CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 14, 2021

Boris Sekulic

Press Conference

Q. Heading into the season, most analysts are you predicting you to finish outside a playoff place this season. How do you use that as motivation, and what gives you confidence that you are better than the perception?

BORIS SEKULIC: Honestly I don't read too much newspapers or social networks. So I'm trying to be out of this as much as possible. I think we are stronger than last year. Last year we were almost there. So I hope this year, it will be -- it will be better because we know each other much better than last year, and I hope we will see this on the pitch.

Q. Wanted to get your thoughts on this Saturday being that first match where fans will be at Soldier Field. It was something that so many fans and obviously the club was looking forward to last; the pandemic prevented that from happening. What are the emotions and what do you think it will feel like on -- on match day Saturday?

BORIS SEKULIC: First we have to see how many people will be there. Of course we as players are very happy they are allowed to be around home games. We miss them a lot last year. I think last year we had some great games at home, and I think they would enjoy them.

So we will try to have good start the first home game, and I hope they will come and they will be happy with our performance.

Q. There's competition at every spot and you're a guy who is dealing with that right now because Jhon Espinoza came in. What's it been like having to battle for the spot now at right back with him and what's your relationship with Jhon so far?

BORIS SEKULIC: Relationship between all players is good. Some guys, they don't speak English very well, so coach can speak Spanish and we have lots of Spanish speakers, so they are trying to help them with that.

Jhon is a great guy. I think he started this preseason very well. I think that I was trying to battle last year because I was a new player, so I wanted to make good first impression. Now Jhon is here. Now every spot is filled with two players, so for sure there is more competition than last year, and I hope it will make us better and stronger this year.

Q. More on that last question. What was your reaction to being left unprotected for the expansion draft and what was your reaction when the Fire brought in Espinoza, how did you take those two things as a professional?

BORIS SEKULIC: Well, I was in Serbia at the moment I was left unprotected, and honestly I still don't know rules here about draft, about leaving players unprotected. So honestly I didn't know how it's working. After a few days after, maybe I saw just some texts about this and that's it. We were in middle of our, let's say preseason at home. I was trying to train. I was trying to be concentrated on this. So first day, as I said, I didn't even know.

After I read about it, I didn't know what it means because all these rules here about draft and everything are new to me.

Q. What are your expectations for your first game at home in front of fans, and what are differences between soccer in United States and in Europe?

BORIS SEKULIC: Of course we want to start good. Last season we were playing good home games but we had a problem with away games. So I think that if we start good, it will push us forward after.

And differences, here every team has lots of, let's say, South American players who are good technically who are fast, and every team has like really good players who are making big difference. And the organization of the league and everything is really on a high level, and I'm not sure if I was expecting this.

Q. What language was that just now?

BORIS SEKULIC: Serbian.

Q. And then someone earlier asked you about playing at Soldier Field in front of fans for the first time. Did you ever get used to playing in front of an empty stadium last year?

BORIS SEKULIC: It's a hard question. It was really weird in beginning, but after we were chasing that playoffs so much is that we were trying to be concentrated. Some away games, we had teams who were playing against us like Orlando or Kansas City, they had fans, so it was a little bit different. But definitely we miss them on our home games on Soldier Field. So we will see on Saturday how it will be.