CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 23, 2025

Gregg Berhalter

Press Conference

Philadelphia 4, Chicago Fire FC 0

Q. Just curious, what made it so difficult for you guys to get offensive leads at the start?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think it was lack of movement. Lack of connections. A very disconnected team. Not switching field quirk enough. Playing on one side. Playing into their pressure. Overall, extremely disappointed with the performance tonight.

Q. Is there a way that this needs to be -- what this team needs with seven games --

GREGG BERHALTER: It's just surprising to me that with the stage set like it is and what's on the line for us to have a performance like that. It is the most disappointing we've been with the group this year. You know, we're having to talk about things like competing at this stage of the year, and that's an issue.

Q. We know what the XG was -- inaudible -- what was the problem defensively?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think all different types of goals, right. We identified crosses as being a key area where they excel in. We didn't deal with the cross on the first goal well. Set piece while opening up that close to goal is always trouble. You know not clearing balls properly, clearing them back into the middle, the fourth goal.

It's just really a series of errors, and give them credit because they were relentless and they played and they never stopped competing, and they deserved to win the game. When you look at XG, you know, being what it is, it's not good.

Q. If you do make the postseason, you'd have to face -- inaudible.

GREGG BERHALTER: I wouldn't even go there honestly. We're focused on next game as the most important game and that's it. That's a luxury problem to have to think about, and you know, for us, it's really about having a good couple weeks of training, preparing for our next opponent.

Q. Wanted to get your initial thoughts on Franco.

GREGG BERHALTER: We only had him able to play 20 minutes. So the we pushed that a little bit. It was needed in the game. You can see he has quality. You can see he has understanding, game understanding. He's a player that will help us.

Q. You've called the people off the bench solutions before. Dean came on at halftime but no other substitutions until about 20 minutes left and the team was already down 2-0 at that point. Do you think that the impact you saw from the subs could have been maybe amplified if they were brought on earlier, especially it looked like Acosta had a pretty solid game in the 15 minutes or so he was on.

GREGG BERHALTER: I think the game changed by then a little bit. The opponent changed by then. You know, it's always difficult timing solutions when they come in. I think we could have changed a number of players at halftime but there's also some credit that players build up over time.

I talked to a couple players at halftime and said, okay, we need to rethink this and refocus and give them that opportunity to refocus.

For us, we knew André was limited with his minutes, so we knew he wasn't come inning in until 70. Dean could have come in earlier and we waited too long on that one. For us, it's about getting the group back up and running and confident again.

Q. The players that you talked to at half, the goals went in after that but looked like the performance picked up in the second half. How do you think they responded?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think there's a key moment when we had a chance and we hit the post, right, and it's 1-0, and I think when that goal goes in, you know, the game changes, and it didn't, and that's the nature of the game and we know that.

It still doesn't take away from the fact that we are bitterly disappointed with our performance, and even if we would have gotten something out of the game, that performance wasn't nearly good enough.

Q. Thinking back to the response of the team after Nashville, do you think it will be similar?

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, I mean, listen, it's just about getting back to work, and for me, it's refocusing on what each game needs to be successful. Today we needed battlers and we needed guys that were going to win duels, win first balls and win second balls, and we didn't have that today.