Seattle Reign FC vs. Kansas City Current Pre-Match Press Conference • Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Head Coach Laura Harvey and Midfielder Olivia Athens
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On her thoughts ahead of the match:
“Yeah, excited to get back out on the field. Wish it wasn’t so quick. But yeah, looking forward to the challenge. I think they’ve shown this year that they’re a good team, so excited for the opportunity to play them.”
On how the team’s fitness is leading up to this game:
“We’re OK, yeah, everyone so far is OK.”
On how the team is focused on preventing Kansas City’s attack:
“I think you’ve got to try and get their back four on the ball and then when they’re on it, you’ve got to try and stop them from playing to the people that hurt them the most, that hurt you the most. I think you’ve also got to be really good at preventing transitional opportunities for them – they’ve obviously proven this year that they’re very strong in that department. I think you’ve also got to accept that they are going to get some form of opportunity at some point – they’re very explosive in those moments, so limiting the amount you possibly can, but knowing that there’s chances that they are going to create. So, in those moments, just staying strong and showing the sort of mentality and the grit of not being beaten like we did on Friday.”
On if playing with 10 players for most of the last game will impact any player availability going into this match:
“We don’t have any injuries from Friday, just for clarity. We don’t have injuries. Do I think we feel great? Different sentence. It wasn’t necessarily the load; the running wasn’t dramatically worse. Actually, for the backline, I don’t know if you saw this, but they ran more after the game because they didn’t run as much as they normally do in a game. But it was a battle – it was physical, there were a lot of tackles flying, which we all saw. So, it’s more the physicality piece than it is the loading piece that’s taken its toll, I would say. It hasn’t impacted dramatically what we’re going to do, but we’ve definitely had to take care of some bodies since Friday.”
On the status of Claudia Dickey, Jordyn Huitema and Quinn:
“Yeah, still not ready yet, but Jordyn’s probably the closest. I think Quinn’s 10 days out now [since the injury]. We’re probably a couple of weeks away for Quinn, I would think. Claudia is progressing, but yeah, not ready yet.”
On the crowd being loud at the last home game and being back at Lumen Field for another home game:
“Yeah, it was great. We love playing at Lumen. We love that the fans buy in. I think – I don’t love that players get booed, but I think the fact that a player was getting booed from the opponent shows that they’re very bought into what’s happening on the field. So yeah, it was great. I think we’re going to need them again tomorrow night. It’s going to be tough – we know that. We’re going to have to show that mentality again and if the fans can push us an extra 10 percent, that’d be amazing.”
Midfielder Olivia Athens
On her overall thoughts on Friday’s performance:
“I think the result was big. Obviously, you never want to go down to 10 players so early, but I think the response from the team was exactly what we needed and to come away with three points from that game was huge.
On what she’s looking forward to tomorrow against Kansas City:
“I think just building from the momentum on Friday and taking that with us into Wednesday and kind of always having this never-say-die mentality and always sticking in games. It’s long, 90 minutes, so just being disciplined. We know we have a three-game week and that it’s going to take everyone. So yeah, we’re excited for tomorrow.”
On how she’s feeling overall after the team played most of the last game with a player down:
“The crowd was huge. I think from Beth’s (Bethany Balcer) celebration, you could see how much that meant to her and to do it for the fans. So, we were just happy to to get a result under those circumstances for our fans because we know it’s been a tough last month for us in regards to results. So, really happy to come away with three points for them.”
On the message to the team leading up to the game against Kansas City tomorrow:
“I think Kansas City obviously pose different challenges than a team like San Diego; they have a lot of speed upfront. So, I think our message has just been that we have to be really disciplined defensively and know where their threats are coming from and do our best to be proactive and stop those.”
On playing with Ji So-Yun:
“I mean, Ji is a world-class player. So, anytime you can be teammates, let alone just watch, it’s amazing. So yeah, I’ve learned so much. I think she’s such a technical player, she’s so smart, she sees things other people don’t see and to kind of get to witness that firsthand has been really special and we’re so glad to have her.”
On parts of her game that has improved over the last three years:
“Yeah, I think there’s definitely a learning curve coming into this league with speed of play, physicality, so kind of trying to get up to those levels is big and it takes time. So, I think on that front, I’ve tried to improve in that way. But then I think seeing the players around me trying to take little parts of their game and implement it into mine, and that’s playing with players like Jess Fishlock, Ji, all these people, Rose Lavelle, these people that do other things so well that you can kind of nitpick from. So yeah, I would say, just my speed of play, trying to play forward as much as possible, things like that.”