CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 3, 2026

Gregg Berhalter

Press Conference

Q. Curious, when you're a team that's in win-now mode, why was it the time to make an abundance of moves?

GREGG BERHALTER: Good question. I wouldn't -- I wouldn't say win-now mode. We want to compete every game and take one game at a time.

I think we have a balanced roster in terms of age and young players mixed in with older players. It's the evolution of the team. We want to keep getting better. Whether I look at the roster today, as opposed to a week ago, I think it's a better roster. I think we have more depth in almost every position and I think it's a strong roster.

Now it's time for us to keep going, keep pushing and keep building towards the end of the year.

Q. You made four signings that were announced in the last 72 hours. If you could speak about those and what you expect?

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, I mean, it's a ton of quality these four signings. We have depth, starters, you name it, we have it with these four. We're excited what this adds to the roster.

You know, the first piece was bringing Robert early in the window can concluded with bringing in these four players. We like where the roster is at. In terms of individuals, Andrés, played in Bundesliga, very good in duels. I think he's going to help in that area.

Anzor, two-way midfielder, good forward, good shot, good closing down the ball, good in duels, mobile. I think he's going to add to the midfield group as well. We were a little bit light in there.

And then with Johan, it's versatility. I don't know if I mentioned this before but he could basically play every position except striker -- center back and goalkeeper. We have a lot of positions covered with him. He's played all over the field. We got to see all those games, very competitive in Bundesliga and we think he's going to help our group.

Finally with Noah, we mentioned it in the press release, very good mentality, competitive mentality, started in the final, center back, position is left back but this gives us versatility, also, and I think he's a player with a bright future.

I think all of these moves are designed to make our group better.

Q. In addition to all the moves and number, Philip was given a new player designated contract. Prior to the old one. Sounds like the new one expires end of the 27 season. Why did you give him a new contract in this window?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think a number of players that had contracts that were made before the calendar change had this awkward period of when they end their contract.

We wanted to alleviate that with Phil. That was the reason for ending when it does. But in terms of the DP, you know, I have to commend Phil here because he had a tremendous year. He came in and blew away everyone's expectations about his performance. He's an All-Star. Over 15 goals and assists and had not been done in Fire history.

So he's breaking offensive records and he made a case to be a DP. We had a conversation in the off-season and I said Phil we're trying to make the team better. That's our objective. So we're going to need patience from you.

To his credit, you know, he was patient, and you know, he allowed us to make all the moves, basically that we wanted to make without putting pressure on us and we made the moves. We got everyone who we wanted.

And then we had a DP spot left over, and for us, it was the logical thing. Phil is performing well again this year. He's a very important player on this team. He's an All-Star again this year, and it's a case where someone has earned this designation, and congratulations to Phil and his family for his performance.

Q. How long do you think the new players are going to be in competition with all the teammates of the Fire?

GREGG BERHALTER: Noah played last week. He started -- went almost a full game against Montreal in their victory -- sorry, against Miami, with the victory against Montréal. He's in form and rhythm and knows the league very well.

And Johan and Andres, there will be some adaptation period. Anzor played I don't know how many games in August with the Europa League quest and beginning the league. So he's fully fit. As soon as we get him over here, the better.

And Johan went through full preseason and played games in preseason. All these guys are competing right way. Some may take a little bit longer to adapt but they will be competing helping this roster.

Q. Going into Saturday's match, Toronto has had an offensive struggle. They have the talent but struggled many times to turn possessions into chances. Where do you see the biggest opportunity to disrupt them?

GREGG BERHALTER: For us we need to have patience. They are a team that has not lost five games in the League. They are building some momentum. They have very good quality on the team. I know Josh and Richey really well. They have talent.

For us it's going to be about how do we stay compact and keep the ball at times and hurt them when we have the ball. We don't see this being an easy game. We see it quite the contrary. We see it being a difficult game and we're going to have to prepare.

Q. What has Robert brought to the group, and what struck you about seeing him up close as a player and a person?

GREGG BERHALTER: You know, it's really, when you work with Robert, you can see right away why he's played as long as he has and why he's performed at the highest level as long as he has.

We had two tough training sessions yesterday, and after he about a 45-minute finishing sessions alone with one of the coaches that he asked to set up involving running, sprinting, movement, not just scoring goals.

He's a guy that really understands his body and is physically fit. Think about all the games he's played for us without a preseason. It's pretty incredible. He's an ultimate professional. I think he leads by example. He shows guys who it's going to take to have that longevity in your career.

On the field, looking at his movement off the ball, even though he's not getting some of the passes, good movement in and around the penalty box, movement that makes sense in terms of what space he's attacking. He's been fantastic to work with, and the team is starting to pick up on him and his movement, and I expect him to keep getting better and better as we go.

Q. Does that rub off on the other guys?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think so. It's more of the process that would rub off on other players or is rubbing off on other players. His process is very detailed. His professionalism, his training, recovery, everything he does has a reason and I think that's -- other guys can see that if this guy is doing it, maybe I can be doing it, also.

Q. Has this been the most chaotic transfer deadline?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think the fact that it lined up with the European transfer window had something to do with the activity and I think it helped. Traditionally, our window ends before the European window ends, and players would sometimes be waiting to see if they had an opportunity in Europe. Now with the transfer windows aligning, it's easier to get players to come in.

For us it wasn't chaotic. We've been scouting the players for years. I think the complication with everything is how do you fit the pieces together, right. What pieces do you have to move on to make room for what you are bringing in? And I think there was some complications with that, but at the end of the day, everyone is in a good place now and it's time to get the team consolidated and ready to go.

Q. How much did signing a third DP impact the strategy?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think it gave us flexibility and we were prepared to play with Hugo. That's well documented. We wanted to see how it would work and it didn't work and gave us other options. It gave us flexibility to look at the market. We spoke to other DP-caliber players, and at the end of the day, decided to go the route that we did. Doesn't mean we won't make another move in the window, but right now, we are satisfied with the additions.

Q. You talked about the process of recruiting guys. Johan said that if you do the small things correctly big things will come. When you are trying to bring guys in, how important is it to find guys that fit that culture, especially now that you have a winning group and not trying to turn it around?

GREGG BERHALTER: Johan is an interesting player. When we watched him in the Bundesliga, a competitive league, we saw him playing wingback, attacking mid, forward. We saw him playing a number of positions, and what we noticed right away is there wasn't any visible dissent in playing positions. He's embraced every position and competed in every position and tried to focus on how he could help the team.

When you have guys like that, the biggest complication we'll have now for the remainder of the season is picking starting players. We have six good attacking players, and we obviously can't play all of them. We have depth on midfield that guys are competing to play. Everywhere on the field, we have good competition. And you know, so that's going to be the challenge for this group is how do we remain supportive to each other and remain pushing each other in training sessions and trying to elevate the legal of the team and if we can do that, we are going to be dangerous.

And that's going to be the trick of the coaching staff and of the players is how do we embrace this camaraderie and this team spirit that we are pushing each other to new heights.