CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 29, 2020

Mauricio Pineda

Press Conference

NYC FC 3, Chicago 1

Q. Obviously your goal was the bright spot of the game for the Fire. Can you walk us through what happened there?

MAURICIO PINEDA: Yeah, I think it was a corner kick that we've worked on a lot. I find myself in that same spot often. Just have to be ready for when that flick on the first post comes in, and luckily Calvo got ahead of the defender and got that flick in to that back post spot, and I was just there to tap it in.

Q. Since Wednesday afternoon, so much has happened in the world, in the sports world in terms of protests for social justice and everything. What were some of the conversations like with the team, if there were, since Wednesday about that situation?

MAURICIO PINEDA: I think we talked about it a lot as a team. I think the leadership group kind of took charge of that, and discussing that as a team and what we wanted to do together.

But yeah, I couldn't really say too much about that right now.

Q. It looked on the opening goal, tried to play an off-side trap to beat the run, is that something that happened on the first one?

MAURICIO PINEDA: Yeah, I think that first goal was on me. I tried to kind of step up a little bit and get him to be off-sides. I probably should have just kept running with him. Yeah, I took the blame for that first goal and I should have done better on that.

Q. Obviously you guys have had to deal with injuries with the goalkeeper so far from Kenny to Bobby and now to Connor. As a back line what challenges does that present working with a different keeper one week to another, rather than having consistency in who is in that group out on the field?

MAURICIO PINEDA: I don't think it changes too much. I think every goalkeeper that's stepped up has been pretty consistent, so it makes it easier for us as a back line to rely on whoever is in goal, whether it's Kenny, Bobby or Connor today. I think they have all been really good and consistent, prepared to play when they had to step up. They make it pretty easy for us, I would say.