SEATTLE REIGN FC at BAY FC POSTGAME QUOTES
Sunday, April 14, 2024 • PayPal Park • San Jose, CA
Seattle Reign FC Head Coach Laura Harvey
On the positives from the game despite the result:
“I thought Emeri (Adames) was great when she came on, we know that’s what she can do – she has great service. I thought the ball in, what ended up being (Bethany) Balcer’s goal, I think Ji (So-Yun) gets a really good touch on it too – I couldn’t really see from where I was – and then I mean, that cross is amazing for Veronica’s (Latsko) goal. So yeah, she was excellent and obviously we’ve been taking our time with her; she’s a young player, she just got back from Germany with the U-20s, so she’s got minutes behind her, which is great. You saw her impact. I thought Liv (Olivia Athens) did really well. I think we needed a little bit of a different outlook out there towards the end of the game with Veronica and Emeri. They are different types of players than Liv and Jess (Fishlock) or Ji and Liv, the ones that were playing out there. So, I thought both of them impacted well today.”
On her early thought process on how the team can turn around this losing streak:
“I think being back home is something we have to sort of pull on, for sure. I just think, today specifically, I thought – it’s been different things in each game, honestly. I thought Chicago, we just conceded goals that aren’t the things that we want to do. I think San Diego, we defended really well for long stretches of the game. I thought today, we got played through too easily. I thought when Quinn and Jess went back there, it got a bit more solid for us. But yeah, we gave them too much opportunity today to get momentum on us, I thought, which then meant when we were actually in the —–, there were patches of the game where we had really good momentum, we couldn’t keep that going when it became a defending moment, which is frustrating because I think that’s what builds our base of making us the team that we are. So, I think getting back to who we are, getting back to the things that we’re good at, I think are critical – training together is going to be vital, we haven’t been able to do a lot of that lately and putting together a performance that will take care of a result next week at home because again, massive, massive game next week.”
On if there is an update on the injuries of Claudia Dickey and Jordyn Huitema:
“No, I don’t have either. I haven’t even seen Claudia (Dickey) since she came off the field. She went straight into the locker room. No, I haven’t got any update on either of them.”
On how the team can bounce back next week against the Chicago Red Stars:
“I just think getting back to being us. I think being good at what we know we need to be good at – defensively solid. I think we gave them too many opportunities today, which is very unlike us, so I think getting back to that and a little bit of understanding and quality when we’re higher up the field, even after the disallowed goal by us and in that injury time period, we could’ve, I think, made better decisions on the ball at times to really cause them a problem. We played some good stuff at times today; we had some chances. Obviously first half, I think (Bay FC defender) Alyssa Malonson made an unbelievable tackle on Balcer to keep the ball out to make it 2-nil and if that goes in, you know the game probably changes, but I think it’s those things right now, we’ve got to be ruthless in both 18-yard boxes and we say this all the time as a group. So, I think just getting back to those little things and those little bits of detail are going to be really important for us.”
On how the international players felt throughout the match:
“I mean, they did as much as they could, I think. Yeah, I just think they did as much as they could. So, I thought they did all right.”
Seattle Reign FC Forward Emeri Adames and Forward Bethany Balcer
On their thoughts on the match:
Balcer: “We lost, that sucks. We’re just having trouble getting points on the road right now and that’s very frustrating. I was really proud of how we came back, we put two more goals in the back of the net, one unfortunately got called back, so I think our response was good, but we shouldn’t let it get to that point. So overall, it’s just very frustrating and deflating, but if I know anything about this group, it’s that we’re resilient. So, we’re definitely excited to get back home and play in front of our fans again and have a little bit of an advantage there.”
Adames: “It’s definitely hard for me to see my teammates give everything and still not come with the result, but just knowing us, we’re going to bounce back. We’ll be fine.”
On how she and her teammates mentally go about handling this loss and the string of losses:
Balcer: “As I said, it’s deflating. I think what sucks is when you are giving everything and it’s still not enough. I don’t handle losses well; I hate losing, it’s the worst and it just sucks when you can’t win – everyone loves to win. So, I think there’s a lot to learn from losses and we can dwell on that for the next 24 hours, but we’ve got to get right back to work because we know how crazy this league can be and we know how many points it takes to win the Shield and that’s what we’re after and each game is just a stepping point to that. If we were playing our best right now, we’d be concerned. So, I think we just need to take everything we can from these games and move forward. The mental toughness of this team is great. We’ve got great leaders and I think we just need to keep carrying this team forward and everyone just lean into their roles and lean into this tough because that’s the only way we’ll get through it.”
On the positives from this game:
Balcer: “I think our first goal, we talked about it at halftime, it was from great build-up play. When we’re good, we’re really good and that can be seen on our field and it was seen through our first goal today, it was an own goal, but it was created off really good football, so that’s definitely a positive. I think, as you said, the subs coming off the bench really gave us a good impact that we needed and like I said, the response – we could’ve put our heads down, we went down 2-1, but we didn’t and same thing when it was 3-2, but we didn’t, just unfortunate we couldn’t walk away with points.”
On what worked well to get the team going later in the game:
Balcer: “I think it’s been two weeks since we’ve played together, people are coming back from international break, so it’s just a little rusty to start, kind of shaking off the dust, so I think that’s why maybe it wasn’t as clean as we wanted. But yeah, I think as the game goes on, you obviously grow into it, there were definitely opportunities in that first 20 [minutes] that I know I should’ve put away and things like that. So, it’s definitely about how you start. We always talk about setting the tempo right away and we did with the goal, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to continue that through the 90-plus however many.”
On how she has grown as a young player on the roster:
Adames: “I think I’ve really enjoyed getting just the few minutes and I really just try to make as much impact as I can, but I think it’s really good for me that I do have to show up every day at practice and earn my spot, it’s not just a given from what I’m used to at club level. So, I think that will really make me grow as a player.”