Postgame Press Conference (vs. NJ/NY) • Sunday, May 21, 2023

OL REIGN vs. NJ/NY GOTHAM FC

POSTGAME QUOTES

Sunday, May 21, 2023 • Lumen Field • Seattle, WA

OL Reign Head Coach Laura Harvey

On her thoughts from the match:

“I think, we obviously started off very poorly. Credit to them, I thought they were excellent. We didn’t have a response to that. We played ourselves into danger a lot, didn’t realize it quick enough. Obviously two goals of theirs come from mistakes from us, but I’m not going to take anything away from them. I thought that they were up for it, they were on the front foot, they won first and second balls. They did all the things that you have to do in this league to be hard to beat. I think conceding early was tough, but even before the goal, we didn’t start well and then I just said at halftime, they needed to make a choice whether we threw the game away or we tried to get back into it. I thought in the second half, we dug in and we tried and we pushed, didn’t quite have quality throughout the whole game, but you can’t come in at 3-0 down and expect to be able to turn a game around.”

On playing from the left side and what her strategy was to attack Gotham’s press:

“Honestly, we tried to play down both sides. I thought (forward) Lynn (Williams) was excellent in how she pressed. I thought we made it easy for her to be honest. But, it wasn’t a strategy to go down the left. It wasn’t a strategy last week to go down the right. I think that’s part of what we need to solve right now is, teams are trying to make us do things and we’re falling into their trap. So, I just said to the players, I think we have to regroup, we have to decide what we want to do because, obviously, over the last two performances – and it’s leaked into other performances, I think – the sort of strategy that we’re trying to put together isn’t working. So, we have to decide collectively what we want to do to solve that and obviously we’ve got two big games coming up at home to try and do that.”

On the team looking shell-shocked from the early goal and what adjustments she made that helped the team play better in the second half:

“I’m not sure we were shell-shocked from the goal. Honestly, I thought we just started really poorly and we got punished and this league is tough and that happens. Second half, we showed up, probably the best thing. Like I said, I asked them at halftime, ‘You have a choice – you can either go and fight and prove to the fans that that’s not who we are, or we can accept defeat and let the game go and I thought we tried.’ I thought we put on a better performance in the second half. I thought we were sharper. I thought we looked like we wanted to compete a little bit more. So yeah, we definitely had a bit of a better second half, but the game was won at halftime.”

OL Reign Midfielder Jess Fishlock and Forward Jordyn Huitema

On her thoughts from the game:

Jess Fishlock: “Yeah, just not good enough, really, not good enough from any kind of perspective. Same as last week, really, we got bullied last week, outplayed last week and it was the same kind of thing today and we have to really look at ourselves and ask ourselves, what is going on and what is happening and why are we playing this way? Why are we slow to everything? Why are we not really on the same page with anything? It’s not who we are, it’s not our principles, so we have to just really be honest with each other and figure out what is going on. Now, hopefully, we’ll do that, get back on the training field and figure it out before next week.”

On what’s causing the recent struggles within the team and if it has to do with their mentality:

Jess Fishlock: “I think that’s what we’ve got to figure out, at this point. I don’t think it’s a mentality thing, I don’t think it’s – I know this group and we’ve been together for a while now and it’s not that we don’t want to work for it, it’s not that we don’t believe in it, it’s not that. But there’s something, obviously, that’s just not kind of clicking right now. So, the only way we’re going to get through this is staying together and talking to each other and figuring out what we need, what each other needs, what can we give to each other and not separate, not be individual, that’s not going to work. So, for us, it’s just – we trust each other, we know how good our players are individually and collectively, so it’s just sitting down and talking to each other and figuring this out together, collectively, sticking together, getting on the training field and finding the solutions to the problems. So, I’m confident that we can do that with this group.”

On what was said in the locker room after this loss:

Jordyn Huitema: “After games like this, I think we don’t talk very much. I think it’s just – we all are hard on ourselves; we push ourselves to the max. We’re all top athletes and I think we know it wasn’t good enough, so I think we all take our own space and look into ourselves to figure it out first and take time before we then collectively come together and figure out what we need to figure out. I think that, now, there won’t be a lot said in the locker room, it will be a lot of silence, probably, and just for us to kind of figure it out individually, watch the game back, feel the game back and then come the next few days, collectively, come back together and start solving everything.”

Download here: Postgame Press Conference (vs. NJ/NY) • Sunday, May 21, 2023