CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 19, 2026

Gregg Berhalter

Press Conference

Chicago Fire FC 2, Orlando City 1

GREGG BERHALTER: Really proud of the effort today from the group. I think when you look at the mentality and everything we had to overcome today, the guys did an incredible job. You had residual fatigue from the heavy fixtures. You have heat of Orlando. It was 95 degrees during the day today. You have a weather delay. You have them coming back in the game and equalizing. You name it, we had it in this game, and it just shows how strong the mentality of the group is.

Really proud of the effort today, and all that means is that we have to turn around and do it again in two days. So here we go.

Q. You gave David the start today. He gets his first MLS assist. He played well in Leagues Cup. What did you see from him and why did he deserve this opportunity?

GREGG BERHALTER: You know, David has been training well. He's shown he has the quality, the skill, the technique. He's a soccer player, and when you put him in midfield, he's able to retain the ball, and I think he's able to make plays.

And, you know, we're a little bit concerned about the defensive side of it, but I think he did well. He hung in there. He kept good shape a couple times. We lost a little bit of shape but overall he did a good job.

Q. Puso and Robert got the goals. Can you speak to each of them today and their quality.

GREGG BERHALTER: I think we had opportunities in the first half. We had opportunities all game, and I think that we could have played the final pass a little bit better. I think Robert could have gotten in the end of some better crosses.

But you know, it didn't stop their effort. You see the penalty play that led to the penalty. It's an amazing, amazing play, amazing dynamic from Robert, and it shows his quality. And it's up to us to get him the ball in positions that he can do things like that.

With Puso, he's difficult to play against. He's a live wire. He times his runs very good and his finishing has improved. He's been a revelation for us this season.

Q. In the beginning, you guys started aggressive but after the 1-0, the team seems kind of defensive. I don't know whether that was part of the plan, or are you guys trying to play counterattacks attack? You played Lewandowski high.

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, the plan was to absorb; absorb what they have, and then when we have the ball, be productive with the ball. And I think that second part we didn't do well. There's times we could have kept the ball more, kept them running, and we didn't do that.

So I think that part of it was, okay, we're going to get in a intoes shape. We're going to be difficult to break down, but when we have the ball we have to really hurt them. And I thought we could have done that a little bit better.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the defensive effort, specifically in the 78th minute, Dean did a really good job of tracking back and really cutting down the angle for Griezmann, but it was entire squad effort. So what you saw from the team.

GREGG BERHALTER: We were put in some uncomfortable positions, and we had to respond. The guys did a great job of that.

You know, that play you're referencing I think was our own set piece and they get through. And Deano, we knew he had the speed to recover, and he did a great job.

But overall, you know, the guys bent but they didn't break, and that's important. I thought we had a good shape defending the penalty box. Maybe a couple times we left the far post open but other than that, I think we did a good job.

Q. How are you feeling about the team's winning mentality, undefeated in a few games, and how is the feeling of having the players come in and feel up the spaces of the other players that come out and do an excellent job on all the positions that you have?

GREGG BERHALTER: That's key to what we're doing right now. You know, our solution is being able to come in and not drop the level. I think we've rotated a lot over these last games, four or five players each game, and you don't see the level drop that dramatically.

You know, that is absolute key right now. It's the full squad contributing. I think it's a good feeling. But you know, like anything, we're still hungry for more.

Q. Curious if you have any update on Philip Zinckernagel. We saw him training yesterday but did not travel here to Orlando.

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, he took a knock in the game, and he started training and had to pull out. I think he'll be okay. We'll see. TBD.