Chicago 2, Atlanta United 0: What was said

What was said following Atlanta United’s 2-0 loss at Chicago in MLS action on Sunday at Chicago Field:

Interim Head Coach Stephen Glass:

On the team’s focus tonight:

“We were looking to be aggressive at the start of the game, similar to the game against Dallas. For whatever reason that didn’t happen. I don’t particularly think it was Chicago being better than us, but I think we played into their hands and missed opportunities to go forward. That was really that. Obviously, they got the early goal and some confidence and started flowing through us. We didn’t do well enough to prevent the things they were good at that we’ve shown the group. As a group we weren’t good enough tonight.”

On Barco’s injury situation having missed his third game:

“He did modified training yesterday, he didn’t train with the group yesterday. He did modified training to see how much, if anything, he could give us in the game tonight, and he can’t. He’s not healthy at the minute, he’s still injured. The injury means he can’t play at the moment. That’s as straight forward as it is.”

On Emerson Hyndman’s performance tonight and plan going into the match:

“He was going to be the most advanced of the midfield three. That was the aim for Emerson tonight. At times, when Eric (Remedi) or Jeff (Larentowicz) went a little higher, we were looking to build with two sixes rather than a single one. I don’t think that worked the way we envisioned it happening. We didn’t get the rotation right, the movement wasn’t right and they dictated it to us. Which is why Emerson ended up recovering the ball more than what we had hoped going into the match.”

On the energy the team had tonight and how travel on matchday affects the team:

"The players put out a huge amount of energy on Wednesday. You could see by the fact that we were a player short on the bench, we are asking the same group of players to continue to go to that well and put in the workload. I think obviously it’s been limited how hard the group worked in games before our staff got in, but that’s been a factor. Then you are also asking players to keep producing without much backup, again we were a player short, the turnaround between Wednesday and Sunday took more of a toll than it should have. Second half we showed there was still some energy in there, but there was a lack of focus from the group as a whole in the first half.

As for the travel part, I don’t see that it should be an issue. We’ve seen other teams come to our place and give us trouble. To me, it’s the teams that cope with any kind of struggle the best, they will be the ones coming out on top this year."

On the struggles of winning on the road:

“When you lose goals as early as we have in first halves on the road, you give yourself an uphill battle. That’s pretty straight forward. I don’t think teams have out-played us to get their goals, it’s been more individual mistakes that are certainly avoidable. I think from there you’re seeing a group that’s short on confidence right now. When we get the first goal, you see them more confident. Unfortunately, when we lose the first goal, the belief in the group is not quite there at the moment. It’s got to change, and it’s got to change quick for everyone at the club.”

Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan

On the difficulty of traveling and playing a match on the same day

“There are no excuses. Other teams have to do it, so we need to find a solution. It is what it is. It’s the way the games are scheduled. It’s the way the protocol is going forward. It’s not an excuse plain and simple. We have to find a way to win games when we’re on the road.”

On Atlanta retreating in the first half after initially pressing to start the match

“I’m sure you can see the space, the gaps between our lines, the space that they had time to run into, time to pass the ball into, time on the ball, time off the ball. We weren’t good enough in those areas and we were getting picked apart. The amount of times that they picked the ball up at midfield and ran 35-40 yards to the top of our box… We didn’t have an answer tonight. I know the manager is going to back us, but us as players we need to step up and rise to the challenge. That’s not good enough, plain and simple.”

On what happened on Chicago’s second goal

“I forget how they actually get the ball in and around our box but eventually he plays a ball at the top of our box to the striker. He’s got all the time in the world to take a touch and pick a corner. I haven’t seen it back. I think Fernando at one point was stepping up but I was told that somebody else had kept him onside. But you have to defend when we’re 18 yards from our goal. We can’t be trying to play a guy offsides there. We have to defend. You look at the amount of times that there strikers got the ball in dangerous areas and had time: nobody up their backside, nobody shoving them, kicking them or confronting them and then you look at our attacking players, there are guys halfway up their back, kicking them into the 10th row, winning the ball, fighting, scrapping. We need to do that. We need to be stronger in the defensive third and not give them two-three yards of space to pass the ball and also receive the ball.”

Atlanta United Forward Adam Jahn

On Shuttleworth’s two saves on him tonight

“He made some great saves. I’ve got to tip my hat to him. He did really well holding his ground – his weight wasn’t shifted. A lot of times you’ll see goalies leaning, so if you hit it across their weight, they’ll have a hard time getting back to save it. He held his feet really well so hats off to him. I think we had those two opportunities and then Jake [Mulraney] had a pretty good chance in the second half there as well. So, on a different day, we have a different result. But it didn’t happen today.”

On what it says about his form since he didn’t play a lot under Frank

“I think you always have to have belief in yourself no matter what is happening, no matter what way the results are going. I’ve always been good at believing in myself and I was happy to get two good chances today – unhappy not to score. But, in other games, especially at this level, sometimes you only get one or two chances per game and it just goes to show you have to capitalize on it. As a forward, you have to have a short-term memory and move on as quick as possible because you never know when the next chance will come, and you have to be ready for it.”

On what the team needs to do to recapture confidence after allowing early goals

“I don’t know if he (Stephen Glass) already said this, but in this meeting tonight, and after the Nashville game, he said ‘why does it take us getting scored on to pick up the intensity?’ We had a gameplan to play in their half the first 10 minutes and play more direct, but we didn’t execute it. That led to an early goal given up on us. We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot by playing down 1-0. It’s tough enough to win as it is. We’re all really frustrated, and we have to go back to the drawing board and sort it out ourselves.”

On getting subbed out

“I don’t know. He felt a change was necessary and he’s the coach. I respect his decisions. I thought my intensity was higher in the second half and that one chance that I got – that the goalie saved – fueled me even more. I wasn’t fatigued. The weather was perfect. And if you ask any player, they’ll want to play the whole game. That’s how I felt. But I respect his decision, he’s the coach. He brought in Tyler Wolff and he was dangerous. He played a good ball into Jon Gallagher and it was almost a goal. I don’t question the coaches decision. We’re all on the same team here and we all want the same thing.”

On how falling behind makes his job more difficult

“It’s always hard playing down a goal. You have to chase the game a lot more and then you have to take more risks that you would normally if it was 0-0. And that opens you up to a 2-0 result. It’s always difficult to play from behind and I think it’s important to score first in any game – easier said than done. We have to fix giving up early goals.”