CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2025

Gregg Berhalter

Press Conference

Chicago Fire FC 5, Inter Miami 3

Q. You came here last year, came to Chicago need to go rebuild the organization, needing to revamp things. You just qualified for the postseason, the first time this team's qualified for the postseason since 2017, two late goals from homegrown guys. How are we feeling after such a big win for this club?

GREGG BERHALTER: Well, first of all, congratulations to the entire club, the staff, all the players, for all the hard work they put in this year to reach one of our objectives.

But I think there's more to it, and we're focused on more, and I think it's a great moment to enjoy right now but it's a quick turnaround. We need to play on Saturday again, and we want to keep climbing. For us, it's a nice accomplishment. But we need to keep going and finish the regular season strong.

Q. Javier said just now that he took full responsibility. He felt that he made the wrong game plan, basically; that he was expecting one thing and something else happened in the game. Can you just talk about what your, what was your game plan coming into this game? It was obviously a game both teams had a lot to play for but the first half, you guys really did, even though you didn't have control of the ball, you had control of the game at halftime. What was your thought going into this game about how to stop this team?

GREGG BERHALTER: It was about spaces, trying to control spaces and then trying to exploit spaces behind their back line. You know, you never know how the game is going to turn out but it was really important that we keep building on the momentum that we had and that the players dig deep.

We knew we are going to have to dig deep because of the weather, because of the quality of the opponent, and I'm probably more proud of the second half because things were tough. Things were very difficult. And the guys didn't break. So it's a good sign from the group.

Q. We're going to chat more tomorrow but this was a roller coaster of emotions in terms of the score. I want to know what went through your mind that second the final whistle kind of blew?

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, so I think proud, proud of the group. Proud of the resilience of the group. You know it's never easy when you surrender a two-goal lead and they tie it up. It's never easy when you watch the quality they have and you hold your breath every shot they take, every combination they have.

So it was really a moment where you got to say, okay, well done boys. You did well. They tried hard. They stayed together. You know, they battled on two days rest to have that type of performance, just really proud of them.

Q. First of all, congratulations for the playoffs. I want to ask, the goals for Chicago for the playoffs, and what was the plan to stop Messi and all Inter Miami stars during this game?

GREGG BERHALTER: You know, the beauty of MLS playoffs is that once you get in, anything can happen. And you know, I'm not going to sit here and tell you our new objective is to win it all but our objective is to compete, every series we're in, every game we're in because you know that can lead to an opportunity. That's all we're looking for is an opportunity to compete.

Happy for the club. Happy for the staff, all the hard work they put in all year. Happy for the squad. It's a good accomplishment but only the first step.

Regarding the game plan, it was to make the spaces small. He can still operate in very tight areas. So the more we can condense space in and around our penalty box, the more difficult we make it for them. But still a quality player. Still had a number of opportunities. And sometimes you also need a little bit of luck.

Q. What happened when they made the defensive substitution in the game just after the game was tied 3-3? What happened in that moment? Because Chicago won the game.

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, I'm not going to fall into that trap, commenting on another coach's substitutions. He makes decisions based on what he thinks, and it is what it is. I'm more concerned about our group and our team and our games.

Q. I want to talk about Justin Reynolds, after the year he's had, the ups and downs, the uncertainty, first game since April and he scores the winning goal. What's the significance of this moment for him, your decision to put him into the game and what it means for a home grown to score that decisive goal?

GREGG BERHALTER: I had a long conversation with Justin this week about his year and about what we would need from him moving forward. It's really about waiting for your opportunity. Being focused. I think showing the right training habits. I think he's been better in training for these last couple weeks, and he earned the opportunity.

But I think really proud of him and the way that he entered the game and his output by scoring the goal.

But when you look at the whole squad, if you think about the five goals that were scored today, probably four of them were the most unlikely goal scorers on the field with Johnny Dean, D'Avilla, Justin Reynolds, the fourth one is Romi, right. So it was really a team effort and that's what we talked about.

