CHICAGO FIRE MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 17, 2026

Gregg Berhalter

Press Conference

New England 1, Chicago Fire FC 0

Q. What is the feeling, given that there were was so much in the Fire's favor tonight, but you were a little happy to take those shots from distance.

GREGG BERHALTER: I think when you look at the game, when you look at the context of the game, it being the third match in a week, I think it's an amazing performance by the group. I'm never a big fan of celebrating a loss, and we're not doing that by any means. But the performance was outstanding tonight.

You know, to dominate the way we did says a lot about the group to put that type of physical effort, that type of intensity into the game. It says a lot about the team, and we were really close to scoring. Matt made a couple fantastic saves. Potentially could have gotten a hand ball, if you've seen the replay, and we end up losing 1-0. And that's the craziness of soccer.

Sometimes you just have so to swallow your medicine and go with it, but the effort was outstanding from the boys.

Q. Did it that make it easier to celebrate that you guys are in the postseason for the second straight year?

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, I mean, not really. To be honest, again, I have to separate the feelings of the loss versus the performance, and it's hard to sometimes. We're very disappointed to lose this game.

But we formed well. One of those things.

Q. So this is the first time that the Fire have clinched the playoffs this early, since 2003. Does that relieve some stress now, knowing that it's officially done and you don't have to worry about the next game?

GREGG BERHALTER: No. Haven't you been listening to my answers? We are higher aspirations for ourselves. We just lost an away game in a performance that we should win, and it's very disappointing. We conceded a goal that we shouldn't have conceded. We didn't concede much more than that.

But we're not celebrating. If you go inside that locker room, they are not celebrating. We are disappointed that we lost the game.

Again, amazing attitude. Very good performance. But at the end of the day, we go home with zero points.

Q. New England, kind of a similar situation, when you played them a month ago when they were very tough to break down the second half, and the ball just couldn't find the net. What makes them so difficult to break down?

GREGG BERHALTER: No, I think we had enough chances to score today. I really think we did. Our XG was high. We had enough chances.

I think the bitter pill to swallow -- we handled transitions well. They are a very good transition team. We handled that well.

We did most phases of the game, we did really well, except for one phase in the low block where we gave too much space in the penalty box, and we paid the price for it.

Q. So this is another loss against a team that are the kind of opponent that you think you may have to beat in the playoffs; and now that you're in, you know, is that the focus and how much of a challenge is it with you've got two more games against teams that are currently in a postseason spot for the rest of the season, to make sure that you're at the level that you need to be to perform against those kinds of opponents because again, that's got to be the focus for the next four games.

GREGG BERHALTER: Yeah, I see what you're saying, and I agree with it to a certain extent.

I think that the message to the team after the game was games like this against playoff teams, the margins are going to be razor thin and we need to do a better job in our finishing attack phase, scoring the goals and we need to do a better job in the low block phase, preventing goals.

Today we had one opportunity that we gave up in low block, and we didn't defend it. And then we didn't score a goal. We had enough chances. So I know what you're saying, and I kind of agree that, like, we need to understand what these games are about, and wore learning and we're going to continue to work hard.

Q. This was the fifth game in a row where Robert Lewandowski started and didn't score a goal. That's the first time it's happened in 15 years in his career in terms of league play. Do you think that you are getting him in dangerous enough areas and getting him enough of the ball, or you're also using him differently than he has in parts of his career in buildup and a little bit deeper.

GREGG BERHALTER: No, not really. I think he got enough opportunities today. We'll go back and look at it.

But a guy like him, he needs one or two opportunities to score a goal. Today he probably had four or five good looks at goal.

So we need to continue to work on it, and you know, as we prepare for the playoffs.

Q. So now you've got four games to go, teams that you should be beating. Other than the obvious than getting better seeding, there anything in particular you want to see in the last four regular season games?

GREGG BERHALTER: No, I said I thought the performance was great today. It was very good. We want to get better in front of goal. I think our pressure was good today. We moved into a high block, high pressure very quickly. We won a lot of balls in their half.

A lot of the performance was very strong. We are just going to keep working to get better as we move into the next part of the season.