Head Coach Laura Harvey – Post-Training Press Conference • 2-10-23
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On the 2023 NWSL schedule:
“I thought, as schedules go, it wasn’t too bad. Last year’s was horrendous. So, it was only up from there. Yeah, just excited to get back out there, excited to be back at Lumen.”
On having Lumen Field as the club’s established home:
“Obviously, we always hope that there are more and more fans who come out. I think that’s always a biggie for us. But yeah, I just think making it home and making it feel more and more like home every game is so important. But honestly, it felt like that last year pretty quickly. So, just building on what was a pretty successful time down there last year.”
On how preseason is going and if there are any injury updates:
“Good, yeah. It was exactly what we needed it to be – hard work, honestly. Getting away a little bit as a collective before the international [players] went off to do their thing. I think, we did that last year and it was great, so to do that again was really important, I think. Yeah, we got out of it exactly what we need. So far so good on the injury front – obviously still with (midfielder) Angelina just rehabbing and the players are looking good. I think this is probably the longest preseason we’ve ever had as an NWSL, so I think it would be mindful of not doing too much too soon, but I think now after the California trip, this group needs to kick on a little bit while the international [players] are away playing games, leading into the Club América game.”
On the Club América partnership and preparing for the upcoming friendly at Starfire Stadium:
“I mean, honestly, I don’t know too much about it, but I think it will be really cool for the club long term. I think we played them last year in The Women’s Cup down in Louisville and I think the growth of the game globally is huge and to be able to partner with another club is exciting.”
On playing a game at Starfire for the first time in nearly a decade:
“I think, obviously, playing here was not great for us, honestly. No, it will be cool. I think the intimate setting at Starfire with the fans is always pretty cool. But yeah, I think the last official game we played here was the [NWSL] Championship in 2014, which didn’t end great, so we’re trying to get past that, I think.”
On the rookies and trialists:
“Honestly, they’re all doing really well and we’re just really mindful that we’ve got a solid group. I think that naturally when people first come into a group, they want to show everything, do everything quickly and thankfully, we don’t have to do that with these guys; they can take their time a little bit and again, like I said, I think now we can push them a little bit more. But, I think I’ve made this public before, I think we had like eight rookies last year, so a big thing now is pushing that group quickly and just making sure that the rookies and the newbies, this year, just feel like they can acclimatize as we go through preseason rather than it being like a 10-day thing that we have to make a decision on, so I’m happy about it.”
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