Vancouver Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson
On the match:
“They're a good team. They took their chances. We made some basic fundamental errors which you can't do against a good team. Arguably they're the most in-form team at the moment and you can see why. Credit to Chicago, they deserve the three points today, but we need to be better.”
On finding some early chances at the start of the game:
“The game is about fine lines, but the first goal usually is crucial. We had a chance probably before they scored but the first goal is a bad goal from our point of view. The second, the third, and the fourth goal, we were chasing. No complaints from me, they were the better team today, they deserve three points, we have to go back to it, and think about Wednesday.”
On keeping the Fire contained:
“We didn't contain them today, so I can't tell you how. The key players are Juninho and Bastian Schweinsteiger, they run the game. We tried to stop that, once the first goal goes in, the dynamic of the game changes. Part of the game plan was to stay in the game. The longer it goes, we feel we could hurt them. We did have chances but we didn't take any. They deserve a lot of credit today, they're in good form.”
On what he said to the team in the locker room:
“We try and win the second half. Very rarely for a team that's losing three-nothing comes back to win the game. I wanted the next goal to make it interesting. We had a couple of chances with Fredy when he came on, but as the game wore on, towards the latter part of the game, obviously it was a counter attacking game, and it was either going to be us or them who scored the fourth goal. Credit to them, they did it.”
On Nicolas Mezquida making it back on the field and what he saw from him:
“Attitude and energy. That's what we didn't have in the first half. We were there and we were running beside people, and I thought we weren't making contact. We were playing in probably second gear. You can't do that. The league is very tight. No points today, we lost three points. We need to learn from it.”
On Yordy Reyna's debut:
“He nearly scored. We are talking about three or four players that nearly scored. They were very clinical, Chicago. It was nice to get Yordy back, the plan was to play him for 30 minutes, he's still nowhere near his fitness level. You see what he brings, a different type of play, especially in the attacking areas. It's nice to have him.”
On the match on Wednesday:
“We just have to regroup. I will pick the best team that I think will win the game. I want competition for places. It's really important because it brings out the best in players. They'll all be looking over their shoulder after today.”
On Matias Laba's red card:
“I haven't seen it again. Usually I joke with the referee, when I play with this ref, I always play with 10 men. If it's a red card, it's a red card. So no complaints but disappointing because at 3-nil down, it’s always hard. The easy thing to do is make a silly challenge.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC forward Fredy Montero
On being down 3-0 before the first half ends:
“It is tough one. We were planning something better for this game. We knew what kind of players they were going to put onto the pitch. Unfortunately we had two early chances that didn't get into the net. As I have said before at other games, games are changed by goals. They scored the first one and they had motivation. Obviously they're at home and they kept scoring two more in the first half.”
On combining with Nico:
“Coming back from that injury, I think he wants to play and he has the hunger. You can see him in practice and I am glad he had the opportunity to play today. He's a great kid and I know as much as the team needs building confidence back, he's going to play even better than he was showing today.”
On Reyna making his debut:
“He is kind of different, he has a different quality. It's good for the coach because every single game is different. So depends on starters he will use and he had to put the players on the pitch. The team is happy that all the players are getting healthy. The competition inside the team is getting higher and hopefully we will reach our level at the end of the summer because in this part of the season the play of the teams starts to [separate] from the others.”
