QUOTE SHEET
Chicago Fire 1:4 Orlando City SC
Match Recap
Chicago Fire FC Head Coach Raphael Wicky
On his thoughts about the game…
“Look, it reflects a little bit the whole season. We are playing well, we’re creating a lot of big, big chances. We are giving up too many, too easy goals again, but it reflects a little bit the whole season. Right now, for whatever reason, those little things go against us. Yeah, they don't fall to our side, the game before, we missed a lot of chances and then they shoot -- it touches a player's leg, it goes in front of (Gyasi) Zardes, he scores. All of these little things right now are not going our way. Sometimes in life, it happens. I don't know why. I don't have the answer for that.”
“I still am pleased with a lot of things I see. Creating so many chances, scoring goals. I say the same as what I always do. We have to keep working but we have to become better in those ends otherwise we will talk all year about that and at the end of the day, we will be there with empty hands. It's nice to play good. It's nice to create, but we've got to be better on both ends of the field.”
On the first half penalty kick and whether the team has a designated penalty kick taker…
“Yeah, I told the team in the halftime it's my fault. I take it on me. I didn't assign a player who takes a penalty. But then what happened after cannot happen. It's unacceptable. If a player says, ‘I'm going to take it,’ then the other player has to say, ‘Okay, yeah, I support you.’ And that didn't happen on the field. They were arguing and that's not the team we want to be. So yeah, that's all I can say to that. I take it on me that I didn't assign a player. I assigned in the halftime, the next penalty is Robert (Beric), and yeah, things happen. It will never happen again.”
On his first message to the players after the game…
“Heads up. My first message to the players is heads up. Look, I was a player. A player feels when you play really bad and you have no chance and you lose 4-1, or the player also feels when you are actually playing well over a certain amount of games and the ideas are there. So the players feel that. But I usually don't talk. It's my way of doing it. I usually don't talk directly after the game because I really don't want to talk on emotions. I shake hands and say heads up and that's what I did today, as well, because that's the only way. I think in these moments, it's difficult for everyone, for anyone to find the right words. That's the reason why I don't really talk, and the only way is moving forward and heads up and keep working hard and getting better.”
Chicago Fire FC Forward CJ Sapong
On the mood in the locker room…
“We're all upset. We're upset we're not getting the results we feel we deserve, but there still is an optimism when we look back at games and we come off the field, while it stings more knowing that you had your chances and that it might have been mental lapses in moments in the game; we still understand that we have quality and we have the ability to turn these results around.”
On whether the team’s results are a matter of being unlucky…
“Yeah, I think anybody that's watching that game says that that's unlucky. I believe that energetically, you know, there's always an opportunity to approach the game with an optimism and obviously as the results don't go your way, that's harder and harder to do. If you look on the flipside for them, you have a goal goes in off the post. You have a goal that takes a deflection and trickles in. They get two goals disallowed for the opposing team. It's easy to say that there was luck on their side. You know, luck is they say when preparation meets opportunity, so that's where we have to do our due diligence and keep preparing the right way, and then when we get the opportunity or we get those chances, we put them away.
On how it feels to be back with the team and on the field, but also not being with his family as he was the past month…
“Yeah, all that is quite the whirlwind. I think we've all kind of had to be malleable in 2020 and for me, I'm in a situation where I was able to see my daughter come into this world, and while I ensured that things on that front are as safe and secure as possible, I'm here with the team and trying to bring energy and impact onto the field. Once the off-season gets here, I'll be able to really just soak in the family time. But that's what's my fuel and motivation right now.”
