CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2026

Gregg Berhalter

Press Conference

Chicago - 4, Toronto - 4

Q. 4-4, not a result you see every day. What do you think caused this game to be so wide open like that and goals at both ends and such?

GREGG BERHALTER: The feeling in the locker room was disappointment, and I think that's a good thing because we expect to come here and win and we didn't do it.

So what we talked about was the focus in the end of the game. We got ourselves back into it, we took the lead, and it was really about how do we prevent that one attack that they had at the end? And we didn't do it well, and they ended up getting the tie.

For us, it's we've got to be better defending, we've got to be more compact. Offensively, we're creating enough. We're doing enough to score goals.

Q. Josh Sargent scored a hat trick. Anything in particular that made him more difficult to contain for you guys?

GREGG BERHALTER: He's a good finisher. He's a great finisher, we know that. He's a top striker in this league.

We have to do better on the opportunities. The clearance on that corner kick is not good enough. We lose our mark. That's two things that happened on that play.

First play is a ball from George. It's a good ball, but we've got to be in a better defensive position to deal with that. Third goal shot from distance, we give him too much time at the top of the box.

You name it, there's a number of corrections that we can do on these goals, and it can be better.

Q. Gregg, curious what do you want the team to take from this three-match road stretch where there have been good moments and tough moments but this team has found a way to get results on the road?

GREGG BERHALTER: I think that it's about our expectations, right? In this game in particular, I want them to feel the disappointment, understand the disappointment, because we should win that game. We played well enough to win the game.

They didn't have many opportunities. It seemed like they scored on every opportunity they got. I think their xG was 1.2, and they scored 4 goals. So that's tough. We have to be stronger. We have to be mentally stronger.

I think that's the biggest lesson for us because we're a good team, and if we get our defending right, we're a very dangerous team.

Q. If I can ask you about an attacking player, Maren again finds a way to contribute both on and off the score sheet. What is he doing for this group right now?

GREGG BERHALTER: Maren is an outstanding player, and he's in great form. When you look at our attacking weapons that we have, he's in great form. That's why he's playing all the time.

When you have competition in the squad, all you can ask is that your attacking players perform up to their level, and Maren is certainly doing that.

Q. Noah Allen comes in with the red card to Rogers in the second half. I wanted to know if that was a planned substitution and what you thought of his first performance.

GREGG BERHALTER: No, what we were worried about was the potential for a red card for Sam, right? We were worried about the foul right before halftime. In my opinion, could have been a second yellow, and we were worried about that, and we didn't want to take any chances. So we put Noah on.

Noah, when you look at his performance, you can understand why we brought him to the club: Relentless player, aggressive, fast, physically strong, not afraid of duels, good on the ball. He's got a lot of good qualities, and he played a good game.

Q. Dje D’Avilla had a really good game today at the base of midfield. How important is it for him to get this confidence when you know he's playing like he is?

GREGG BERHALTER: He's another guy that's really important to the team. He has very high level games. I thought at times he was excellent today, but when you think about collectively the team giving up four goals, you look at a lot of the defensive positions and say, okay, what could we have done better on these goals? And he's not excluded from that.

I think we need to get back to strong team defending ASAP.