CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 23, 2020

Raphael Wicky

Press Conference

Vancouver 2, Chicago 0

Q. I guess just the result today and the result against San Jose, what does that say about how much progress and how much work you guys still have to do before you can really feel like you can roach your goals in this league?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, it's very disappointing obviously. I mean, today, I am -- I told you guys the last time. I mean, I'm trying not to only judge the results. Obviously the result business -- obviously today the result hurt.

Right now today, right now emotionally right after the game, I have to say that the 63 minutes before the game don't make me feel better because of the result. The result today, we need the result to go through. We needed only a point for the win, and in the end we stand here with a loss and right now that hurts a lot. Because we had everything in our own hand, everything was there. We just have to grab it. So it hurts.

We've had three games now together with this group, so we are in the beginning. We are in the beginning. But we see good moments but we obviously also see that there is still work to do and we have to -- we have to keep working. It's going to take time. But today it hurts.

Q. Curious about the decision not to play Mihailovic. Seems like his creative ability could have helped the team.

RAPHAEL WICKY: It was a technical tactical decision. I know Djordje is a good player and Djordje can help us, but there is certain things I don't want to talk here now. I have to talk that internally.

Djordje is a good player and I hope in the future he will help us, but I took the decision in these games not to start him for multiple technical tactical reasons.

Q. Disappointing result, I guess you've been on all of these Zooms, you've been consistent in not making excuses, but can you sum up just the things out of your control, changing your schedule, today, you're dominant, then a weather delay -- can you summarize if you're frustrated with all of the things that are out of your control?

RAPHAEL WICKY: No. Because that would be looking for excuses. No, I'm not frustrated about that.

I'm frustrated about the way we came back after the break, and the break was for both teams. The break was long. It was unusual. We never really faced that. But it was for both teams, and I'm very frustrated and disappointed about the way we came back, very sleepy, not ready, and that is what frustrates me.

All the other things, no. We knew things are going to be different down here. We under complain about it. We had a good start in the tournament. We can't start to look for excuses now with all these things. We have to look at ourselves.

Q. Not about a specific player, but as that game wore on and things continued to be frustrating, any particular reason you decided to stick with the group on the field?

RAPHAEL WICKY: -- Elliot, obviously we brought in C.J., and yeah, for me, the reason -- for me the reason was we had our chances. We had our chances before. We had our chances after that. So making multiple stops doesn't really help because even if those stops, there was times after that we were a little bit disorganized defensively already when we tried to push the goal, so I didn't really want to make stops just to make stops.

Yeah, besides of -- besides of Djordje who can be an offensive guy and then a few young kids, there weren't many offensive players on the field who I thought in that moment will have an impact in the game. That doesn't mean I don't trust the guys, but you have to see, okay, where you can bring a guy and what makes sense.

Q. This tournament is unique and unusual. How much can you use this to assess the progress of the team? Is this a fairway to assess the progress of what everybody has been doing?

RAPHAEL WICKY: It's part of the progress. It's part of what we have to deal with this year. Like I said, we have seen some really good moments of our team and we have now gone through a very disappointing loss against Vancouver, and we have to -- we have to keep working. This was our third game together with this group. We had two more games in the beginning of the season but there were a lot of players not there.

We have a good team and I believe in the team, but we have to keep working and do certain things different, and today, like I said, I'm very disappointed about the way we came back after this break, which -- which I'm here standing right now directly after a game. I have to -- need some time to think about it, and also talk through why it happened.

Before that, obviously there were very good things. But it's a progress. It will take time. We will keep working. We are very disappointed now. We will talk about things, and then the only thing is we keep going. We keep working and we stand up again. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...