Seattle Reign FC at Kansas City Current Pre-Match Press Conference • Saturday, June 8, 2024
Head Coach Laura Harvey and Forward Tziarra King
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On having the team back together after the international break:
“We haven’t trained together yet. The internationals met us in Kansas, so we’ll train together today, but training has been good in the international break. We were able to work on a lot of things and we’re hoping we can put them into practice tomorrow.”
On team availability for tomorrow:
“We’re doing OK. We’re getting close to getting everyone back. Nikki got hurt in the DC game, she had to have surgery this past week on her nose, but outside of that, we’ve got no new injury updates.”
On what worked well for the Reign during its last game against Kansas City that resulted in a scoreless draw:
“Well, I thought we were defensively very good in that game. I think when we reflected on it, we felt that we needed to be better on the ball and cause them a few more problems whilst still being defensively solid, so just trying to find that balance is our aim tomorrow.”
On what the team is doing to not let tough challenges negatively impact the good stretches of performance to get results:
“I think our aim is to obviously build on the good things that we’ve been doing. I think the thing that has been a consistent pattern, which we want to change, is that we don’t feel that teams are beating us, but we’re sort of beating ourselves – we’re giving them the opportunity to beat us rather than making them earn it. I think all the goals in D.C. were an example of that. I think the goals against Orlando were an example of that. So, I think that’s the big thing for us – we know that we’ve had clear patches in most games where we’re the better team. I thought we were the better team prior to D.C. scoring and we had chances to score, but we didn’t take our opportunities. So, just finding that balance for us about continuing to create opportunities, being more ruthless in front of goal, but I think a big area of focus for us has been us being as ruthless in front of their goal and we have to be really ruthless in front of our own goal. I think the last three games we’ve conceded way too many goals and a lot of those goals have been preventable from us.”
On Emeri Adames scoring her first goal in the last game:
“It was great. I wish it was something we could celebrate more. It’s unfortunate that you score a goal, but we still lose. But I think it was a big moment for her and it was quite ironic because the week before, she felt like she had a really good opportunity against Orlando and shot and missed and was really upset about it and we spoke about it and I said, ‘That’s why we have you on the field because you can do these things and we want you to do those things,’ and the week later she goes and does it and scores. So, I think we know the qualities that she has, we know that she’s on a long journey with us and we’re really happy with her development.”
On if there will be a rotated lineup tomorrow due to the internationals having a busy travel schedule:
“We’ll see how today goes and see how everyone feels.”
On what she told the players ahead of this game to help get past the recent losses and how they used the international break to refocus:
“We spoke about being a bit of a goldfish mentality because I think that if you dwell on things that have happened before, you can’t change them, so you’ve got to sort of work through what you feel like you need to be better at and consistently keep doing that. I think we’ve dwelled on things that we’ve made mistakes on in previous games and then
low and behold we make the same mistake in the next game. So, we’ve sort of said that we want to have this goldfish mentality of, we know that mistakes may be made in games, but we don’t want to dwell on them, we want to continue to work hard on the things that we feel we need to get better at and I think we’ve done a really good job of that over the last 10 days of training so that we can put ourselves in a position to keep moving forward. I think that’s a really key aspect of the NWSL season is, you have to keep moving forward. Honestly, I feel like a year ago, we were in a bit of a funk and we turned that around for ourselves. So, we know that we can do that, we know our schedule sort of has been very balanced towards playing the teams that just happen to be in the top half of the table and that continues tomorrow. So, I think we know that if we can get all these things right that we’re having a bit of a funk in right now, then we can turn it around in the second half of the season and obviously this next five-game stretch is an important aspect to try and do that.”
Forward Tziarra King
On how training has been coming off the international break:
“International break kind of gives us a good opportunity to really focus on some things, whether that be individually, as a collective, and I think having some time off and then really hitting the ground knowing we need to work on things helped us bring the intensity and the fire this week of training, so it’s been good. I feel like, as a collective, we feel really good about the performances we put in training so hopefully we can allow that to translate to the game.”
On what worked last time they played Kansas City:
“As I was watching that match from the stands, I can tell you the team did perform well, obviously holding their attack worked well for us. I feel like our defensive abilities in that game were strong and we were strong in our game plan. So hopefully, we bring that same energy tomorrow.”
On what the missing link is for the team right now:
“Yeah, I mean, that’s a question that we’re still trying to answer. We’ve talked about it as a group and obviously something that we are trying to shake and get rid of and every time we come out on the field, we’re hoping that we can bring the intensity – not to match the other team, but to set the tone of the game – that’s been a big focus the last few weeks. So, that’s our plan for tomorrow.”
On if there is one small task at hand or if there is a bigger picture hovering over the team right now to shake off this recent stretch of games:
“I would say it’s probably a little bit of both. I think the reality of the fact that we play for a club that has such a long standing of performing well obviously makes us want to perform in a much better showing than we have. But the reality of the situation is, we are at where we’re at and the only way to not be here anymore is one step at a time. So, it’s kind of a combination of both. It’s the small goals that will eventually lead to the long-term big picture.”
On if she is looking forward to playing against Kansas City after missing the last meeting due to a red card suspension:
“No, definitely, you know it. I always want to be on the field.”