CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 13, 2021

Fabian Herbers

Press Conference

D.C. United 1, Chicago Fire 0

Q. What's it like for you to come into a game in the first time this season when the team is struggling and really looking for any sort of positive?

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, not much to lose. You just come in, do you know 1-0, 30 minutes to go and you just try to give it your everything and try to put up a good fight, help the team create chances making runs, try to, yeah, suffer for the team a little bit because they have been running for 60 minutes already.

Yeah, coming in, yeah, just bring some energy and just try to turn the loss around, you know because we were down 1-0 obviously.

Q. Obviously the result didn't go the way you wanted but I'm sure it felt good for you personally to get out there and play. How are you feeling?

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, I feel good. I mean, yeah, it's been awhile since I've played a game. My last one was in preseason, so personally it feels good to be back out there again and try to help the team on the field. It was my first game in a long time, so personally I feel good, I feel happy to be back.

But the overall mood is obviously frustrating because, yeah, we're struggling to win games right now. We have one point after five games, which is a tough situation to be in.

But yeah, still believe in the group. Still believe that we can turn it around and I think we really showed a good fight tonight in the game.

Yeah, I think we created a lot of chances and once you're not winning games, also in addition, it comes that you don't have like a little bit of luck. The header at the end, I think Guti hit the post in the first half and we had a couple chances where we didn't get the second ball. If you have a little bit of momentum, you know, those chances might go and you might win a game like this 3-1.

But obviously those little details don't fall with us either right now, and it's just tough and you don't have many arguments.

Q. How does this team keep some sort of positive mood or mindset, not just the start this year but the vast majority of the team was around last year; how does the team keep a positive mindset and how important is it for the group to stay positive right now?

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, what else is there to do? We cannot put our hands and our heads in the sand and just be frustrated and not keep going anymore. You know, what else do we have right now. We have to stay positive. We have to keep going. The season is still long. We're five games in out of 34, so we still have 29 games left.

I mean, it's tough mentally, obviously, because we do feel like we have put it out there. You know, we gave a good fight today in D.C. the first 30 minutes, I think D.C. deserved to win the game but I feel like after that we really started playing. Second half again, we created a lot of chances. So I think there's still positives to take away from this game. We have to keep building off of that and just keep going and what else is there to do than be positive? Being negative doesn't help anybody at all.

Q. Do you still feel like everybody is buying into Rafa and what he's trying to instill in you guys and the way you guys are playing?

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, definitely. I think last year we showed some good stretches of how we want to play.

Yeah, this year we haven't showed it too much but the style is still the same. We want to play out of the back and we want to be a team that has a lot of possession and up front we want to press and attack and win the ball. In the opposing half, doesn't always work that way, no, because the opponent knows how to play soccer as well obviously.

But I feel like in stretches we do have and I don't have a doubt that anybody in the team is not buying into Rafa's strategy, so fully trust him and fully believe in what he's trying to implement here in the club.