SEATTLE REIGN FC vs. CHICAGO RED STARS POSTGAME QUOTES
Sunday, April 21, 2024 • Lumen Field • Seattle, WA
Seattle Reign FC Head Coach Laura Harvey
On her thoughts on the match:
“I thought first half we were indecisive and timid and when you’re playing against a player like Mal Swanson, you can’t be that way. Our quality wasn’t good enough and we gave it away and they transitioned on us and I thought both goals were poor from our perspective. I thought in the second half, we showed who we want to be, who we want to try and be – obviously some quality from Zee (Tziarra King), I thought the subs did well when they came off the bench. Five more minutes of the game and maybe we get an equalizer. I think obviously we had the momentum, but overall, it doesn’t matter at this stage, we’ve got to get results.”
On the team’s mentality and if it has been able to evolve this last year:
“I think our mentality is to always try and stay the same. We want to win games; we want to do it the right way. I think the issue we have right now is that we second guess ourselves at times and we get punished. I think in tough moments like this, you need to grind stuff out and unfortunately right now for us, we haven’t been able to do that of late.”
On the lineup changes and making substitutions at the half:
“I thought giving Emeri (Adames) a chance to start would be good. Obviously, Veronica (Latsko) has been coming back from injury and just having Jess (Fishlock) a little bit lower, I thought would be beneficial for us, and I thought she was our best player. I thought Jess controlled the game in the second half. I thought when she was able to dictate it, we got in the game and we were debating whether we moved her higher or not, but I think in that little lower position where she can decide when she wants to go higher, I think that’s when she’s at her best and I thought she did a good job of doing what we needed her to do today.”
On Emeri Adames:
“I think we know what her qualities are. I think we know that she will get in those spaces, I think, to go to the next sort of stage for her. It’s sort of end product now, she’s not going to get the same amount of chances she’s got playing in the level she was previously playing at. So, when she’s in and around that area, does she decide to shoot? Does she decide to cross? I thought, she made an impact today, for sure, but we know there’s more to come from her.”
On how she can look to veterans like Lauren Barnes and Jess Fishlock during tough times:
“They show up. I think they show up in different ways and today, agreed, I think they showed up on the field. You always know with those two that they’re going to be there for the team in whatever way they need to be and they’ve been through tough times with this club and come out the other side. So, they know what it takes. I think we just have to get on the same page collectively and what that is so we can get through this tough stage. Obviously, we haven’t had a run like this in a very long time, so turning a corner of that, but I said to the players at the end of the game, the second half – that’s who we have to be right now and is that the pretty football you saw when we beat Washington? No. But is it effective? Yeah. We had something like 34 crosses in the game. That’s who we are, but we have to take those opportunities, you can’t put 34 crosses into an opponent and not score from them. So, I think we’re just finding the balance of who we are and those veteran players just showing up in the ways that they do on and off the field, I think, will always push us forward.”
Seattle Reign FC Captain/Defender Lauren Barnes and Midfielder Jess Fishlock
On Emeri Adames’ performance:
Barnes: “Yeah, I think Emeri has a really bright future. She’s raw right now. She’s able to go in and play pretty freely and I think for us right now, in terms of trying to figure out what we want to do, that gives her time and space to do that. But I think she’s been great – she’s young, she’s come in, she’s coachable, is listening and trying to make an impact and I think that’s something that we can appreciate from her and I think moving forward, being able to just look at these games and continue to grow from that and I think she will be able to do that for us.”
On the challenges of trying to get out of consecutive losses:
Barnes: “I feel like this is sport in general right now. Honestly, we’ve kind of had a history of starting slow in this league and then finishing strong, so it’s really nothing new. I mean, obviously, you feel the pressure in these games and you want to win and you want to perform, but we need to start, like Jess said, looking at ourselves, being able to watch film, watch these games and make sure we can figure out why the second half of this game is completely different than the first and continue to build off that. Like she said, it’s there, we’ve seen it, we’ve seen glimpses, so we just need to figure that out and I think that’s a collective but definitely from the players and I think moving forward, that’s something that’s going to come from both of us as well.”
On playing more of an attacking role in the second half and if that was an adjustment or part of the flow of the game:
Fishlock: “I don’t really know. I feel like I was just really, honestly, just pissed off of what was going on. But I also feel like we definitely went out with a lot more energy, I would say, just from a – we’re 2-nil down, a little bit more aggressive with our press and kind of being able to win the ball higher up – you win the ball higher up and your midfielders can get the ball higher up and this has a knock-on effect. So, I think honestly, it was more about that than anything else. I was probably supposed to do that for 90 minutes. But thanks, at least I know I did it for 45.”