CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 24, 2023

Chris Brady

Press Conference

Chicago Fire FC 1, Sporting KC 0

Q. Exciting evening, a tight game throughout. Curious how you felt, you had opportunities that you had to turn away in both halves, and curious how you felt about the performance overall.

CHRIS BRADY: Yeah, overall it felt good. Today was more about the mental side of things than anything, how long our boys could see it through because it's hot; we're away; we've been doing a week of travel.

So yeah, the mental side was the key and our guys were able to see it out, hunger down and secure the three points.

Q. What goes into that mental preparation when it is hot? Is it someone being endlessly positive or is it a combination of things?

CHRIS BRADY: It takes, first and foremost it takes leaders. So guys like Rafa, Arnaud, you've got Kei coming in and really holding everybody around them accountable, including themselves, making sure that you're doing that run and you're making sprint and you're making that effort, because although you may be tired, you know, Kansas City is probably just as tired.

The key for us was having those leaders with us, and then also, I think ahead of the game, knowing that it's going to be hot, hydration, treating your body right, eating right. That all went into it.

But yeah, at the end of the day, it's can you see it through; can you fight; can you be the stronger warrior.

Q. Finally, I'll get you with this one, there was an opportunity, the first one you had to deal with from Alan Pulido in the 23rd minute. If you wouldn't mind walking us through, you had to go to your left on that save, and just dealing with that target defensively that you have to constantly worry about, and also position yourself well while understanding your reactions, how does that work, and just, you make a big save early, it just sets momentum.

CHRIS BRADY: That was the diving one in the air to my left. Correct?

Q. Correct. Yes.

CHRIS BRADY: So you know, things that run through my head as a goalkeeper, just making sure I'm in the right line with the shooter, right as he touches it and watching film, we knew that Russell went in on the other side and you've got guys like Pulido and those guys, who they are looking to cut in essentially and either shoot or combine, and they did a fair amount of that.

As soon as he cut in, just kind of making sure that I'm in line with the ball and then reacting as quick as I can how the ball comes off of his foot. It happened to go to my left. It wasn't a curler necessarily. It was a strong shot. Just one that you really just parry to the side, and then making sure that right after the save, the guys on that opposite side are staying tuned in, and making sure that we don't give away possession.

That's kind of all that went into it.

Q. You talked about the mental side of things to see this game out, obviously it's pretty well-documented that you all have left some points on the table throughout the season in terms of giving up late goals. Is there anything tactically or from the training ground that you have done to tighten it up at the end of the games, or is it not making mental errors late?

CHRIS BRADY: It's a little bit of everything. I'll go through, first and foremost, the break really helped us, letting our minds reset, get off of the football and coming back into it, it was like a fresh start. So I don't think the guys, including myself, are really thinking about, you know, what may have happened in the beginning of the season.

Many people know that the second half of the season is a whole new season. The other part that goes into it is like you said on the training ground is working on kind of like tactical, situational things.

So maybe you're down a goal and how do you play with your team when you're down a goal and chasing, or you're up a goal, how do you defend that lead. Little things like that we'll work on. Obviously May was a busy month and didn't have too much time to work on the training ground on all of that.

But those are some of the things us as a team would work on just to perfect that part of the game.

Q. Is there a sense of maybe confidence within the group knowing that maybe y'all could have had more points so far if you just clean up that one part of the game late in the game; that you could really rise up the table quickly?

CHRIS BRADY: Even throughout the first part of the season, we knew that. It was just a big part of it was mental, and yeah, I think now, we are all in a good spot and good head space, physically prepared for anything. So yeah, I would say so.

Q. Carlos is back. What's the impact he has on the team both on and off the pitch when he's there?

CHRIS BRADY: Huge. I mean, it adds a great amount of strength to the back line. It's great having guys like Rafa, Wyatt, Kendall, 'Naud.

But yeah, when I saw Carlos come back, I was thinking, all right, this is a strong back line. We are going to do our job, and we did it.