Toronto FC 0, Chicago Fire FC 0
Q. There were chances tonight. What do you think of the performance?
BOB BRADLEY: Created a lot of chances, especially in the first half. Needed to get going -- by halftime. Second half, they sat a little deeper and we were not able to create as much -- some of the final moments, and then we probably didn't give enough in some of our set pieces tonight. Also important when a team is sitting so low, especially in the second.
Q. Inaudible.
BOB BRADLEY: Like a lot of guys, the first half, on the right side -- we created a lot of stuff on the right side the first half. Where they played, we were able to play quickly down the right side. Find good combinations and movements between Richie and Fede. The movement down the right created a really good moment when Aimé played a great pass to Kosi. Kosi's ball crossed to Deandre's just a little too hard.
I think there were a lot of good actions that came through the right side especially the first half.
Q. Creating chances, big scoring chances, do you think a lot of it came down to the inability to finish?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, tonight is a night where we had enough chances to win, and as I said, especially in the first half, you have come in with the lead, but there's -- if you create that many chances, don't give too much away. You can't take three points.
Q. Do you guys feel like you have any positives?
BOB BRADLEY: Whenever you play a game like that and you have those kind of chances and you don't take three points, there's already a level of frustration, and you tack that on to the fact that right now we need three points every time out. But there is still a sense of the good things that happened in the first half and the chances that were created, and now the idea is can we continue to create that many chances every game.
Q. Is it getting to you?
BOB BRADLEY: Sure.
Q. Shaqiri, high standards -- when you look at -- how were you able to sort of trim down --
BOB BRADLEY: It was a team effort, he was in a lot of spots. He doesn't play in one spot. There's recognition where he goes. He especially likes to move out on the right side so that he can chase in on his left foot on that side of the field. Kobe did a good job on a number of occasions.
Lorenzo came and helped a lot on that -- in that regard, so I thought the understanding of what we needed to do to deal with Shaqiri was quite good.
Q. Why were they able to elevate again and again against --
BOB BRADLEY: He's a good player. He's had a mentality that he still tries to compete at the highest level every game, push himself, set good standards for others. You know, that's what it's all about. So he's been -- I've recognized him actually probably if you went to the last five games. I've probably spoken about Richey before the five because that's the level that he's brought into the team pretty much night in and night out?
Q. It's been another into the like many this season. Can you go on doing that? And I guess there aren't any alternatives, but does somebody have to step up?
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, but let's just talk about generally as a team our ability to create chances and attack and get all of our attackers in better positions. That, also, is important.
But if you look at, we had the run early in the year last year where the and a half where Jesús scored goals and from that moment on, regardless of who we played, we have not gotten good production from the nine as you pointed out.
So we've tried different things. So for now, yeah, here is the group of guys, and we'll continue to try to figure out how to get a night with stars. You're always hoping somebody is ready to step up, somebody is ready to -- Deandre starts tonight because last game he had a good game, right. So it's an opportunity for him.
C.J. is a good pro, so he's been around and has in his career come in around the 60-minute mark many times and made a difference. That's what we were thinking today?
Q. Other players get their minutes in -- step in, what do you think of him overall?
BOB BRADLEY: I think I've also mentioned that Aimé has excellent for a player who has just arrived, picked up on ideas quickly, established himself with his teammates, his defensive understanding of situations. He's very smart. He's smart on the field. He reads situations well. And then there's little things with the ball that we just need to continue to work on.
But as I mentioned, he made a really good pass to Kosi, so he sees more of the right situations and he can make more of the right passes. And now I think on the ball, it's just a little bit more confidence.
Q. Matt can deliver a nice long, ball, too.
BOB BRADLEY: Yeah, Matt is a good player so they can mix up passes. They can play in the midfield they can play the right passes the out wide, and they do have the ability to hit some of the longer passes.
You hope that your ability as a team to find the right passes, mix up passes, we talk about sometimes. So that different situations, when the other team is flying as high, sometimes the right pass over the top of the right diagonal. The only criticism I would have in the second half tonight. At times I thought our ball movement was too slow. Too slow.
Q. Now you played Jahkeele --
BOB BRADLEY: His mobility in the midfield has been good. He's getting more confidence in terms of dealing with all sorts of situations around him when you play as an outside back, obviously thing are pretty much in front of you, and now you get in the midfield in both attacking situations and defending situations, you have to keep track of more things, and the way a player gets better at that is being in those situations more and more.
So I think he's also getting more confident and his given us some good, has played pretty well lately. Hopefully we can keep building off it.
Q. Haven't had the best record in terms of away games -- how do you build after this --
BOB BRADLEY: I would say our mentality in all of our away games has been good, other than the mistakes against Philadelphia where that game got away from us. I think we have gone away and still found ways to keep things tight. I would always say in some of those situations that we don't create enough.
So what we will talk about for this game is we have had good mentality when we've gone away, we have been hard to play against, we have not given away as much but now the same ideas that got us more chances in this game, we have to have the confidence when we leave here and go to Minnesota that we are going to play can create more chances like that again.
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FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports