Portland Thorns FC Quotes
Portland Thorns FC head coach Mark Parsons
General thoughts on the match…
“Tough stuff, great character to finish the first half really, really strong. I thought we could have grabbed a couple goals before half time. Second half we felt very positive and very confident. We just didn’t get into a rhythm there, credit to Orlando second half. I mean, it’s really tough to keep us from getting us into the areas that we want to when we’re flying and when we’re at home and to stop us creating chances and Orlando did that. They definitely dealt with our game and they did really well to pick up second ball and also to interrupt us. Tough stuff, good end to first half, second half, well done to Orlando.”
On creating a lot of chances but not being able to get the result and his feelings...
“A summary of my feelings is probably that this is the best group that I’ve had the pleasure to work with that gives to each other, that supports each other and gives unselfishly to the team. We’ve always strived for that since I’ve been here and will continue to strive for it. We’ve always done a good job of heading in the right direction, but we’ve never been as strong as we are now. Despite the hits that have come, some that we’ve probably created, the problems we’ve created or some that we haven’t created, but were out of our control and just keeps coming. Despite that they continue to get stronger and starting to believe more, so my emotion is that I’m upset, but it’s not at them. I’ve been in other environments where other rosters and other groups they get upset and start pointing fingers at each other and at everything else apart from what they’re controlling. Our group isn’t doing that, this is a really special group. So it’s more of an emotion, just sad that despite all this amazing work, the goals keep coming. The message to the team was that we’re pretty low right now on how we feel and if we’re going to look left and right and look down we’re not going to find any answers, we’ve got to look up, that’s where the good stuff is. Continue to look forward and continue to look up and double down and support each other because this is a really good group, not just on the field, but off the field as well.”
On what the team could have done better offensively…
“I think first half once we got rolling, I think we were able to do a lot of things that we wanted to do. In the second half we never found what was going to work, we never really got in a rhythm of moving them and switching the point and getting into those areas. We also couldn’t get any success off of our set pieces and I think my emotion now without seeing things back is that there is a lot of pride in this group and so much work rate to make things better. The harder we tried, the less things were going to work. I mean for us, tactically, we put two upfront to try and take care of center backs who were picking up a lot of balls and putting them behind us, giving our back three less time on the ball to get into our center mids and getting them into Andy (Andressinha) and getting wide players on. We didn’t quite find it, but not for a lack of effort. It was just a lot of things today out of our control that shouldn’t happen at this level. We keep spending energy on ourselves and continue to look and improve, but yeah it’s tough to take the blows that the other people seem to be giving us at the moment.”
Thorns FC forward Christine Sinclair
General thoughts on the match…
“I thought we started very poorly. No energy from us. They walked all over us those first 10-15 minutes. Got two goals and in this league, it’s hard to come back. We got the one back and we were rolling. I thought we played pretty well the rest of the game, but it’s hard to play catch up.”
On why the team has had to come back from being behind several times this season…
“Obviously we’ve made some mistakes and teams have punished us. They’ve scored some ‘worldies’. Just things don’t seem to be going our way right now. Besides maybe one game this year, we’ve completely dominated our opponents. The results aren’t going our way, but we have to keep plugging away.”
On continuing to try and play well when the results aren’t coming…
“Knowing that we’re playing well. I think it’d be a lot different if we were playing poorly and still not getting results. Sooner or later things are going to change for us. Some of those goals will count and some of our 24 shots or whatever will go in. We just need to keep plugging away. We’re professionals. We’ve been through it before.”
On how the formation change helped give Portland more control of the game…
“At the start of the game, they just outnumbered us in the center of the park. They have some world-class players in there and they were able to just pick us off. We changed back to our usual three in midfield and we took control of the game.”
On playing on despite not winning in five games…
“Of course, it’s tough. We’re an organization that’s built on winning and built on success. It’s hard to especially leave Providence Park with losses these past two home games. We hate to leave our fans leaving disappointed. We need to regroup. Like I said, we’re playing well. We have to keep chugging away.”
Thorns FC defender Emily Menges
On how she feels after her first match of the season…
“Great. Feel good. Could have played longer, but it’s probably safer for me to come out when I did. [So that was planned?] Yes. I know it’s best for my longevity.”
On what it was like to be back on the pitch again…
“It’s great. I’ve been up in the suites for the last few weeks and it’s terrible. It’s nice that they put us up there, but you want to be out on the field. It’s this wrenching of your heart. I hope that I slide back in seamlessly. That’s my hope. One week at a time.”
On frustration within the team following the result…
“The amount of shots we’ve had the last few games and not had the proportion of our shots to goals not being what we want. Conceding goals that we wouldn’t have last year and we shouldn’t as a backline. Just frustrating all around. I think it’ll click and it’ll be okay.”
Notes:
- Thorns FC defender Emily Menges made her season debut in the match, starting and playing 45 minutes.
- Defender Ellie Carpenter earned her first career start, playing 82 minutes in her Providence Park debut.
- Midfielder Tobin Heath tallied her first assist of the season and the 15th of her Thorns FC career. With the assist, Heath is the 13th player in league history to record 15 career assists.
- Forward Christine Sinclair tallied her league-leading fifth goal of the season. Sinclair has recorded a goal or an assist in six of Portland’s first eight matches this season.
- Thorns FC have scored in 23 consecutive home matches, dating back to the 2016 season. Sinclair has registered 13 goals at Providence Park during that span.
- Defender Emily Sonnett and midfielder Lindsey Horan appeared in their 47 career matches for Portland, moving into the top five all-time in games played.
