SEATTLE REIGN FC at ANGEL CITY FC POSTGAME QUOTES
Friday, September 6, 2024 • BMO Stadium • Los Angeles, CA
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On her overall thoughts on the match:
“After they scored, I thought our first half performance was really good. We created enough chances to score way more than we did. Obviously the third goal really helps and it was tough at the end. I think we’ve probably not been in a game where we’ve had to sort of defend at that level for a while, where the team is just putting a ball after ball after ball in the box. I think I messed up a little bit, but I’ll reflect on that. But really proud of the group, I thought they dug in. We haven’t had much luck this year – I’m not saying any of the stuff that happened was luck, but I do think we deserved a little bit of the rub of the green after some of the things that have happened to us this year. Yeah, just really, really proud of the group, to be honest.”
On Tziarra King and what she brings to the team:
“I mean, first and foremost, she’s worked so hard to get into the position she’s got herself in and she’s got herself there. Me and Zee have had a lot of conversations over the – however long I’ve been back now, since I came in 2021 – of like, we’re both sort of sitting and talking and saying we feel like we’ve just been missing this one thing for her to really take the next level up and I think in recent months, she’s done that. I think she has to take all credit for that. I think her mentality’s changed. I think the thing she’s always been brilliant at and the reason why we know we can rely on her is, she really understands how we need our forwards to defend and she executes it. I think, in previous years, she could maybe execute it for 20 minutes. Now, she can execute it for 75, 80 minutes, which I think says a lot about where she’s at. I’m always really happy when players like that get the reward that they deserve by scoring some goals. I honestly think Ana and Jordyn and Zee bring a real defensive presence to our team that you need in this league, you can’t have forwards who don’t defend. I thought all three of them tonight did a great job of making that as difficult as possible. The fact we scored two goals in transitional moments, I think is a real positive for our team because that’s something that we prided ourselves on in some really positive years for this team in the last couple of years and we haven’t really done that as much of late. But to do that tonight was great.”
Forward Ana-Maria Crnogorčević and Forward Tziarra King
On the team’s resiliency and being able to win six points in six days from the last two road games:
Tziarra King: “Stepping up big time. I mean, it’s just goes to show the depth that we have right now. Everybody that comes off the bench has helped contribute to the wins or stepped up for a start. We’re super proud. We’re obviously really riding the momentum that we have right now. We just hope that we can continue to carry it through the rest of the season.”
On their connection for the game-winning goal:
Ana-Maria Crnogorčević: “To be fair, I just saw Jordyn, I was like, I missed it, and then all of a sudden, I was like, there’s someone else. I was a little bit scared because I don’t know if Jordyn touched it or not.”
Tziarra King: “Yeah, I don’t know if she tried to steal that goal from me or if she was offside. I don’t know, it was crazy, but she came up to me after and was like, ‘I think I might have been offsides,’ and I said, ‘Why did you touch it? There was no chance it was not going to go in,’ but it was all good. I mean, if she gets credit for it, it’s OK, I still love her, just a little bit of beef.”
On having defensive responsibilities for this game:
Tziarra King: “I mean, we had very clear assignments going into the game. I think we both executed them well. Ana came up to me at halftime and was like, ‘I’ve got to go here and there and then I’ve got to do this,’ and I’m like, ‘We’ve just got to keep going, girlfriend. I know this is crazy,’ but I’m proud of us. I’m proud of us. The last two games we’ve had some pretty big defensive roles.”
Ana-Maria Crnogorčević: “I mean, just the travel is hard, the temperature. Even yesterday, we couldn’t even practice because it was too hot. We had to cancel the practice. So, you also have to have that in mind. It was hard to prepare for this game, and I think to come here, get three points, it’s a big credit to the team.”