CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 28, 2021

Raphael Wicky

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started.

Q. How are you doing? How is everything going with you?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, I'm good. I'm okay. It was a very tough week, very emotional week last week, but it was, I was very happy that the Club and the team and everyone was understanding that I wanted to go home and see my family and be there for them and with them. That meant a lot to me. But it was very emotional and now I'm back hanging in there. The situation with my dad is still ongoing. It's still very, very critical, but we decided that my wife didn't come back because there wasn't much we could have done after one week than waiting. So we decided to come back. And, obviously, yeah, come back to Chicago and work again and hope for the best. That's where we are now and mostly in exchange of my family all day and all the time and we pray and hope for the best.

Q. I hope everything's okay with your dad and the rest of the family. And if this is a little trite, I apologize, but is it maybe work, is that a good way for you to focus, dive back into the soccer? Is it a good distraction? I guess, are you glad to be back is sort of what I'm saying with all the circumstances?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, it's okay. Look, I mean, I think we all, maybe some of you have already gone through difficult situations in life of close people and we all go through that and we still have jobs and there are certain things that are more important than football. That's why I went back home last week. But I also know that my dad would have wanted me to go back to work and not just sit there and wait if there's nothing I can do. So we all agreed that it's best to come back and come back to work, do my job, be with the team, be here. And, obviously, my thoughts are back home with my family and supporting them and we're hoping. So that's where we are. Yeah, because I think you have to keep going on. You cannot just sit there. Last week was very important for me to be there, physically to be there, and with my family, my sisters, my mom and obviously before surgery with my dad.

But now there is not much I could do in Switzerland, so I came back and I'm happy to be back here, happy to be back at work with the team, with my staff, and like I said, the rest is, we're hoping and praying.

Q. While you're dealing with this we're all thinking about you and wishing you the best.

RAPHAEL WICKY: Thank you.

Q. As far as the team goes, when you were away I'm sure you got to see the matches. What were your thoughts on the three matches? And the one issue that continues to plague the team is finishing. What can be done to improve that?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Yeah, I can tell you that it is way harder to be somewhere in a hotel room or in a room and watching these games on an iPad than being on the sideline. You're helpless. You can't do anything. So I didn't really enjoy that, I have to say. I was obviously watching the games and of course like everyone else here I'm not happy with the results we made. I'm not happy with, that we couldn't continue results-wise that could improve those moments we had before the Nashville game. I still think that the last two performances were positive performances and the team, of course when you are 2-0 up and you then don't win, it feels like a loss against DC United and that's what it did for everyone here and for me.

Then the Toronto game was a loss, but the performance, with so many, with so much domination and so many chances and so much good football, yeah, those are, it's tough to lose these games, but as we move on, and we have to move on and go to the next one, we try to take the positive out of this game and say, Okay, guys, we, you played well. You created so many chances. You were able to go quite easily into the final third and create and create. That is a positive. We have to take that. That should still give us confidence.

Then, yes, there is little details to do better on both ends on the field, is it defending and is it finishing. And to your question, how can you continue that or do better that? It's in training. It's being concentrated in every single training exercise, every single session you have. Whenever you are in the last final third in front of the goal, if it's just a simple finishing against mannequins, if it's in opposition, you got to be focused. You got to be concentrated, and you got to keep working, and that's all we can do.

The positive thing is that the team creates chances, that we scored a lot of goals in the last five, six games, and so that is all positive and we have to take this positive and move forward and take game by game.

Q. Being away from the team and seeing a few matches, did that kind of give you maybe a different perspective of how the team performs and maybe you saw things in a different way?

RAPHAEL WICKY: No, not really. No. There wasn't any surprises besides obviously the Nashville game, which was a complete, yeah, I mean, obviously, everyone was surprised what happened there, and those are hopefully once a year games, which last year we didn't really have, but hopefully that's once a season, and the game was done after 50 minutes, and you're happy you come out with no injuries.

But otherwise, it didn't really give me anything else. I mean, I saw these games. Obviously watching it on TV is a bit different. You don't have the full angle. You don't really see the full field. You cannot see the full movements of the team. But it didn't really give me another perspective or another, or a surprise or anything.

Q. While you were away, can you take us into the process of how you were staying in touch with the team, what you were doing from afar, whether that was in practice during the week building out what were you going to do, the team was going to do on the field, game day, talking with Frank, just what were you able to do from afar?

RAPHAEL WICKY: Well, there were always a lot of games, so there wasn't much training. There was a lot of recovery and then preparation again. So I was obviously, multiple times a day on, spoke with Frank. We spoke. We called. I was able to see all the training sessions, the little ones who were, I was able to see them. We have a platform where I can watch those. Then it was just exchanging with Frank and obviously talking maybe tactics or formations or what we want to do, how we want to go with my staff. That's what we did.

At the end of the day, then Frank was here with the staff. They got the feeling on actually how the players were, how the mood is, how they are -- that's something I obviously couldn't get when I was far away. So we spoke more about tactics and how we want to go and formations and, obviously, Frank gave me an update if anyone was injured or hurt or tired or whatever and that's how we then prepared these games, and I think that, yeah, I mean, I knew leaving the day before the Nashville game that the team is in good hands. I trust my staff. Frank has a lot of experience in coaching, and my staff worked together a year and a half, so I knew that the things would go smooth, and so it wasn't really a problem and we were in touch and that was fine.

Q. Looking ahead to this weekend with Philadelphia, how do you view that challenge, this game? They're coming off a pretty late draw at Miami. They're going to, they've performed better at home. That's just a fact this year. So how do you evaluate this challenge for the team?

RAPHAEL WICKY: It's going to be a tough game again. We know Philly well. We've played them a lot of times. We've played them as well in pre-season. I know Jim Curtin well and they're not going to change the way they play. We know what's going to come to us. We know what to expect, how Philly will play. And, yeah, if they drew or lost or won the last game it's not really going to change their way of playing. So I think it's going to be a similar game as the two games we had here and all the games we have played against them. It's always a battle against Philly. They're a very well organized team. We respect them. But we also know that if we are well organized, concentrated, focused, and if we finish our chances, we have possibilities to beat Philadelphia. We go with that mindset and we go with that belief to Philadelphia. But obviously of course it's a team who is in confidence, who is always quite high on the standings, so they're a team of confidence and a lot of continuity over the past years, but their style of play is not going to change.