Chicago Fire vs. New York City FC
MLS Regular Season
April 24, 2015 – Toyota Park
Frank Yallop, Chicago Fire Head Coach
Thoughts on the match
“It was a good home win for us, the sending off early in the first half makes a bit of a difference in the game from New York City’s point of view, but from our point of view, our attacking play, without the finishing touch, was very good. The creation of chances, the manner in which we played in the second half was excellent, and I was very pleased with our overall performance, other than getting a few more goals.”
On the team coming together and gelling offensively in recent games
“Like I’ve been saying, you get a bunch of new players in and it’s difficult to gel quickly. Soccer is a game of movement and not set plays. I think you saw a lot of our players express themselves well. David Accam isn’t probably at his best quite yet, but he’s very exciting and there’s a lot to come from him. I thought Matt Polster was excellent tonight in the middle of the field, and from our goalkeeper to our back four was solid. We had a couple of hairy moments in the first half but we talked at halftime and we didn’t give them a chance, and I think that’s important. I know they had ten men, but teams can still attack with ten men. I see a team maturing in the last couple games. It was a pretty good performance for not playing for three weeks.”
The impact of a 20-day layoff between games
“Fantastic. We got a lot fitter, I thought we were really on task the whole game, pressed the whole game. I mentioned the man down (for NYCFC), which is a factor, but we didn’t sit off or sit back, and we did all the right things, and that comes from fitness and the great job that our coaching staff did over the three weeks. “
The 20-day layoff having an effect later in the season
“I think so. The fans tonight enjoyed what they saw and that’s the main thing. We’re a team that the fans want to watch. I’m not a coach that sits back; I want to score as many goals as I can. Didn’t score many tonight but I don’t want to sit back and see what happens, I want to get at teams and test them out. I thought their goalkeeper was outstanding, I feel sorry for him on the mistake for the goal, but he made some really, really good saves tonight that kept them in it.“
On the inability to finish off goals tonight
“I wouldn’t call them problems, just the final little bit of guile will come with a bit more play and bit more confidence. If we’re not creating chances then I’m worrying. Yes, we’ll work on finishing and we’ll look at the DVD of the game, work on some stuff they need to do around the box, but we got in some good spots and just didn’t quite get the shot off that we could’ve. Harry is unlucky, hitting the post with a good strike; Shaun had a couple of jinks and couldn’t get away from his mark. All in all, we won, that’s the main thing, and hopefully we save those goals for another time.”
On his halftime message to the team
“It’s never easy when something happens that early in the match, and it picked New York up, they played well until the end of the half. I said that we’ve got the extra guy, we can’t be sitting back. I wanted Shaun to drop underneath a little bit more to have an extra guy in midfield because they do overload the midfield, playing a tight diamond. Shaun did a good job dropping in and creating a lot of play and possession for us to break on them. Halftime talk is always good when you’re winning, but you always want that extra goal to make it 2-0 and make it a lot harder for them to get into the game. Credit to New York, they kept going and didn’t buckle under, maybe another night they could’ve gotten something out of it. We were on our game tonight and that was pleasing for me to see.”
On David Accam’s performance
“Yes. I just think all the players that we brought in from last year; Adailton has been absolutely solid and strong, smart. Joevin Jones has been excellent, Matt Polster has been great, Eric Gehrig as well, I can go on and on about the guys we brought in. There are guys on the bench that haven’t gotten going yet. David is an exciting player, and when we saw him it was like ‘wow, he could be available and let’s go after him’, and we did, got him, he’s excited to be here and I thought he played fantastic tonight and I still think there is more in him. I think he can be a little more attack minded.”
On the play of Guly do Prado and Matthew Watson, and the decision to leave out Victor Perez
“Coach’s decision on Victor for this game. Guly did well tonight, held the ball up, and played a good role in our attack. Quincy had an ankle injury, missed 12 odd days of training, so we’re on top of that now, if guys don’t train and don’t get their numbers up and going then, they won’t be able to last 90 minutes. Our fitness coach Adrian Lamb has done a fantastic job with these guys and I think it showed tonight. Matt was good tonight, I spoke to him a couple of days ago, said this was a great opportunity. He’s a great kid and he works hard and wants to do well on the team. His teammates really love him and I thought he played great tonight.”
On Kennedy Igboananike’s status
“He’s fine, just think that Shaun has done a good job as that second forward and we just need a bit of a presence of a bigger man with hold up play with Guly, He’ll get his chances to play, he’s played a little bit this year, it just takes time to settle in sometimes. He’ll be disappointed he didn’t get a chance to play tonight but I just felt that this game plan worked and that the guys on the field were getting it done. I didn’t want to change many things, I brought Quincy to make a bit of a difference and spark, and he did that. The guys that started and played the whole game did well.”
