Pre-Match Press Conference (at ORL) • Thursday, July 6, 2023
OL Reign Pre-Match Press Conference • Thursday, July 6, 2023
Head Coach Laura Harvey and Midfielder Olivia Van der Jagt
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On if the team has a plan to start more aggressively:
“I wouldn’t say it’s a plan. I would say it’s something that we’ll always try to do. I think that’s something that when we start well and we do start on the front foot, it tends to reflect in our performance and our results. So, is there ever a specific plan to make sure that happens every single game, is what we would want that to be. I think it’s hard to put in perspective how difficult it is for one team to come off the back of travel and a game within two days and the other team to not have to deal with that is something that you can’t put stats to it to show why it’s impactful, but it truly is and the fact that it was such an early game for us, but for their time zone, it’s not an early game. For me, we didn’t help ourselves in how the game was scheduled, so I think, does coming on the East Coast and playing in – whatever we trained in today, 90-plus heat – make that difficult to start on the front foot? Maybe, but I think it is always something that we want to try and do.”
On the mentality of the team:
“We’ve been very purposeful in how we’ve prepared for this period. I think you always want to try and prepare as best you can the players who don’t start every game to make sure that they understand the roles required for when they do either come on in games or get their opportunity to start and I think what this group is showing is that they’ve taken that responsibility on, they’ve been accountable for that and I think that that means we have a chance of being competitive in this period, which we always know with this club, it’s tradition that we are up there with the most amount of players going to any World Cup at any time, so the challenge that that brings is that you have to have depth and you have to have a roster that’s willing to take that burden on when these players aren’t here. The good thing about this group is they don’t see it as a burden, they see it as a true opportunity and they’re taking it, which I think shows a lot about this group and the mentality of this group, for sure.”
On the threats Orlando Pride presents:
“I said to the group, this week, I think this is the best Orlando team I’ve seen, with their full squad, I think it’s the best team that they’ve had. They have threats in multiple areas on the field. They have pace higher up the field. They’re willing to move the ball around at pace and they press and they make it really difficult for the opponent, so I think we have to be prepared for that. You’re right, it’s exactly the same as last year, really, where we’re on a decent little run of form results wise and they’ve probably put in arguably their best performance of the season last week against Washington. So, we come in knowing that and we come in knowing that the game is going to be tough. I think the big thing for us is to make sure that we don’t give them anything. I think back to last year and we sort of gave them their goal a little bit and then we were on the back foot and we had to sort of fight our way back into it again, I think that’s something we want to avoid because when we’re chasing the game, the work rate and the effort has to be even higher than what it is when you’re winning. So yeah, always a difficult environment to play in, but I do think that this team that they have right now is a real threat.”
On the team’s fitness:
“I would say the break is coming at just the right time for us. We’re definitely going to be wrapping a few people up and hoping for the best tomorrow. We’ve played a lot of games in a short period of time – to think the amount of games we’ve played since the end of March is crazy. So, we have a couple of people that we’re still not sure if they’re going to be available tomorrow or not. But again, we know that we brought everybody with us, everyone that’s available on the roster is here in Orlando and one of the reasons for that is because we’ve got a lot of question marks over some of our players and whether they can play or not. I think playing three games in a week, two of which were on different types of turf, was challenging. So, we’re hoping that we can push through for tomorrow and get, obviously our aim is to come here and get a result but obviously on top of that, try and come out of here injury free, too.”
On midfielder Jess Fishlock and if she’ll play in this game and the game for Wales two days after:
“Honestly, the conversations we’ve had with Wales have been, we don’t mind if (midfielder) Jess (Fishlock) takes part in the game, we get it, it’s a cool opportunity for them and for her, but we need to get through the game on Friday first and then make decisions off the back of that. So, she’s happy with that, they were happy with that, so it made sense to do it that way. We’ll see how she feels tomorrow and then make decisions on what her involvement, if any, will be in the game. We hope that she feels good and she can do a little bit. It may be that she’s not quite ready to go back-to-back so quickly. So yeah, we’re just literally playing every day as it comes.”
Midfielder Olivia Van der Jagt
On what she thinks the team needs to do to prevent Orlando’s threats:
“I think we need to be really good at preventing transition and just kind of stopping their threats higher up so that it doesn’t come to that point where they can use their threats against us, so I think in the midfield, a big thing will be preventing transition and of course, winning first and second balls just to counteract that.”
On the importance of maintaining momentum before the break:
“I think it will be important for us to just go into the break on a positive note and just keeping up this momentum that we’ve had. We had a big week last week and now that we are without our national team players, I think it will be really important for us to make our mark going into the rest of these next couple months that we’ll have without them. I think, yeah, it’ll just be big for us to, like you said, gain that momentum going into the break just so we can kind of take a deep breath, relax, get our days off and then come back ready to just go again. It’ll be nice to get some time off, just with the schedule that we’ve had, but I think it’ll also help us just stay motivated just going into the games after the break.”
On being near the top of the table in both the regular season and the Challenge Cup and the entire roster getting more opportunities to earn playing time:
“I think we’ve done a really good job of – kind of something we always say is, it’s a whole team effort, it’s not just people who start and play lots of minutes or people who don’t get a lot of minutes. I think it’s a whole group collective, Challenge Cup and regular season, that we need every single person and I think that’s kind of the mentality that we’ve had this whole year is that it takes everyone, so everyone has to just put in their best effort and do what we need at training and games and everything is for the team. So just doing what we can to prepare for not only Challenge Cup games but also regular season.”
On having two other players from the University of Washington:
“Honestly, it’s been really fun, just having teammates who we’ve known each other for a long time and just that connection you already have and bringing it here, I think it’s been really special for us and also having teammates now around the league, it’s really fun to see. Yeah, just knowing people and catching up and yeah, it’s been really fun for all three of us – me, (defender) Shae (Holmes) and (forward) McKenzie (Weinert) – just to compete not only at the collegiate level together but then to come here and we kind of have our support system, so we’re always there for each other. Yeah, it’s just been a fun, cool thing for all three of us.”
Download here: Pre-Match Press Conference (at ORL) • Thursday, July 6, 2023