CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 13, 2022

Chris Mueller

Press Conference

Philadelphia Union 4, Chicago Fire 1

Q. How do you make sure the heads don't drop in the group after such a good run, and that after one bad result it doesn't all go for nothing?

CHRIS MUELLER: I think we all know that we are just much better than what we just played tonight. I think we folded at a pretty difficult moment in the game when we gave up that third goal. I think that was really the nail in the coffin for us, and even then I don't think it's acceptable to give up on the game so to say the way that we did. We need to find a way to fight and get back in the game.

Obviously it stings a little bit and I know the guys are resilient, and we are just going to keep doing what we're doing. We know that sometimes this happens and you can't get too down on it because it's a game of highs and lows. So you've just got to stay consistently optimistic about what's to come, right. That's all you can do and that's all you can control is the next game and this is already behind us.

We'll let it sting tonight and get back to work tomorrow and for the rest of the week because we've got a big game coming up.

Q. What did you guys learn from tonight's game? It seemed like Philly punished you guys when you made mistakes. Was that the lesson tonight; that there are certain teams that you can't make certain mistakes against?

CHRIS MUELLER: No, I don't think you can make mistakes like that against any team. The teams in the League are too good at this point where you can't give up goals like that in any realm. Especially on the road against the best team in the conference, so to say, at this point. It makes it really difficult to walk away with a result when you're giving up goals that are very avoidable.

So those are things that we definitely have to control better, and everyone has to take a good look in the mirror and think: Can I be better and see where we can all improve individually. Because we know collectively when we are all on it's a good team and a good game to watch, right.

But yeah, we just can't do that on the road. We have done that time and time again on the road this season, even at home where these individual mistakes are costing us a lot of points. It's not even so to say that they were like so much better than us tonight and we didn't deserve a result. It's just many individual mistakes that just give away the points. It definitely sucks but it's something that we all have to learn from and be better at.

Q. Looking ahead, the schedule doesn't get all that much easier. You are at home technically next week, and then another tough game against Montréal the week thereafter. What do you think, how many points are you guys targeting and how many points do you think you'll need to stay in the race from those next two matches?

CHRIS MUELLER: We are going to go into both games looking for three points. I think that every game needs to be approached like it's a playoff match, like it's a final. Because you can see the table is so tight: Three points here and there, it's huge. It's a huge turn that can put you from 12th place all the way up to 5th place.

We've got to stay focused, just one game at a time. You don't want to get too far ahead of yourself and think, about, oh, how many points do we need because it just takes you out of the day-to-day and the process that we need to do. We need to focus on the next game, we need to beat New York, get three points and then we'll take it from there.

But we've really got to put this one behind us and just focus on what we can do for this next week.