CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 26, 2021

Ignacio Aliseda

Press Conference

Q. How are you feeling with the injury, and how frustrating has it been to start the season with this injury?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: First of all, thank you for taking the time. I hope everyone is doing well and 100 percent vaccinated.

But the first question, I'm doing well. Doing very well. I think being injured helped me to see some things, some good things and some bad things that sometimes when you're in the thick of it, you don't always know this.

And I think that in the preseason, I was doing very well and I had it in me to start the season off well but there are things that happened, and this is one of those things that just happened and it wasn't expected but it is what it is.

And for the second part, it's a little bit complicated to be injured because sometimes you're home alone by yourself and you see how the team is doing and you always want to be there to help. You want to be there for your teammates, and I think at the beginning of the season it cost us a little bit because we had a lot of people who were injured.

But now we are almost all 100 percent back and I think looking forward to Saturday, we are going to be able to get a streak going where we are going to do a lot of good things.

Q. Since you've been on the sidelines for a few weeks now and you get to see the team from a different perspective, what have you learned form watching the team from the side versus being in there and practicing with them every day?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: As I mentioned, it's a little bit complicated, it's a little bit hard to see things from outside because when you're a player, you always want to be there inside with the team and helping out.

But things happen in life and this is one of those things that happened. I think as I mentioned before, you always learn a lot when you're on the outside, and I think what I learned was to be a better teammate, to be there supporting our players and my teammates more. Because when you're in, there sometimes you don't necessarily feel it or when you're not doing so well, it's always nice to feel the support from your teammates.

So it was important to me to be there to know that we are all supporting each other and that we are a team together. I think when you're playing, it always feels good to have your teammates come to you after a game, you're like, we'll get them next time or we're all in this together. So I think that's one of the things I learned.

Q. Putting soccer completely aside, how much more comfortable do you feel in Chicago and the United States after a year of being here?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: I feel very comfortable. I think sometimes it's a little bit difficult for me because I'm alone and really the only one who comes to visit every once in a while is my agent. But I like it, but it is a little bit difficult to not feel my mom's support, or I would like to have her close by. Obviously I would love to have her in the stadium because seeing her in the stadium is something that is extra motivating for me.

Hopefully by next year or by the end of this season, she'll be able to be there and I'll be able to have her there with me.

Q. You still haven't been able to play a home game in front of Fire fans at this point. How excited are you that soon you'll get the opportunity to do that?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: I hope that on Saturday, I really want to play with the people and with the fans out there. I think the first game that I was out on the bench, you could really feel the fans and feel the people there. It's very motivating and last year it was really hard because there was nobody there. It was empty and it takes a little bit away from football, and with people there, you can really feel their energy. It's a different type of atmosphere, and it's really -- I'm really motivated to come out and return and play in front of our fans and hopefully give them a victory because they really deserve it.

Q. There were about 2,000 Argentinian fans on Saturday, a lot of them there to see the brothers Higuaín, I don't know if you grew up watching him, if he was one of your heros or idols. What was that experience like? Did anybody talk to you ahead of time about maybe playing against him? Were you able to talk to him? What was that experience for you.

IGNACIO ALISEDA: Well, I wasn't able to play, but just growing up thinking about playing against Higuaín is another world. It's something that football can give you that's really just awesome and amazing. To play against Higuaín who played with Juventus, with Argentina, it was beautiful. I wasn't able to talk to him. But I did talk to other people because I'm friends with some other Argentine players. But even like my family was talking to me about, hey, you're going to play against Higuaín, because I thought I was going to play, but it didn't happen. And everyone was just really surprised.

It was nice to go out and play against him and beat him, and we'll beat them again.

Q. You talked about missing your mother and obviously being far away from home. How much does that affect your play and how much does it affect your general happiness in life?

IGNACIO ALISEDA: It changes, even if you don't want it to, it does affect me. It changes because I grew up really close to my mom. I'm close to my brothers and sisters, too, but just growing up, I was always with her, and she just, you know, lights my path and takes care of me in that different way.

So I know that when she's in the stadium, it motivates me in a different way. In Argentina growing up, she did her best to be there and she went to every stadium no matter which stadium it was, as a visitor or if it was a home game, she was always there. And just the sacrifices and all the effort she made into helping when me when I was growing up mand knowing that now I can do that for her, it's really going to give me extra motivation and give me plus motivation when she's here in Chicago.