CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 19, 2021

Fabian Herbers

Press Conference

Columbus Crew 2, Chicago Fire 0

Q. Fabian, looking ahead to the next four games, this stretch of four games all at home, is this pretty much make-or-break at this point for this season?

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, in general, you always want to win your home games. We have to win our away games, too. Today we lost 2-0 here at Columbus. Obviously we wished a little bit more from this game. Hoped to get a point or even three here. I thought we started well. Unfortunately we go back 2-0 in the first half and then we are chasing the game and it's always hard to come back in front of this crowd. Columbus playing at home, they are a smart side. Yeah, it's tough.

Obviously looking forward, I mean, I don't look four games ahead. I know we have Cincinnati and on Wednesday it's a quick turnaround. It's nice, so it doesn't stick too long in your bones. We have a chance to make it up in front of our home fans and we are up for the task.

Q. Rafa just said it a minute ago that he felt like especially in the first half, the team kind of lost its fight and its desire, like no desire going after 50/50 balls, things like that. Would you agree with that?

FABIAN HERBERS: It's hard to say. When I look at the game, I didn't feel that on the field. I mean, obviously when you are 2-0 down after 45 minutes, you don't have many arguments to be honest. I mean, there was the one incident where they could have gotten a red card maybe if the ref decides differently, if a guy punches somebody in the face and he doesn't give a red card, then I don't know, what is the red card.

And you know, if that would have been a red card, the game could go differently. But yeah, it's hard to say if we weren't up for the fight. I thought we did play well. We created some chances but we gave up the goals too easily at the end. You don't have too many arguments if you lose 2-0 after 45 minutes.

Q. I don't need to recite the stats. You had most of the possession, pretty good pass completion percentage, 14 attempts but no shots on target and you have scored twice since the first 15 minutes of the season. Why can't this team generate offense moving forward right now? Why can't it generate enough to trouble the opposing keepers?

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, I'd agree with the stats; that we are dominant in possession. We move the ball actually pretty well I think. Even away from home, it's not easy to do. But then we get into the final third, we lack a couple of runs, creativity and maybe a lucky punch that we are missing, as well.

But zero shots on goal, that's just not dangerous enough. If we want to score goals, we have to shoot on the goal. Yeah, we are lacking a little bit creativity, the last bite, the willingness and aggressiveness in the box to really want to score the goal. That's something that Columbus had today and we didn't.

Q. What do you think it's going to take to fix that? It's not one or two guys in a slump. It seems like all of the attacking players are having trouble getting shots on goals and finishing those chances.

FABIAN HERBERS: Yeah, I agree. Today we were really not that dangerous up front. I'd agree with that. But if I look back to the Montréal game, the Miami game the last two games, I thought we had several, several chances, good chances to put the ball in the back of the net.

Yeah, hopefully we can improve that against Cincinnati.

Q. Bigger picture, the season has not gotten off to a good start, after last year was disappointing. How do you guys keep it positive and optimistic when the results simply haven't been there for 31 games now counting last season?

FABIAN HERBERS: It's not easy, but what's the alternative. I mean, we can't put our head in the sand and I've said it before, we cannot just give up and not play anymore. That's the only way to do it is stay positive, stay focused, keep working hard in training and keep your head up and try to give it all for the fans. We had a couple hundred fans that traveled from Chicago today. Sad we couldn't give them the win today.

It makes me happy and makes me proud to see fans travelling and supporting us, and yeah, we want to give them the result obviously. But we are going to stay positive. We want to keep working hard and we want to give them the results that they deserve.

Q. Unrelated to the game, what do you think of the new logo?

FABIAN HERBERS: Let's just focus on the game today. Maybe I can say that in the mid-week interview. I don't have any thoughts right now for the logo.