CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 13, 2022

Javier Hernandez

Press Conference

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: You know we have 22 other teammates, right? You can talk, and they have an opinion, and they're great talking.

Q. Just want to get your thoughts on the group coming off of Saturday's emotional, taxing win. How have you seen the group sort of refresh and regroup for this week here?

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: Very good, very good. We know that we have so many gap of improvement, not only because of the way the game ended, as well because we want to set our bar every game as high as we can. It doesn't matter we can't score as many goals, so we have clean sheets so we can dominate the team. We always know that we can improve a lot.

I think the mentality over there is, if you are part of the Galaxy organization, your standards should be high, high. We are in the best organization. We know next week is going to be three games in a week, so it's going to be very important the depth of the squad as well. So Greg can count on any one of us in every game to try to give our best.

Like I always said, get as many points and as many wins as we can.

Q. Greg was talking about your goal scoring and obviously mentioning that these goals are team goals. I was just wondering how you feel the buildup to your finishing has improved amongst your teammates this season particularly?

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I think that one striker in one team scores as many goals as he can -- sorry I say it in a very bad way. It's only the consequence is the reflection of the whole team. Because we are strikers and we are forwards and we want to help our team with goals as many as we can, but that's only a consequence of all the effort, all the buildups, all the trainings, and everything that we all do.

Sometimes the first attacks that we try to build is from Bondy. And we want to recover the ball, the first defenders are myself, Dejan, Victor, all the forwards and strikers. So I think always, I always said it, everything is about the team. Everything is about L.A. Galaxy.

Here it's not about one name particularly or just the manager or just the owners. It's about the whole organization that we are all in the same path, in the same goal, and that is win another championship.

Q. Do you think that buildup has gotten better this season? Like maybe whether it's more chemistry or people are understanding how to set you up better?

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: Yes, of course.

Q. You talked about physically, sort of the toll that you guys are looking down ahead with three games next week and how that's going to sort of factor into a lot of things. I want to know about mentally. You come off a big El Trafico game, emotional but mentally draining, and then you have these three games coming up. Is there worry there's going to be a letdown against Chicago?

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: If you want to be a champion and you want to lift trophies, you need to play every single game like the one we just played against El Trafico. Of course it has a special feeling, emotion and everything, but it's just an extra kind of thing. The standard should be as high as that game.

We need to respect every single team here in the MLS regardless if we're playing at home or away. We need to win every single game. Every single game is a final.

I always repeat about it because it's true, and it's the lesson that we learn. We were the only team in playoff position until the last second of the Salt Lake game. So it's like every game counts, every sprint, every training, every decision matters, and more if you are an L.A. Galaxy player.

So I hope not, because honestly I play every single game like if it was a final because I know every single point, as many points as we can get is going to put us in a better position regardless of the future that is going to come. It's just, yeah, you win as many games as you can, even if it's like 34 in the beginning of the season, that should be your aim. And you need to respect every MLS team as the most complicated obstacle you're going to have in front of you.

Q. Just wondering, how do you deal with the celebrity and pressure that comes along with being you? And how do you deal with all the pressure and expectations that people put on you since you came to the Galaxy before the 2020 season?

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: I think around three years ago, I think that situation completely -- I had a mindset before, and I'm going to speak about the one that I'm right now. It's just being me. You know something, and people is not going to believe, I ask for myself way more than people ask about me. So I don't have any pressure, I don't have nothing.

It's just sound and energy that I try to manipulate in a very positive way in my favor to transform it into anything I want. If I want to transform fear and pressure and doubt, that's going to happen. Or it could be motivation, it could be gratefulness, it could be just a confirmation that I'm giving my best every single day.

Honestly, man, I don't feel as a celebrity. I always speak about that. It's like money, fame, and other stuff are just tools in this life, and every single tool sometimes is going to help you, sometimes is going to bring you more obstacles and more situations.

People think that, when you get famous and you get money, your life is so fun. They don't know that we're all humans and we all have our conscience and we all have our problems and we all need to deal with a lot of stuff. So we're all humans in the end.

We shouldn't be measured about fame, about celebrities, about a lot of stuff. I understand why, but I mean, we're all humans in the end, and I'm just doing my job that I'm very passionate about it, that I love it.

That doesn't mean that I have more value than you guys, for example, that are behind the camera who make the questions or these guys who are here filming. We're all humans, and we all have our value. I'm not compared to anyone, just myself. We all are unique. We all are special. We all have greatness in ourself. We all have demons in our mental health, so we all are dealing with different situations.

I don't like to compare myself to anything. So about that celebrity, honestly, man, I don't even feel sometimes I'm a soccer player because I come and I play and I do something that I even eat inside my belly of my mom, even soccer is my whole life, it's been everything. So the medicine that I take is just self love and just acceptance and it's just like I'm not perfect, no one is perfect.

I have my life. I have my shadow, and things that I'm proud of and things I need to control so I don't decide wrong in the path of my life I want to walk. It's not simple. It's not easy.

That's another thing that I want to say. People think that problems get solved with fame and with money. Yeah, the problems you have in that moment probably get solved, but you attract way bigger problems because you have more responsibility and you are in a different level of responsibility.

But for me, it's just I have one life, man. The only celebrity that we have all in common is once we're going to die, hopefully later than sooner, but eventually we're going to do, and we should just come here and give our best, enjoy it, try to grow, and have every single time good intentions.

Mistakes are going to happen. We learn from them. We just need to enjoy life. Sorry I went extended, but I love the subject, as you can see.

Obviously the weekend is very important, but obviously life has more meaning than just coming here and scoring goals.

Q. That being said, you do have a lot of fans here in Chicago who are very excited to come and see you play on Saturday. I'm just wondering what does that mean to you? Does that provide any motivation?

JAVIER HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I know around the world and everyone -- even if you are not famous and even though you are not an athlete or a singer or an actor or something, you always have more people around yourself that wish you more positive things than negative things, that's for sure.

The situation is sometimes it has more sound when people doesn't support you than the people who really support you. So every single day I know, and I'm very grateful for the people who send that energy, starting from my kids, the people around me, the people that I love, my family, my friends, my teammates. You can just start like expanding.

There's people that always, always wish you the best and wish you what they are, and I believe that in this society we have a lot of people that are dealing with their own lives and they're always focusing on themselves to be the best version of themselves. So by consequence they wish you that.

So I answer that question in that way because I always say that I'm always grateful, even now in training, I know there's a few people that sometimes come here and just want an autograph or a photo, I'm always, always, always for the people that give time and energy to support myself or to support anyone, and especially L.A. Galaxy over here.

So that's why I want to say, even if you're there in Chicago now we're going to be there, or even in L.A., or in Mexico or China or whatever part of the world, I just want to say thank you to anyone who gives a lot of good energy because something I believe too in life is whatever you give, you're going to receive it sooner or later.