CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 2, 2022

Kacper Przybylko

Press Conference

Q. Obviously you've played against the Fire at Soldier Field, but how does it feel to be going into your first game there as a member of the home team?

KACPER PRZYBYLKO: I'm so excited. I can't wait for it. I'm really looking forward to it. It's such a great atmosphere here among the team basically everywhere I'm going, so I'm really excited for it. Yeah, it's just a couple of days and then finally I'll be there.

Q. You're Polish, it's Chicago, so the most important question of all is did you eat any paczki yesterday?

KACPER PRZYBYLKO: I have to admit, I was very surprised about that. I did not. It was like a day for paczki. I know paczki, very good thing to eat, but today I think -- kind of like Gaga surprised me and even some of the staff members here even surprised me if I was eating them yesterday, and I didn't know about that to be fair because I remember my grandma did it every day. But no, unfortunately I didn't get the chance to eat one.

Q. I wanted to ask you, you've had now about a month and a half of training. You've had your first match. What are your impressions of Ezra Hendrickson as a manager and what has stood out to you about the way in which he tries to motivate the team and strategies during the game?

KACPER PRZYBYLKO: It's very impressive just to believe that it's his first year as a head coach because he's doing such a good job. He's such a good motivator. He speaks to everyone. He has a great philosophy. He has a great mentality that he brings into the team.

Ezra is doing such a good job, there's nothing really negative you can say about what he's doing here as a coach. He brings so much soccer into this team. He brings so much tactic and pretty much everything like what we need as a team to go into as a team still.

So I'm really excited. I'm not worried at all. I'm very glad and also honored, as well, to train with him, have him as a head coach.

Yeah, the atmosphere is also great. As a team we still need a couple -- I would say a couple things we need to grow more into as a team. It's the beginning of the season, but everything what I've been seeing so far, it's amazing. We dominated the first half of our first game on the road, just the chances that we missed to finish off. I think we're very, very hungry now for our home opener. I'm counting on some fans coming to the stadium so we can celebrate together. I'm really excited and looking forward to it.

Q. What were your takeaways from your first match with the Fire last weekend in Miami, and what are you working on now ahead of Saturday's matchup against Orlando?

KACPER PRZYBYLKO: A lot of positive things from the game that we can take, especially on the road last week. We dominated the first half. That was very good. We created chances. That's also important as a team, especially like in the beginning of the season. We've been doing such a great job of defense in the first half.

I think there's just two things we should work on that is more about the mentality in the second half because we thought it was going to be the same way, the same easy way like in the first half because Miami had pretty much no chance in the first half, and that's why we were a little bit more sloppy about our defensive formation, because then they got good chances. It's more about that.

And yeah, second thing is more about finishing off the situation that we created. But I think for our first game, everything was good and we were working well as a team. We have great stuff, great coaches who are just analyzing it and showing us videos, so we'll try to train more, to grow more into as a team and to improve things.

Q. Shaqiri told me that he was happy to learn that you spoke German. Were you able to use Polish with Gaga, German with Shaqiri or Fabian, and English, all three languages during practices or basic interactions with players?

KACPER PRZYBYLKO: I mean, I was also happy when I first came to America when I had Fabi like I did when we played together in Philly because it's kind of like easier to adjust. I think I can kind of understand his situation, so he has a couple players he can still speak German, so we can also help him to improve his English. I was in the same situation when I came the first time to America.

I'm glad to be here on a team where you have also so many countries, so many languages, because it's sometimes confusing, sometimes it's not easy with the vocabulary because you're kind of confusing all languages. But no, other than that it's nice.

I have Gaga I can talk to him in Polish; Fabi, Rapha and Shaqiri I speak in German. Trying to improve now my Spanish, so at the end of the season I hope I'm going to have a fluent four languages to speak so I can communicate with everybody on the team.

No, other than that, it's nice. It's nice to help everybody because I know sometimes it's not easy. So happy and glad to help them, too.

Q. I wanted to sort of follow up on the last question. I am curious how is your adjustment to the team going off the field? Have you had much of a chance to get out and explore Chicago yet? How has that been for you and your family so far?

KACPER PRZYBYLKO: No, unfortunately not, not that much, just to hang out with the team like off the field. Obviously I have Fabi and Rapha, especially Fabi, who just showed me some places. But I had also a little bit of stress with the move, my family and everything. I'm glad that they are finally here so everything is calm and easy.

A huge thanks to Alex Boler. He helped me so much with everything because I was kind of stressed with that. Happy that everything worked. Yeah all settled into our house, so if that works, fine. We'll be here in Chicago.

So happy to be here, and yeah, but I think there's plenty of time and plenty of time to get chances to go out with the team and (indiscernible).