Toronto 1, Chicago 4
Q. John, you were missing some key pieces but that was a pretty disappointing performance. What went wrong tonight?
JOHN HERDMAN: Yeah, I think you saying disappointing, that's an understatement, a real understatement.
I think for the fans personally apologize we weren't up to our level tonight. While there was effort on different parts of the field and opportunities, we gave goals away tonight. At home.
And we've, you know, we've discussed this. We got to be on it at home. It's got to be an identity our fans can be proud of. I think that's the first night in my time where I've really shared probably the disappointment to the fans.
I always look for the silver lining, whether it's the effort for being tough and creating opportunities, but tonight I thought we were flat. I thought we were flat tonight. It's -- I don't know whether it's the week off or the guys underestimating Chicago. I don't know. It's very raw at the moment.
We had some conversations in the dressing room, but it is very raw. We share the disappointment for the fans, I think the players do.
Yeah, we can't see that again. We've got three days to turn this around. The real us have to show up on Wednesday. The real us have to show up on Wednesday. Because that wasn't you had.
Q. You mentioned the silver linings. Is there anything positive? Anything you can draw?
JOHN HERDMAN: Not at the moment. I'm just angry. Really angry. Frustrated, angry.
None come to mind.
Q. Were any of the four goals that Chicago scored today acceptable?
JOHN HERDMAN: None of them were acceptable. This has been our trend. At times you got to put the ball in the rosette. We're trying to not make players in our own -- right now I think for us, we keep talking about that maturity of a championship team.
You know, was talking about Chiellini putting to ball into the rosette, and (indiscernible.) And having those to let the team set that you've earned this. And having and managing those moments, that's just one situation. I don't know. I'm emotional. I'm really emotional about this one. Never been in this disappointed in the 30 years of my coaching career with women, men, youth teams, whatever.
This one sucks.
Q. Some uncharacteristic (indiscernible.)
JOHN HERDMAN: I don't know. I mean, maybe a week off. Maybe coming in with a different focus. They've kept some clean sheets, had some good away results. Maybe just got ahead of ourselves.
I don't know. Maybe we thought it was going to be easy tonight because when we looked at Chicago, we recognized they were a tough team, but didn't expect because they didn't have a massive threat because that's not been the team we have seen.
Maybe we took them too lightly tonight.
Q. How much of a missed opportunity, given you guys are entering the next stretch? Something you can use to light a fire?
JOHN HERDMAN: We got to win Nashville; that's it. This is gone. The real you better show up. The real us better show up on Wednesday. We owe the fans. We owe them. Because that's -- it's effort.
As I've said, the one thing I want these fans to always feel, that we would never give up, we would always give them our everything.
I didn't think that tonight. We looked collectively as a staff, technically did we get it wrong? Should we have never give them a week off? Did we take a week off and think it was going to be easy? We'll look at ourselves. We'll do this collectively.
But I have asked the individuals to take a real deep reflection on what they put out there in their effort. That's all I can question these players. I'm not going to question the bravery and whether a guy gives the ball away, but did they put the effort in.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports