Chicago Fire Head Coach Carlos de los Cobos

On the match against New England:
“We were against a different opponent today, and New England just played better than when we last played them in the League. We lost and it’s a difficult situation. No one likes to lose matches – the fans, the club, the players, but this is the reality. We’ve been having difficult times in the past few weeks. We are paying the price a team pays when in the process of building a team. I know the current situation is uncomfortable, but in my experience in soccer, the only way to get out of the down times is to continue working. Sometimes it’s necessary to understand that it’s takes a lot to learn about these clubs and players. Unfortunately, making mistakes is a part of the equation. I know the players are giving 100% out there but we’re just not mature enough to be a winning team. We are playing with players that don’t have consistent playing time; we feel players’ absences like Patrick (Nyarko) and Baggio (Husidic) Our team is young and needs to mature but fortunately, we’re not far from the playoff spot in the League. My goal is to reach the playoffs this season.”

On whether his system and tactics are compatible with the MLS:
“No, that’s a great question but I’m convinced that good players are always capable of adapting to various systems and tactics. Like I’ve said, we have players that did not play last season and that is making it difficult for them to adapt to these situations.”

On the goal:
“The ball was in Kwame’s (Watson-Siriboe) possession, a good player who has a future in soccer. His performance tonight was much better than the previous matches, but he is a rookie. Unfortunately, he lost the ball and New England had a chance. Marco Perovic’s strong strike surprised Sean (Johnson) Though we controlled the whole game, they were efficient when it came to the last touch.”

On the Fire missing opportunities:
“Sometimes when there’s pressure, there is room for mistakes. We create opportunities but the last touch will depend on the player’s capability.”

Chicago Fire Forward Stefan Dimitrov

Discussing the game:
“Definitely disappointing for us and most of all, for the fans because we haven’t been performing well lately. There was different formation on the pitch or different players and something was missing and we didn’t look dangerous at all. It’s disappointing to get out of the tournament without that big of an effort, so we are disappointed.”

About playing few minutes this season:
“It’s definitely hard because practice hasn’t been easy, in the same time, I think I have been there showing myself regularly with a good level of performance. I’m frustrated being there and seeing not so many minutes. So, hopefully, I will get some more in the future.”

About injuries on the team:
“Unfortunately injuries might bring me on the field and one way or another I have to show and be there whenever I am called upon.”

Chicago Fire Defender CJ Brown

On Nery Castillo:
“You look for somebody new, somebody fresh to come in and hopefully spark the group. It’s going to be exciting for Chicago, a Mexican player coming in. That always brings a lot of fans too. So, hopefully, that brings a little more spirit for the team and brightens the fire a little bit, no pun intended.”

“I watched him back in the Gold Cup. If it’s the same guy I am thinking of, he was awesome. But I haven’t seen him in a while, but if he can bring what he brought there, then it’s going to be great for us.”

“We definitely can’t depend on him to come and change it around. The signing is to help the team get better and bringing him in will do that. It will also spark the rest of the players to fight harder to keep there spots. I think it’s a good thing, we need some fresh feet out there.”

On Castillo’s past attitude:
“I think it’s going to be great. You always want someone with a little attitude and hopefully he can spark it on the field. That’s what we were always about. We fight when we need to fight and we play when we need to play. And if he has that attitude, you look at Blanco, Blanco had the same type of attitude, Nowak same attitude. So, I think it will be good for us.”

Whether Castillo will be what is missing from the Fire:
“It’s good to have a guy come in that has some attacking ability, if he has a spark and an attitude that will also be good. And we need to fight a little bit more.”

Chicago Fire Defender Kwame Watson-Sirboe

On the game:
“I think I played a lot better than the first game. I think it is still just being confident, playing confident and also staying composed. The coaches helped, my teammates helped. I think I did decently. Obviously I made a mistake on the goal but I think I can still make some improvements. I tried to trap it, play composed but he just got a touch on the ball nicked it away and counter attacked and scored a goal. I think I could have cleared it, used my body to get a little more space. But it’s a learning process so hopefully next time I deal with the same situation in a different way.”

Discussing the confidence of the team early in the game:
“I think the confidence comes from us not really putting too much pressure on ourselves. When we all relax we are a really good team. When we stay relaxed and we stay composed, we can beat anyone on any given day. I think today we forgot about the Morelia game that result and tried to concentrate on the game.”

New England Revolution Head Coach Steve Nicol

On the game:
“I happy that we won it at all. Obviously with fresh legs, it helped. But, there’s no air, so when you make the run, it takes 3 days to try and get your breath back. So it makes it hard on the wide guys. Don’t waste your energy on the back runs.”

New England Revolution Forward Kheli Dube

On the goal:
“As soon as you lose the ball, you try to get the ball back. It’s what you want to do. It could have been anyone else, just try to win the ball back. It just happened to be that I won the ball back and got a goal. “

On not scoring many goals this season:
“I think I am getting chances and I think in a couple weeks I will start getting goals. It’s frustrating as a forward but you have to do other stuff too. If you’re not scoring goals you’re not helping your team winning games so that’s why I am just trying to stay focused and as soon as I start getting goals everything will be fine.”

New England Revolution Defender Chris Tierney

Thoughts the game:
“We want to win our groups so we play at home, that would be big. That’s what can happen when we spread the field, pass the ball, we are just smart. We played much smarter tonight. We made good decisions and that’s what happens, we are definitely on the right track. We won 2 in a row at home, but it was going to be a great test coming here. And I think we implemented all the stuff we did at home, that worked for us and I worked here too. If we keep playing this way, we should start turning things around and getting better results.”