Seattle Reign FC vs. Chicago Red Stars Pre-Match Press Conference • Saturday, April 20, 2024
Head Coach Laura Harvey and Midfielder Angharad James-Turner
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On playing Chicago for a second time so soon and her takeaways from the first time the Reign played Chicago this season:
“I mean, playing a team so twice so early in the season is wild to me, to be honest. I’m not sure how the algorithm works to create a schedule. But yeah, I feel like you should play pretty much everybody before you play everybody else but tends to not be the way. So yeah, I think you can take a lot from playing a team so close together. I think there’s things that we can take away from that game that I think, actually, we’ve tried to do in the last two games that we’ve played. We didn’t create enough opportunities against Chicago to win it. I didn’t think we allowed them to create too many opportunities either, so I think what we’ve done in the last two games is created more, especially in the last game, and we defensively talked about being more solid against San Diego, which I think that we were and then we’re just trying to find that balance right now. I think, how do you find the balance between creating or scoring and not conceding? I think that’s our big takeaway going into tomorrow.”
On if she takes a different approach to this game after losing three consecutive games or if she treats this game as any other game:
“Honestly, every other game. I don’t think our mentality shifts and changes, no matter what the results are behind us. I think that’s what makes teams successful – the most important game is the one you’re about to play. Yeah, getting a result is obviously huge for us. But I think on top of that, it’s in increasing our level of performance at this stage of the season is what we’re really focused on and I’ve said this forever – if you do that and you get your performance levels right on both sides of the ball and in all aspects of the game, you have a better chance of getting results. You may get results across the board at times if your performance levels aren’t low, but if you want consistency, you have to focus on the performance level first and then results tend to take care of themselves as you go on. So, I think we’ve been slightly unlucky with some of our results so far, but I think we all believe that we have a little bit more in us performance-wise, so I think focusing on that has always been our main topic.”
On the team focusing on mental health and how important she feels mental health is:
“I think as a club, we’ve done a good job of that, to be honest. Ever since I’ve come back, there’s been support mechanisms in place for athletes to be able to access needs around sports psychology, mental health provision, which I think enables players like Boats (Bethany Balcer) to feel safe enough to voice that publicly. I feel like, for a lot of athletes, they may have the support or may not have the support, but I think one of the pieces why we don’t talk about it as much is people don’t feel too safe to say out loud and I think that’s a credit to the environment that this club has created is that not only do players feel like they have that support mechanism around them, whether it’s within the club or they’ve got external support, but I think they also feel safe enough that they can voice if they are struggling or how they’re feeling and what that means to them and we have pretty open conversations, individually and collectively, about that stuff. So, I think, does it help our athletes? I think, yes. Do I think Boats is trying to impact the wider community? I think so, and I’m sure she’s doing that.”
On Claudia Dickey and Jordyn Huitema’s injuries and how the squad is doing:
“Yeah, we have no new injury updates outside of those two. We’ve actually signed a goalkeeper replacement player for Claudia because she won’t be available this weekend. We don’t really have a long timeline on her, but it was definitely something that we needed to solve in the short term and both of them are working back from their injuries, but not available this weekend.”
On becoming an American citizen and how difficult the test was:
“I’m going to say I breezed through it, but I will give credit to my support mechanisms because my partner, (Head Assistant Coach) Scott (Parkinson) especially, were really helpful in helping me practice for the test. It’s not that easy to do, but if you can memorize it, it helps. In fairness, the team sort of got involved, too, and started to help me out, so I will say I got 90 percent out of the test. So, I only got one wrong out of 7. So, not bad.”
On being back home at Lumen Field after being away for three games:
“Obviously, our home form has always been something that we’re very proud of, appreciative of. I think it’s the stalwart of what makes a season for you as a team. So, being back at Lumen is exciting. Yeah, we haven’t been there for over a month. We have one more little road trip out east next week and then we’re at home for quite a while, which is nice. So yeah, we’re excited to get back in front of our fans and put on a show tomorrow and I think, I look around the league and what’s happening, and I think one thing you know with us is it’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be nail-biting, normally, unfortunately for the fans, but I think we’ll put on a show tomorrow and hopefully we can get a positive result.”
Midfielder Angharad James-Turner
On if anything feels different for her in her second stint in the NWSL:
“Not really. I think that the league is obviously growing and I feel like it is a stronger league than when I was here before, where the league is attracting players from all around the world and everyone wants to come here and be a part of this league and I think it is definitely growing and it’s something that I wanted to be a part of and that was one of the big reasons why I wanted to come back and especially here to the Reign, it’s such a big club that’s been so good in the past and hopefully we can create some great memories for the future here, too.”
On how she is enjoying Seattle:
“Yeah, I’ve definitely settled in. I really enjoy the city. I enjoy putting the jersey on every week and like you say, it’s definitely helped having some Welshies here with me. I’m really enjoying my football at the minute; it’s taken a little while to adapt to the style of football and to really work on the areas that I need to work on to be able to be the best I can be for the team and whatever role that is. I’m excited to be here and hopefully we just take strides together as a team, now moving forward. It’s been a difficult few weeks for us being on the road, but now to be back at home this weekend is really exciting and it’s one that we’re all looking forward to.”
On what it’s been like playing under head coach Laura Harvey:
“Yeah, it’s been great. I’ve worked with (Head Coach) Laura (Harvey) before previously while she was at Arsenal and I was a kid at that point coming through and I learned a lot from her at such a young age and to meet again now, at a different point in my career when I’m a little bit more experienced, has been nice. I still learn an awful lot from her each day – her tactics and stuff and whatever questions I have, she always answers them as if she knows the question is coming. So, it’s great to work under her and she creates such a great environment here, where everyone takes accountability for themselves and she doesn’t need to do that half the time, we’ve got a great group who all strive to be the best they can be and I do believe that with her and this group that we can do big things this year.”
On what the team has been focusing on this week:
“I think it’s been a difficult few weeks – there’s never an easy game in this league, everything and every game is a challenge and we’ve looked back at the last game and the last previous games and we’ve been back on the field this week, working hard in our formation and what that looks like. We’ve been adjusting ever so slightly in the last few games and I think we’re beginning to find that consistency in areas and maybe it’s just not being able to do that for the whole 90 minutes, switching off at key moments in the game and if we can cut those little moments out, I think we’ve got a real prospect here. Like I said, we continue to work hard in the week, we’re preparing now for this weekend’s game and Laura sets us up in the way that she feels that we can go out and win the game and we all trust her and believe in that process and hopefully we can do that this weekend.”
On what she thinks the team did well against Chicago earlier this season and what are some things she thinks the midfield needs to do well to stop their threats:
“Yeah, the game in Chicago was a tough game. I don’t think we as a team were at our best in that game. We’ve learned a lot – we’ve looked back at the clips from that game and how we set up and maybe tweaks that we can make for tomorrow’s game. As a midfielder, I think that their midfield is definitely a strong midfield in the league and I’ve played with and against some of their players who are in the midfield. So, it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s one that I think that we’ve tweaked little areas from the last game and hopefully we can go out and perform in the way that we know we can, especially in front of our home crowd that gets behind us and we’re really looking forward to that.”