QUOTE SHEET
Utah Royals FC 1-2 North Carolina Courage
Rio Tinto Stadium; Sandy, Utah
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Utah Royals FC Coach Lara Harvey
Thoughts on tonight's game:
“I thought the goals we gave away were… we didn’t make them work for it. I think, you know with them [North Carolina] that you could get put into a lot of pressure. You could have to deal with a lot of balls in the box, I don't think we did. I don't know what the stats were, but normally they outshoot you, but I don't think they did. So, when you have done all those things, it's difficult to take that you come away with nothing from a game. I thought early in the first half we did well before they came back into it actually just before we scored. And we didn't solve what they were trying to do well enough in the first half. I thought the second half we were much better and put them into a lot of pressure, and I think we will be really disappointed looking back on their goal.”
On how to break out of their losing streak
“[We need to] build off the good and limit mistakes, you can’t do that at this level and make as much pressure as we put on them. We've got to create more and more chances. We created more chances again tonight than we have a lot a lot in games, but we've got to create more. We've got to be more dangerous, more threatening and I think the most disappointing thing is we've played Carolina a lot and we've been under a lot of pressure. I thought tonight was the least amount of pressure they've ever put us under and to come away with nothing is the most disappointing thing. I think there was periods in our play that we were really good. And so it's not all doom and gloom. And if we weren't creating, which we weren't three weeks ago, I'd be more worried, but this team is built off being hard to beat and I think if we give the ball away in our own half, we never solve that on the first goal. The player on the ball gets too much time, Rach [Corsie] dives in a little bit on the second goal and never recovers, and they are just things that we don't normally do. So, we need to get back to being hard to beat and not giving up goals, but keep creating chances. It's a tough coin to keep flipping because the more hard to beat you become often that means you don't create your chances, but the more expansive we want to be, because we can be, we should be the more times you put your defenders under pressure. It’s just disappointing to come away without them putting it under a ton of pressure.”
On the starting eleven:
“Look at their goals. Right? Let's be brutal about it. Their goals come from us making mistakes. Do I think that lack of not playing together as an 11 came to those? No. Do I think that us creating more chances is because of that? Yes. And that's the thing that we have to make sure we build off when we have our best players here. We want to play expansively. We have to make sure that we give nothing away on our end and that's what comes from being really diligent defensively and not giving anything away. So no, I don't think, but tonight was about this 11 not being familiar with each other.”
On the Starting XI and their potential
“Well I think you saw glimpses of it tonight. I thought we caused a lot of problems, we made their backline turn a lot. In the second half, they dropped off and we found it more difficult to break them down, but we caused a lot of problems. And yes, I think we can be super dangerous but you can't give two goals away every game. You can't do that, because this league doesn't allow you to do that and win games. So, we have to sort that side of it out, get back to the clean sheets and being hard to beat. And if that means we win one-nill, we win one-nill, because it doesn't matter if we create all these chances if we don't win games.”
On what Vero brings to the team:
“I think she... did she assist on Christen’s goal? So, she brings that. She just can create and control the tempo. She can control the tempo of the game. I felt that maybe in the first 15 minutes the tempo of the game was too quick for her just because it's been a while since she's been in that at the start of the game. But I think once she got used to that again, and she started to move the ball and shift the ball and we started to move it better. She brings up our game and I think she definitely brings an ability to dictate play.”
On the sequence of Christen and Vero’s goal
“Yeah, I think Christen’s a goal scorer and Vero is someone who can allow someone to score goals. It's no coincidence that that will happen, I think. But brutally: it either has to happen four times and we're going to concede two goals or we have to get back to we score and then we make it really difficult for the opposition, because it doesn't mean anything to me that we create all these chances if we're not winning games.”
Midfielder Vero Boquete
On Christen Press’s goal:
“It’s just too easy to play with Christen. When she has the space and she starts the run, my job is just to try to find a way to pass the ball to her. I was not sure if she wanted the space or not, so I just passed the ball there and she had a perfect first touch and just an amazing goal.”
On her first start since June 15th:
“It was great, because when you’re able to play, it’s just fantastic. It was tough. It was tough because I was out, even running, four or five weeks. The other game I was able to play 50 minutes and today we weren’t really sure how long I could be and I was happy that I was the 90 minutes, but of course a little disappointed that I can’t help more for the team to take at least one point.”
On the potential of the attack with players back and healthy:
“I think it can be really, really good. Today we were a little frustrated and disappointed, especially in the first half, we had some moments where we actually could have killed the game and we didn’t find a way. We have to keep working. I think last game was really good for the fans, it was a fun match. Tonight, I think it was OK, not as good as the last one, but it was good. It’s about detail sometimes. We were a little more precise, a little more quality in the last third we could maybe be up 2-0 or 3-0. When you play against this good of a team, they take chances and they punish you.
On balancing offense and defense:
“It has to be in your mind every day, and that is what we do every day in training. Your first goal is to work hard and through that day, we know if you want to win a game you have got to defend well. I think this team shows every game, doesn't matter on the result, we always show that we work together and we defend really, really strong. Every player has their role and my role is trying to create something different in attack. When we don't have the ball, something jumps in my mind and says, “OK, time to defend.” Then when we get the ball just try to make my teammates look good.”
On the thoughts coming into the game:
“We knew before that it would be a tough game. Like I said before, in these types of games, it’s just about details. Today in the first half, we should do something better. They take the opportunities and they score. We are disappointed today, we will be disappointed tomorrow, maybe in a few days, but we have to come back and go to Chicago and take the three points.”
Midfielder Desiree Scott
On creating chances:
“The more we are trying to press, get forward, get our chances, we are creating more. Obviously when we're pushing numbers forward, that's going to leave gaps and holes. So, I think it's finding that balance of still being that defensive rock that we know we can be: not getting stretched while still creating those chances. It’s a work in progress, but I think we're making waves in the right direction.”
On finding that balance:
“It's hard because you want to get people joining the attack. It depends who you ask, as a defender, a defensive minded player, you want to hold numbers back, but we've got to score goals as well. So we'll keep working at it.”
On potentially being stretched thin:
“That's the only time we get hurt. Defensively when we're set, we're very hard to beat. This is an attacking transition game, and that's when they're kind of finding those holes in pockets. I still pride ourselves as a defensive team. I think we're solid. We are pushing a bit more trying to attack and that's going to leave some holes sometimes. So we'll keep working on it.”
On getting out of recent winless funk:
“We’ve got to look at the positives from every game. We are leaving disappointing because we know we deserve more and I think that's something to take away from the game. If we knew we got outplayed or beat, that would be an issue, but I think we're right there. Not sure of all the answers, I think it's just that little 1% that we can give and tweak defensively, be a little solid or can we put away our chances. We've got to remember the positives from the game and keep building on that because we are improving. It's now getting the results. We've got to start with getting them done.”
