Seattle Reign FC vs. Utah Royals FC Pre-Match Press Conference • Thursday, July 18, 2024
Head Coach Laura Harvey and Defender Ryanne Brown
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On playing in a new tournament and playing Utah Royals FC in back-to-back games:
“Excited to be at home. Excited to give some of the younger players a chance to play a little bit more. Obviously, same opposition. Really excited to play against a different opposition next week in Tijuana, so that will be fun. Yeah, just a chance to see where we’re at. I think some of these players have been desperately wanting to get on the field, so this is their chance to come and shine and I’m excited to see what they can do.”
On what she’s looking for from the players during this tournament:
“Honestly, just go out and enjoy it, really, go and enjoy having your opportunity, take it for everything you can take it for and show why you should be on the field. That’s what their job is. It’s frustrating that we play on Friday because it means we don’t get access to all of our international players, but the opportunity side of it is that it gives opportunity to a lot of our squad who don’t tend to get a lot of minutes. So yeah, we’re really excited to see what they can do. Excited to see what it looks like with a little bit different line up. Yeah, we’ll see how it goes. So yeah, I’m just really excited to see how the players respond and how they can go about implementing the things that they’ve been training really hard on for the last couple of months.”
On who will be available for the match:
“Yeah, we’re OK. Lu (Lauren Barnes) will probably not make it for Friday. Honestly, I think if this was back in league games, we would have probably pushed her to get back quicker. I think we’re taking our time with Lu. I’m not sure you’ll see much of her during the Summer Cup so we can get whatever’s going on with her right for the back end of the season. But outside of that, no Jess, no Haz, no Lily, no Ji and everyone else is available. Oh, Jordyn and Quinn [are not available], obviously.”
On if this tournament is a chance to reset and make a late push for the playoffs:
“Yeah, I think in [20]22, we went to Louisville and played in the Women’s Cup, which was really, I thought, a really big part of our Shield-winning form and success in that. I think the Challenge Cup – you know, I’m very vocal that I’m really disappointed that we don’t have the Challenge Cup anymore. I really thought it was a huge part of being able to utilize our roster last year and in 22 to give those players who don’t get to see regular season minutes a lot, a real opportunity. So, do I think that it can be a propeller for the rest of the season? Yeah, potentially, I just think the difference this time, the schedule has just not been built great. I think the game being on Friday, then the next two games being pretty close together back-to-back, it doesn’t lend towards us being able to do what we would truly want with development of the players, but we’re going out to try and do the best we possibly can – win the group, we want to try and get into the semifinal and go to Kansas, we want to try and set those targets for ourselves. That’s definitely what we want to do. And if we can do those things, I think it can really help us propel our season forward in the back end of the season, for sure.”
Defender Ryanne Brown
On playing in a new tournament and having last week off during the CBA break:
“I think we’re feeling pretty good. I think we’re really excited for this tournament. I think it gives us a really good opportunity to kind of hone in on some of the things that we’ve been working on prior to the CBA break. It also just kind of gives some of the players who haven’t really played much a little bit more of an opportunity and we’ve got a really talented group of players. So, I’m really excited to see that.”
On getting more minutes recently and how she feels her development has been this season:
“For me, it’s just really been about trusting God and His plan for me and just kind of doing my best to prepare myself for when my name is called. I feel like it’s a really long season, so it can be really easy to check out, but I feel like our team provides an environment where we push each other to work hard every day. I think that really helps us for whenever we step on the field, so that’s really what I’ve been trying to do. I think it’s been kind of paying off.”
On playing Utah Royals FC in consecutive games and what she learned from them in the previous game:
“Yeah, I feel like Utah’s a great team. I feel like they’re really good in transition, so that’s something that we’re focusing on as well. But really, it’s just kind of like playing our game – finishing our chances, first and second balls I feel like are really important to us and just doing our best to kind of control things.”
On if this tournament is a chance to reset and make a late push for the playoffs:
“So, one of the things we were just talking about yesterday is, we are, I think, seven points from the playoff line. So yeah, we definitely want to push for the playoffs. That’s not out of the picture. But yeah, I think these, like I said, I think these three games and hopefully more than three if we advance, I think definitely gives us an opportunity to, like I said, work on the things we were trying to do prior to the playoffs. But yeah, we also just always want to compete in these games. We’re really excited. It’s just another opportunity to get better. So yeah, we’re really excited for that.”