CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 21, 2020

Raphael Wicky

Press Conference

Q. I wanted to see if you had an update on Luka Stojanovic today?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, unfortunately Luka has hurt himself in the game, and he left our camp here today. He is flying back to Chicago and he is going to meet with our doctors as soon as he lands, and yeah, they are going to evaluate him. He is unfortunately going to be out for quite a while probably.

Q. Looking ahead to this match, what are you looking to change from the last game to try to get some really needed points on the board to try to move up in the standings?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, look, I think we did not have a bad game against San Jose. The result is obviously not in our favor this time. The team was fairly good, organized. We want to keep this organization. We want to keep being tough to play against, but obviously we want to create more. We want to be better and more calm with the ball.

Knowing it's a 9:00 A.M. game, it's going to be very, very hot for both teams, but yeah, that's something we want to have more of the ball and be better with the ball and create more chances against Vancouver than what we did against San Jose.

Q. Just wondering, your initial thoughts on Vancouver? Obviously pretty short-handed right now, but what are you expecting from them this game?

RAPHAEL WICKY: I expect a team who will defend similar as they did in the first two games. Very compact, playing a very fast transition with fast guys. Obviously I don't know their physical state, if they will play with the same lineup or similar lineups as before. That's always something we don't know but I don't expect a lot of changes in the way they play.

Like I always said and I repeat myself, there's no easy games here. It's not because they lost two games that there is going to be an easy game. It's going to be a tough game. It's a tournament. It's not a lot of rest time between our last game and their last game, so we will see, but I expect similar style like they did in the last two games.

Q. Are you planning to be more offensive in this game on Thursday with the lineup?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Well, I am -- first of all, I didn't -- or we were not defensive. We have two strikers, Frankowski, Luka Stojanovic, Alvaro Medrán, a lot of offensive players on the field. So we have five offensive, naturally offensive, players on the field. So I think that is a lot, and we are going to -- and depending on how we play, keep having that mindset.

It's just that obviously we want to have more of the ball against San Jose, but. As we spoke before the San Jose game, we knew what to expect. We knew that they have a lot of possession against any team in this league.

They were last year the team with the most possession in the whole league and that's what we saw in our game against them. They had a lot of possession and we had to defend that and we did that well until these two goals, which were two soft goals.

So we want to have more of the ball, and we want to be more dominant with the ball. That's for sure something we want to see. But not having more offensive players on the field; I don't think it's a question of that.

Q. Wondering what your take is on the Whitecaps and the players they are missing? They have had their struggles in this tournament and now they are going to be turning to their 21-year-old goalie Thomas, who just got his first minutes coming in. What's your thoughts on all the injuries that they have had, and just facing a goalie that's never started Major League Soccer; and they won't have a backup, so if anything happens to him, they will have to put a player in.

RAPHAEL WICKY: Look, those are obviously all the information we have and we have seen, but those are things which I don't really want to comment on or I don't really want to focus on.

We want to focus on ourselves, what we want to do, how we want to play, how we can break them down, how we can defend well against them. That's what I'm focused on.

I can't control what players they put on the feel. I can't control who is injured and who is not here. Those informations we have, and -- but I'm not talking about that with my players. I'm not putting those things in the head of my players because it's just for me not relevant to prepare this game.

Q. I know everybody hates losing in sports, but is there something to be said for getting a loss out of the way as you did the other night, and does that give you more things to show to your players, more to learn from and build off of than a win does?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Look, I always try to be -- not to see things practice and white.

So I always say to my players and I think I've said that to you guys: When you win, not everything is perfect. You win games in football, and you were maybe not the better team, but maybe sometimes you were unlucky. You lose games and you're not -- sometimes you don't deserve to lose games, and sometimes you are even the better team. So for me it's not just judging the result.

Like I said in the beginning, did we have a bad game? No. We didn't have a bad game; until the 1-0, San Jose had one shot on goal. It's not that we created a lot, but it's not that they were dangerous. They had a lot of possession.

The message to my team is: Yeah, there is things which we do, we do really well. We have to keep working and keep believing in that. There's things we can do better. Yes, we have to become sharper with the ball and we have to be better with the ball and create more stuff. And that's the message. Put the result on the side, which we are sad. We are disappointed. We all want to win.

But there is always good things and there were good things in this game, as well, against a very tough opponent to play, and we are going to keep working on that and take that out of this game and two with a positive mindset into the next game.

We are in a very good position. We put ourselves with the win against Seattle in a very good position. Everything depends on us. We are not depending on other teams. We are not depending on other results. Everything is in our own hands and that's what we are focusing on.

Q. This is such a unique situation to be in with this tournament, everything that's going on. What have you learned about your team and players during this period of time?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Still everything I saw and I felt before the last game. I mean, I always said I think we have a really good team chemistry. We have a really good group of players who works hard. Everyone works hard. We believe in what we do and who wants to -- everyone is happy to be here and wants to play.

Winning or losing, that's still the feeling we have. We have a really good team chemistry and everyone is eager to go on the field and everyone wants to advance to the next round and win games.

For us, nothing has changed. I think the team looks well together and we have been doing nothing different than before the San Jose game.

Q. I wanted to ask about the time change, going from early to late back to early. What did yesterday look like for you guys, and what has the day been like, the team getting adjusted to being ready for an early game again?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, those are challenges we knew from the beginning, which will happen, and we have it from the first game to the second game, I believe.

So yesterday looked like -- obviously we had a late meal after our game the night before, and then we had a PM training session for the nonstarters yesterday evening, and during the day, the other guys had recovery. And then this morning we had an early session, morning session, and now they are obviously recovering and off.

Then tomorrow morning will be an 8:00 A.M. session. So players are already -- actually before the Seattle game, the players the day before have to get up at 5:45, 6:00. This is what we will face on game day again and that's how it looks.

In terms of others things, it's really just recovering and getting fit for the next game.

Q. I would like to ask, maybe the same question I asked the last time, if we'll be seeing more of Mihailovic in this next game, and also if any of the injured players will be recovered for Thursday, are you planning on playing them?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Well, Jorge and Nacho are important players for us and I can't give you the answer now, but we need everyone and they may get minutes, they may start, I'm not sure about that. I have to first see who is available because we are still quite a bit away from the game.

Unfortunately Luka Stojanovic will not be with us, so he will not be on the roster. Otherwise we were lucky so far and didn't have injured players -- Bobby is back in team training and we will evaluate and see if he is available for the bench.