CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 24, 2021

Jonathan Bornstein

Press Conference

Atlanta United 3, Chicago 1

Q. Your overall thoughts on the game today?

JONATHAN BORNSTEIN: Man, it's tough to lose in a game like that but you know, obviously Atlanta is a good team. We knew that coming in. We knew what we needed to battle, and we put up a good fight there for quite a long time. I got a little unlucky, hit the post a few times but it's a game of inches. We just came up a little short today. A lot of things to build on. It's a long season. We don't want to be losing too many of these, but got to go back, keep working hard and learn from these mistakes and from the loss.

Q. How concerning is it that some of the issues that plagued the team last year, squandering leads or the back line issues, last week and tonight, have already cropped up again this season?

JONATHAN BORNSTEIN: We are trying to work on those things and we are trying to limit as many mistakes as possible. I think we don't want that to be a common theme this year either. I think we've talked about it in our training, those things. It's unfortunate to see them creeping in there again. But we have to continue to work hard. I think when you come off a loss like this the only thing that's left is to go out and work hard in training and wait for the next test which is on the weekend. That's kind of all I know how to say about that.

Q. It looks like you often use a zonal marking system. Is that what's going on? Seems like there's miscommunication, especially on Atlanta's second goal?

JONATHAN BORNSTEIN: You mean in set pieces? Second goal comes off of a cross in open play. But I think in general terms, we have a mixed system. I think guys are responsible for their areas and things like that. I think we have been training really well. We've done a good job in general. So obviously set pieces are a huge part of the game and most games, they are won and lost by those type of plays.

So I think the better we can be in those situations throughout the year and learn from what we've done wrong and continue to try and get better at that, the better it will be for the season.

Q. You haven't won a true road game now since October 2019. Is that something that's in your heads when you guys travel to road games or is that something you don't think about and just take it one game at a time?

JONATHAN BORNSTEIN: Yeah, you know, historically this team hasn't done well on the road. We are trying to break that cycle of, you know, momentum, whatever you call that cycle that the team has been through. I think, you know, we talk about it, how we want to be better on the road, we need to be better on the road and we need to be stealing points on the road. I think our mentality is good going into the game. Unfortunately we are putting in a lot of work, but I think the results just aren't falling our way; we're not being rewarded for some of the plays, nice plays we're doing. After a loss like this, only thing you can say is keep working hard and things will start falling our way. Put in the work; it's unfortunate to go out the way we did today, but I'm extremely proud of the group and how we did it, the work we put in. The guys all fought until the last second. Unfortunately it didn't come out on right end of the stick. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...ago Fire 1