QUOTE SHEET
Utah Royals FC 0-4 Portland Thorns FC
Providence Park; Portland, OR
July 6, 2018
Utah Royals FC
DF Becca Moros
On Portland’s pressure:
“I think their pressure from the start was strong and they stomped our initial intentions of building out of the back. It also took us a while to get set after giving up a goal or two. We lost a bit of our momentum, so now we have to be stronger to pull back some of that momentum. I think there were a lot of things from this game that we are just going to have to work on – and we’ve got a game this Wednesday to look forward too.”
On moving forward to Seattle:
“We have to get back to doing what we do well like defending as a unit in tight spaces, staying connected, and not leaving people in one versus ones. We are a very connected, cohesive team – so I think we need to get back to that – that is pretty much our foundation. I think we need to be more clinical in the final third, getting some possesion, and keeping the ball.
On defensive break-downs:
“Portland got in a flow really early and got a lot of the ball. We are very good defensively because we play good defense all over the field and keep the ball really well. The more we have the ball, the less they have it, but Portland had the ball a lot today and got very comfortable – they were pulling us out of shape and finding seams. So the more we have the ball, the less they do – so I think that is the number one thing that happened tonight.
Head Coach Laura Harvey
On Portland’s play:
“I thought they pressed really well against us. We gave the ball away and were sloppy in some areas. I thought all of the goals we could have done a lot better on – you can’t give away those goals and expect to stay in games. But I said to the players that with games like tonight, I’m going to look at myself first and take the responsibility for this defeat. We will review it and make sure that we get better. That wasn’t really us in the first-half – I felt that we played a little bit more like us in the second-half. Credit to them; I felt they were the better team tonight.”
On preparing for Seattle:
“We’ve got to be better at everything. I think we need to do a better job of understanding what our jobs are on the field. We’ve got to understand what each other’s jobs are within the game, and we need to be better on the ball. I felt that in the first-half we gave the ball away a lot and that caused us a problem. We had some set-pieces that were not us – we are normally good on them. Just all-around we have to be better at everything.”
On instruction to the players:
“We have got to review the game and watch it – we have to learn from it. We’ve got to put it in the bin really quick and move on because we have a quick game after this. I know this group and the people will do better on Wednesday and hopefully will find the determination to put on a better show.”
