CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 23, 2022

Chris Mueller

Press Conference

Chicago Fire FC 3, Vancouver 1

Q. What are your overall thoughts on the result and your performance tonight?

CHRIS MUELLER: I think that's a great result for us obviously. Three points on the road after a long road trip, second away win of the year.

So the guys are buzzing, man. It feels great. It was a really, really good team performance from start to finish. Had a bit of a lapse in the beginning of the second half which is something we need to work out moving forward, but we bounced back really well, responded, and obviously got a really, really big win, so I'm thrilled.

Q. How important is a win like this, now you're two points out of the top seven with the within tonight, first three-game winning streak for the club in five years?

CHRIS MUELLER: It's obviously a massive win for us and a big step in the right direction. We should have way more wins in a row when you look at Columbus last week. And then we responded again, kept believing, kept doing the process, and we are right where we want to be. We want to continue to push and keep pushing and keep pushing ourselves up the table. We know what we can do and what we're capable of. It's a big one, big step in the right direction. We have a big week ahead, but we'll enjoy it now and get back to work.

Q. The Fire have had difficulties on the road this season, I believe this is the first rode win since you got here. What was different tonight that helped get over the line and hold on after facing have adversity in the second half?

CHRIS MUELLER: I think it's just a testament to the character of the guys. We just continue to do what we do. We had an amazing first half. We really played them off the pitch. I felt like we were dominating. We created a ton of opportunities, hit the post. Obviously they got that goal, but as long as we continue to do what we were doing; it was just a matter of taking them and finishing off the game.

Like I said, we responded really well. That's what good teams do, what playoff teams do. You have to respond to adversity well and we've definitely shown that in the past couple of games that we are able to do that and that's why we are continuing to get good results.

Q. Walk us through the goal that clinched things.

CHRIS MUELLER: Yeah, just made a hard run up the pitch on the left side kind of in a transition moment where they had put some numbers forward because obviously they were trying to get back into the game. And Shaq drove with the ball, and he just kind of laid me in and from there it was a 1v1 that I just took the guy inside and did a pretty classic finish to the back post for a winger on that side.

Feels good. I've been working on that shot for God knows how long. Feels good to do it at a good time for the team and help seal the win.