CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 23, 2020

Fabian Herbers

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for Fabian.

Q. Fabi, what is the importance of making the playoffs just to show whether there's progress for this team on the field? What would that mean for you guys to make the playoffs?

FABIAN HERBERS: I think it would mean a lot. Last year we missed it by a little bit. We were always pushing and thought we had the quality as a team to actually be a good playoff team, and didn't achieve that.

Yeah, coming back this year, it's kind of the same picture where we feel like we're playing well, we have the quality. We're pushing hard for the playoffs. We're catching up on points now. Now we're in 10th place. We still have a game in hand, which is, yeah, a good position to be in.

The last five games in the next two weeks is going to be difficult for us so we really have to push in those last games to get as many points as possible to, yeah, make the playoffs. From there anything is possible.

Obviously we don't want to just achieve the playoffs. We want to hopefully have a run and maybe be a little bit of a surprise team that people didn't really, yeah, had thought of.

Q. You are I believe the only team left in the league that has not won a game on the road, and three of your next five are going to be on the road. What is it going to take for you guys to get a result on the road and why do you think that has been a struggle so far?

FABIAN HERBERS: I mean, I think historically and traditionally it's always harder to play on the road than at home. I don't think many teams in the league will have a more positive away record than home record. I think it's always a big advantage to play at home, especially in this league where you have to fly on the same day now, be in the hotel, all that stuff, maybe be in a different climate. It's always an issue. Not an issue, but it's always difficult to play on the road, let's put it that way.

Yeah, what does it take? It takes a good team effort, be mentally and physically ready from the start. I mean, have some good plays, try to play with confidence as you do at home, try to be tight defensively that you don't concede easy goals on the road because that's always, yeah, bad if you concede easy goals.

Yeah, I mean, it just takes a lot of details that come into factor and maybe a little bit of luck, too, that you can win some games on the road.

We have a home game now coming up, which is our focus, against Red Bull right now. We're just focusing on that home game, then hopefully we can steal some points on the road when we go to Philly and the next game.

Q. With the playoff picture being so tight, you holding onto that final spot, what is the mentality like going into each of these games?

FABIAN HERBERS: The mentality is the same for everybody game. We go into every game to win the game. If it's at home or if it's on the road, we always give it 100%. We always give it all our effort. Yeah, we put everything into it to make the (indiscernible) to get a win. Yeah, I think that's the mentality.