CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 18, 2020

Ignacio Aliseda

Press Conference

Q. It seems like Raphael Wicky says game after game, you're close, but on the attack, the team has a problem finishing chances sometimes. What do you think it's going to take for the team to start putting away more of those chances and scoring more goals?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: Before anything, hello, good day.

Yeah, I think we are slowly finding our game, finding the game, and every game we have to adjust little things here and there. But I think as Rafa said, we are getting closer. We are on the right path, so we just have to keep going and keep following that path and doing the right things. I think that in a game, once we get goals like the ones we got against Columbus, you know, getting those goals was great, and now we just have to work on keeping the score against us at zero. But I think once we are able to do those things and keep things on our side, we'll keep going.

Yeah, our confidence takes a little bit of a hit when you start losing games, but we're going on the right path and little by little, we're making those adjustments.

Q. How often do you guys look at the standings, and what's your reaction when you look at the Eastern Conference standings and see where you guys are right now?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: First of all I really don't like to look at the standings. I've never liked it. And not because we are doing poorly, but I just never really liked it because it feels like sometimes you know that you're doing things the right way or you're doing things correctly but you are not where you would like to be.

But yeah, every once in a while, you do have to look at the standings and we're not in a place where we want to be. It doesn't feel very good to be that low, but I think that together united as a group, we are going to get out of that place. We are going to go higher. It's a little bit difficult because we are still getting to know each other. We have been together for a long time, but still, we are still getting to know each other on the field.

So I think as the games go by, little by little, we are going to get to know each other even more and I'm very certain that we are going to qualify for the playoffs.

Q. Can you talk about getting ready for the playoffs; in the next week, you'll have about three games in about nine games.

IGNACIO ALISEDA: Yeah, there is a very important week coming up, and I think this week, we did a good job training. We trained well, and so now we're starting tomorrow and we have to go out there and win, and basically our idea is always to go out and win, wherever we are, wherever we go.

So when we start off tomorrow, we're going to go out there to win, and I think that's going to start an ascension and we are going to start going up from there.

Q. Obviously there were some very bright moments against Columbus, so how do you all channel that into a 90-minute performance so that we are not after a game, I guess asking that very question; how do you find that consistency?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: Yeah, we know that against Columbus, we had a very good first half, and the second half for me wasn't so very good. We do know that football is 90 minutes of concentration, and somewhere along the lines, we lost our concentration a little bit.

I don't blame anyone. They also had a little bit of luck. Their shot, you know, hit one of their teammates and went in the goal and I think maybe we're missing a little bit of that luck, as well, where we hit a shot and somehow it manages to go in. But I think once we get that little bit of luck on our side, we are not going to be talking any more about bright moments. We are going to be talking about how we are focused throughout the whole 90 minutes.

Q. On Wednesday, you guys will be playing after the Bears play an American football game on Sunday. Do you have any concern about how the field might play on Wednesday, and I guess how does it change your game if you get to play on a field that isn't up to normal standards, if that's what happens?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: Yeah, we know that even going into it, the grass is a little bit longer because we know that the guys play there. And yeah, we have some concerns obviously because that sport uses cleats that are longer than ours and we know that they step on the field differently, so that could cause some holes or some inconsistencies on the field.

But the reality, we have to go out and play on the field we play, wherever we play, it's not an excuse. The field isn't an excuse. We just go out there and enjoy the moment.

So even if there are some inconsistencies on the field or there's a divot here or there, we just close our eyes and enjoy our moment because that's our field and that's where we play.