BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. – In the wake of the Chicago Fire’s third defeat in five games, there was, understandably, much soul searching evident amongst the team’s players and coaching staff.
Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the LA Galaxy, in front of a record crowd at Toyota Park, was the Fire’s second defeat in four home games, and prompted captain Dax McCarty to suggest the team were “below average” and “lacking a little bit of quality all over the field.” Meanwhile, head coach Veljko Paunovic insisted the team was “growing” and “getting better,” showing “more fluidity” and creating “more chances.”
With a couple of days to ponder and dissect the performance and the reaction of both his players and the fans, Paunovic remained upbeat despite sitting third from bottom in the Supporters’ Shield standings with a 1-3-1 record, and with two tough road games on the horizon against the New York Red Bulls (Saturday, 3:30 pm ET | Univision, Twitter — Full TV & streaming info) and Toronto FC.
“Basically we are saying the same things, but I am the coach, not Dax,” Paunovic told MLSsoccer.com. “What he said, it’s his perception, but I’m the coach, I see more than any player and anyone around me and the most important thing is that when we say there are improvements, we have some positives from this game, we are not saying we are above average, there is no contradiction. We are saying the same things but from different perspectives, me as a coach and he as a player. And when he says we are below average, well probably we are below the average in some things, but we are not below the average in others.”
While the Fire have already matched last season’s two regular-season defeats at home, the team has been robbed of several key players through injury, which has meant some players, most notably midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, playing out of position.
Center back Jonathan Campbell was one of those injured players, but he returned to the starting lineup for the first time this season and impressed as he went the full 90 minutes after suffering an injury in preseason.
“What Dax is saying is that we did relatively well on [Zlatan Ibrahimovic], but then we turned off for a second and allowed him to sneak in a goal, and that’s partly a lack of quality, right there in that moment,” Campbell said.
“So I think what he’s saying is those small moments where it matters in a game, if we can turn those little things around and add quality in those precise moments, then it’ll look a lot better because we do have better options overall, like Pauno’s saying,” he added. “I think it’s maybe that final pass, or that connecting pass in the midfield that we’re missing right now, where if you get that the whole game opens up. So I think we’re right in between.”
Fellow defender Brandon Vincent found the merits in both Paunovic’s and McCarty’s statements, and took a reasoned, diplomatic approach in summarizing his thoughts.
“It’s tough to say, I guess it depends,” Vincent, who has played every minute so far this season, said. “You can find positives in any situation and you can find negatives in any situation. Being realistic, we want to be optimistic and it’s just finding a balance between the two to know where we’re at and also not get down on ourselves and make it a vicious cycle downwards. We want to keep pushing forwards, so you can see both sides.”
Paunovic, now in his third year managing the Fire and on the back of the club’s best regular-season finish since 2008, is resolute in his assertion that he has the tools to get the Men in Red climbing the table.
“I think we have to just stick together, work on improving, getting better, fixing things,” he said. “We are obviously not happy with the performances so far, but we believe in what we are doing, we believe in each other, I believe in this group, I believe in our capacity to fix things and, most importantly, I believe in myself. I know that I can fix this and I’m 100 percent that I’m going to do it.”