I talked to the team about before the game, everyone is going to need to dig. Everyone is going to have to go to the limit. When you get four goal scorers like that, I think it shows what a team effort it really was.

Q. Just to expand on that a little bit, there were four Fire homegrowns on the pitch at the final whistle, plus Gutman came up from the academy. What does that say about the identity of the club being players that come from Chicago that have Chicago in their blood?

GREGG BERHALTER: That's an important part of our team composition. We love to have players that the fans can identify with that are from the local area that know what they are playing for. It's a really important part of what we do.

You know, we invest -- the owners invested a ton of money in the academy. He really believes in the academy, and moments like this really validate that.

Q. Pretty big congratulations. I feel like the last time this team qualified yet, they didn't even have Apple TV yet as a streaming platform. Can you reflect on some of the people who haven't experienced this? For this year it's a monumental day but guys like Joe Mansueto who purchased this team and has not had a playoff, or guys like Zach Thornton and Frank around there. Do you think about them and feel a little bit of joy that you made something happen that they haven't, at least that Joe hasn't experienced, and then the fans, of course, for so many years?

GREGG BERHALTER: Absolutely. When you have an owner like Joe Mansueto, you'll do anything you can to be successful because he's such a supportive person, such a great guy. Deep inside of me, I really wanted to do something like this for him and really wanted to win a championship for him.

What he's doing for the City of Chicago, with our training ground, with our stadium, with investing in our roster, it's really incredible. And then you know, proud of the whole staff. When we started in January, it's been a lot of hard work and a lot of long hours. You know, we have very high expectations for everything.

To reach one of your objectives that is a nice accomplishment, but I can't emphasize enough that we need more, and we need to perform well in our last two games and see if we can keep climbing in the table.

Q. Right now it's my opinion, I don't have the numbers but I think Chicago Fire is right now probably the best team in the League in terms of the form that you have and how you are reaching out. When everything began in January, February, that was the plan you had on your mind to reach October in this good state to face the playoffs, it's not the first time that a team that is coming for above can't fight for a title. I don't know if it was your idea in the beginning.

GREGG BERHALTER: I think, and Joe will definitely support this statement but we really look at game-to-game and we really try to keep building throughout the year and try to improve every single week.

So when we started in January, we knew the end product was not going to be what we were seeing in January. We knew there was a lot of hard work and you want to build the team and build the cohesiveness and build your playing style. We know it takes time. But you know, we never got carried away. It was just about continue on in that process of training hard and instilling the principles of play every week in training and continue to build.

Q. Do you mind to elaborate a little bit more of the concept of spaces between lines as part of your game plan today?

GREGG BERHALTER: You know, it's really about we knew we were going to sit back a little bit. We knew we wanted to limit the space between our medicine field line and our back line. That was really important. The compactness was huge because it gives your back line a chance to be aggressive when the balls get played in there. It gives your midfield distances to recover and turn and pressure the ball.

So we feel like once you play inside of that line when there's little space, you can have players attacking you from both sides trying to defend the ball.

Q. Did you notice Jonathan's celebration after he scored?

GREGG BERHALTER: I did not.

Q. That was him announcing him and his wife are having a baby.

GREGG BERHALTER: I love it.

Q. Did you know anything about it? How do you react to that?

GREGG BERHALTER: No, we did know about that. We said congratulations a while ago. But it's great news for him. Great news for his family. As you work with the team, you start to get to know the families and get to know the wives and the kids, and that's what it's all about, building a team.

I will end by saying two things that I didn't get to say. The first thing would be Maren's performance. He got the Man of the Match, the Coach's Man of the Match, and he's a guy that had to wait and wait and wait for opportunities but he always stayed positive. Always had a good mindset. Always came to training with the idea to keep getting better. He finally got a start. He's playing out of position and he performed extremely well. So really proud of him and his attitude.

Second thing would be, I'm fearful, but I think we're going to have some terrible news about Andre Franco, and we're going to have to get the medical report tomorrow. But it's not looking good. You know, our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. Thank you.