Head Coach Amy Rodriguez
Q: How much of this loss can you attribute to injuries?
A: It was tough in that second half, when the team’s bleeding and you're just trying to cover it with some bandaids. I didn't think that we had the legs in us. I told the team after the game, momentum is so powerful in this league, and when Louisville got it and they had those goals come back to back, it was hard on us. We're a young team, and we had to dig ourselves out of a hole, and we just couldn't do that today. But to credit my team, that young of a team and a new team, with new personnel out on the pitch, I think we had 5 rookies start out there today, 3 of which were brand new to our starting lineup. I'm so proud of the group. That first half, we played decently well, and we got ourselves that goal back. Firstly, I thought that Louisville kind of scored against the run of play. I thought potentially we had some good chances in there that could have put us up on the board and been ahead of Louisville but the second half kind of ran away from us, and it was hard to catch up.”
Q: Was there a moment where you felt the momentum start to shift?
A: The Pk burned a little bit. That one hurt, and as many pks as this team has faced this year, I still had a little bit of hope in my group. But that one definitely felt like a dagger.”
Q: What did you see out of Zoe Burns, Mikayla Cluff and Lauren Flynn tonight?
A: There's a lot of positive takeaways. Just getting your feet wet in this league is hard to do. Both Zoe and Lo-Flo’s (Lauren Flynn) first time starting and away from home, in a packed stadium and against an excellent team. I thought they both maintained really well, especially in that first half. Then Kayla, who has been in this league, and she knows what to expect and I thought she found her footing there. She got on the ball somewhat often in that first half and was that connecting piece for us. So I did see some good moments, but like I said, that second half just really slipped away from us.
Q: What did you see of Griffitts’ goal and what was the locker room like at halftime?
A: I just remember when Liv scored that goal for us just before the half, it was such an uplift, especially because, as I said before, we had been playing decently well through our first half. I felt like we unfortunately went down a goal, but when she equalized for us it gave us that little boost, and as we entered into the locker room, everyone was fired up. Liv (Griffitts) gave us that little bit of lift, and then we tried to bring that into our second half. As soon as Louisville scored their second and third goals, I think that's when it just kind of started going downhill for us.
Q: Are you a coach that prefers to watch the tape form a match like this or burn it and move on?
A: Absolutely. The way we learn from it is by going back and watching the film.I told the team this year, we don't win or lose. We win or we learn. Every single time we come out of a game where we're not the winner, it's our chance to learn. This is a young group. We're an expansion team. We don't even have that many games under our belt, so every game is a learning opportunity for this team. We'll go back and rejoin as a group on Tuesday and get right back in that film room and watch through our mistakes and see how we can clean it up for the next weekend, because the Houston match is going to be huge for us.
Q: How is the team doing with taking your tactics and implementing them?
A: I think we saw glimpses of it tonight. We obviously had a lot of work with our build out of the back this week, and then we go down with an injury to one of our veteran players, Kaleigh Riehl and so that, I think that set us back but credit to Lo-Flo, who stepped in and and took the reins in that position. I thought she did well for us today, and even our first goal kind of came from Lo-Flo, stepping into the space and being able to switch the point of attack for us. I think this team is showing glimpses of what we've been working on. But again, it's the final pieces, it's the details in our box defending, and the partnerships and collaboration between players who have never really played together before.
Paige Monaghan
Q: What’s the discussion after a night like this? What’s the lockerroom like?
A: I was just in the locker room for a quick second, and you know it was quiet. Everyone's obviously upset to lose 5-1, to give up 5 goals stings. I think at the same time we just know that we have to keep going. We know that we're a resilient team, and we could throw in the towel and point fingers and shut off right now, or we have the opportunity to say, what can we learn from this? And how quickly can we respond? There were some positives to the game, even though it's hard to see that. So just reminding the girls of that. We had 5 rookies starting tonight, and I thought that they stepped up in the roles. It's encouraging them and then figuring out how we can improve for a 90 minute game and not just a 45 minute half.
Q: What are some of your positive takeaways?
A: I think honestly, early in the game we had a couple of opportunities that we should have put away, myself included. I thought we were playing through the lines, playing the player that was open and just exposing them a few times to where they were running back and facing their own goal. I think that's a huge positive and even the initial bounce back of Liv taking the opportunity herself scoring that goal for us and getting us tied before half.
Q: What have you seen from Griffitts and the rest of the rookies so far?
A: Liv wasn't playing at first, and she was presented the opportunity of just staying ready. I think that's one thing that's super undervalued, and not many players have the ability to do but Liv was able to just keep preparing. When her moment comes, she was gonna make it known why she should be on the field at all times. So I really credit her. That is a huge responsibility as a professional athlete, and to do that as a rookie, I think, is amazing. So I've had so many conversations with her, just expressing how proud I am of her for her to know that her time is going to come, and when she gets the opportunity she's going to make it known. So for her to score tonight, the group loves her, she's a fan favorite for us, for sure.
Q: Was there a moment in the second half where you felt the momentum shift?
A: Honestly, there wasn't a specific moment, because when they would score against us, the group sentiment was “Okay, we gotta keep going, we gotta keep pushing, we can't just stop.” So there wasn't really a specific moment. But they started getting momentum and it's how quickly can we stop that momentum from them And how can we regain that momentum. NWSL is all about momentum, and they unfortunately got it in the second half, and you know we got the brunt of it.
Q: How do you facilitate learning as the captain of the team?
A: Obviously, being captain has a lot of responsibility. And honestly, when we have results like this, it hurts. And I feel responsible, and I think of myself and what could I have done for the group? How could I have been better? And there are things that go through my head immediately, if I score, and when the opportunities come early, then we're up one or two-nothing. So it changes the game completely. But at the same time I do have to have grace for myself, and I do think there's the reality of people saying we're an expansion team. I don't like to think of it like that, but we're all new to each other. And we're 5 games in so we have to learn and I think that's where Amy is saying, win or learn. It is a learning lesson, and I'm proud of the group that we can just keep that mindset and just keep going. But of course it hurts. You're not going to say, “oh, we lost 5-1, no big deal”, but we just have to learn from it, and we have to keep going, because that's who we are, and we're not going to give up. That's for sure.
Q: Was Griffitts’ goal something that the team can point to and use as an example of how the system works when it goes right?
A: We talked about when can we actually go and threaten teams? So it actually started by coming up my side, and we just knew to keep the ball, so how can we keep it? Switch it? And then that was the opportunity for us to go forward. I think it is a learning lesson of this is what we want to do against teams. You know we don't want to go 50% to try and break them down, because that’s not what we did, we're going 100% and I think that goal was that, and it was a team goal. But also again, I'm just so proud of Liv. Cleanly struck. I think again it stinks, but there are positives, and that is one. That is one of our styles of play that we can do, and that we can execute, so to see it come off tonight is huge, and we just need to do that more and more and more.
