QUOTE SHEET
Utah Royals FC 0-2 Chicago Red Stars
Toyota Park; Bridgeview, IL
June 23, 2018
Utah Royals FC
MF Gunny Jonsdottir
On the difference between the first and second half:
“I’ll have to re-watch the game to see what happened, but the first goal came because we weren’t concentrating – we weren’t marking – and gave up the header. I think we just need to look back at the game, learn from it, and take what we learn into the next game on Wednesday. I think that’s what we need to be focusing on.”
On getting possession in the midfield:
“I think we need to stick to our plan that Laura gives to us for each game. I think we could have done better in that. I think we panicked a little, but we were trying – it just didn’t work out and we couldn’t find a solution. I thought it was going to come at some point during the game, but then they got their second goal. We never gave up – we were trying – it just didn’t work out for us.”
Mentality for the rest of the season:
“Our mentality is the same as always. We always go into every game with a full effort and with the attitude that we’re going to win every game. And that it isn’t going to change now.”
On playing at home this week:
“It’s always good to play at the RioT, and get the support of the fans – we miss them. And I hope everyone comes out because it’s going to be a great game. It will be our pride game, and there will be fireworks at night too, so I recommend that everyone comes out.”
DF Becky Sauerbrunn
On Chicago’s change in attack:
I think we lost a little bit of discipline after we gave up that first goal. We were pushing, and when you push, you leave yourself exposed. They’ve got enough quality in the attack that if you aren’t compact and stay disciplined, they can definitely burn you. And I think that happened on the second goal where we pushed a lot of numbers forward, and they capitalized on it. It was rough—it was a rough second half. It was a tale of two-halves and I thought we did well in the first, and then just lost it a little bit in the second.
On missed opportunities:
“Sometimes it just doesn’t bounce your way. I do think in the first half that we had some quality chances—and even in the second we got a couple shots off. So, some nights they go in, and some nights they don’t. We have to regroup, find how we can get into those good spots more often—I think that’s what we’re going to work on next—and make sure that we keep securing things up on the defense.”
On the upcoming Seattle match:
“This is a tough stretch of games, and so right now we have to learn from this Chicago game, but put it behind us and get ready for Seattle. We definitely want to keep winning games and keep moving up the table, so the quicker we can get forget about this one—but learn from it—the better off we’re going to be.”
On getting into playoff position:
“Every game starts to matter, so you have to throw everything you have into the game and recover as much as you can between games and prepare for the next. This is a season and a league where any team can beat any other team, so you have to be ready every single night.”
On playing at home this week:
“It’s always great to play at home. You feel comfortable there – you know the feel – you don’t have to travel which is great. We know Seattle is going to be ready to go. They had a loss today as well, so I think we’re going to both come back on Wednesday and have something to prove.”
Head Coach Laura Harvey
Thoughts on the match:
“We didn’t get it right. It’s my responsibility that we didn’t get the game plan right. From the start, I didn’t think we executed it well enough either. Now we have a very quick turn-around now – we need to turn our sights to Seattle, and make sure we get that right because it’s a huge game.”
On being on the road for four matches:
“First off, I think we did okay. We wanted to come off in the second-half and be better, and I thought we couldn’t execute in the second-half. And credit to Chicago—in the second half—I thought they were just better.”
On bouncing back for Wednesday’s game:
“We’ve got to get back to the basics. Defensively, we have to be good as a team. And then we have to be better at going forward – we gave the ball away – and it was sloppy. We’ve got to keep it and take care of it so that we can get some momentum.”
On slowing Seattle’s attack:
“It’s all prevention. Prevention is better than a cure. We prevented Sam Kerr from getting in behind in the first-half, and then allowed it too many times in the second half. It’s no different against Seattle.”
