have a much better performance and get points on the road again. Talking about that game, I just want to clarify on the situation on my sending off, on my red card. All that I’m saying to the referee is that their player has touched the ball when he called offside and that’s all. I don’t think that anywhere in the world that is something that somebody should be sent off for. I don’t think that there is any disrespect. I did not use any disrespectful language. Visually, I’m showing the situation to the referee and I’m just telling him that he actually gave the play-on in that moment, but he called it. We have seen in this league many times that plays like that were played on and I just think that it’s not correct to send me off for that. I want to be in Montreal. I want to be clear. I want to be in that game. I don’t deserve to be sent off for this. This is not good.”
Chicago Fire goalkeeper David Ousted
On his thoughts on the game…
“I’m disappointed. I thought we could have gotten more out of it. We came here with an idea of getting points away from here but the way it shaped up tonight, it wasn’t to be. I think we put in a lot of work but we fell shy.”
On looking ahead to the next match against Montreal…
“I’m looking forward to it because we need to get back out there and get points on the board. I still believe that this team has a lot of firepower going forward and I think we can create chances. We need to be a little bit more solid in the back and the results will come. But, it’s still a good group, it’s still a positive group in there, and we just need to move forward.”