Harry Shipp, Chicago Fire Midfielder
On differences this season
“It's different from last year. I think, in our past three games, we've matched [much of] the win total from last year, so it's great. Three weeks off, we came out sharp the first thirty minutes. It dipped a little bit; once they got a red card, it's like we weren't sure what to do. But I was happy with the second half, how we played, kept the ball, we're kind of patient, and that's something we talked about at halftime: being patient with the ball and kind of making them run around. We didn't allow them to make any scoring chances in the second half.”
On missing chances to score
“You'd like to, obviously, but I think we had chances for sure to put another one away. But in terms of patience with the ball and moving the ball around, if we have the ball, they're not going to score a goal to tie it; that was our biggest focus.”
On the extended break
“The coaches did a good job on keeping us sharp. We had two intrasquad scrimmages, and we really worked on keeping our fitness up the past three weeks. Guys were fitter now than they were our last game, so I think that was good. We kind of put together a solid 90 minute performance, which is something we hadn't really done the last couple of games, so I think, all in all, we're pretty happy with it.”
On playing with midfielder David Accam
“It's good. I love showing up anywhere on the field; I think he's kind of the same, he likes testing both outside backs. It forces the defense [to always be] on their toes because they never know where either of us is going to pop up. So it's something that, hopefully, we'll continue to do.”
David Accam, Chicago Fire Midfielder
On his first goal with the Fire
“I went straight and took away the ball, and went ahead and scored. I was not surprised, because I know when you work really hard, chances come to you, and that's what we did today, we worked really hard. I'm not surprised I got the goal, to be fair, I think I really gambled on that one, because I was expecting a ball from [one of my teammates]. When the keeper was going for the ball, I just went straight to him, and he gave me the ball. It's not simple, there's nothing simple in every game. When you work hard, everything comes to you, so it's not simple, tt feels great to go on the scoresheet. I know I should have maybe scored two or three, but we got three points today, and that's what we'll keep working on.”
On being disappointed about only scoring once
“Yes, there was disappointment. Not only me, our team should have scored three or four, because we worked really hard, we created a lot of chances, and we should be taking our chances in. We worked really hard our last two weeks and I'm happy we got the win.”
On the incentive to play well in front of Ghanaian National Team head coach Avram Grant
“For me, I just want to play well every game, no matter who is there, and that is what I did.”
On his fitness level
“I'm 100% now, and I know I can give more to this team. I just need to continue working hard, and I know goals will come to me.”
On his comfort level
“Yes, I feel comfortable with everyone on the team. We're working hard, we play as a team now. I love the quality of our team.”
On being the target of many fouls
“I just need to keep my head up, keep playing. I know I'm a good player, that's why I get a lot of kicks. It's normal, I'm used to it.”
On teammate Harry Shipp
“Harry's a good player, versatile. We need to change a lot to confuse the defenders, and that's what we're doing.”
Shaun Maloney, Chicago Fire Midfielder
On the effect of the extended break
“We had a lot of time training together, obviously, with the break. There was a fair amount of tactical [training], but there was a lot of physical as well. I said earlier in the week, for numerous reasons, there was quite a few of us missing large parts of preseason. The result went for us tonight, so it looks as if that mini-preseason we had is often going to benefit us during the season.”
On the wings' performances
“I think we should have been a little bit more attacking, or at least creating. I know we have to be very secure as a team, particularly against the counter-attack, but Harry, David, they're very easy to play with. Particularly tonight, David was a massive asset to our team; I'm glad he's on our side.”
On playing further up the pitch
“The first three games, with personnel and the way we were playing, the manager asked me to play deeper, and of course I'm more willing to do whatever he asks of me. I think the last probably three games or so, including San Jose, I was a little bit further up. Particularly the last two games, the higher up in the pitch I am, I think I'm more comfortable. I played with Guly [do Prado] tonight, and with David and Harry; the further up the field I am, the more effective I am.”
On the current three-game winning streak
“It doesn't quite feel like we've had three straight wins, but obviously with that break, it probably that tempers that slightly. I think with the win tonight, we could've had more. I think we're very pleased to have won, and now it looks as if the twenty days training we had, or however long it was, I think it's going to be a big benefit this season.”
On being rusty from the break
“I don't think we started particularly well in the first five minutes, but that can happen in a game, I don't think that happened from not playing in a couple weeks. I think, in the end, it looks a bit more like a positive. I think the two midfielders, Matt Polster and Matt Watson, were excellent, they shielded the back four, and that's a big part of the team. We have to try to be hard to beat as well as creating going forward, and I think at times we were that tonight.”
