Portland Thorns FC Quotes
Portland Thorns FC head coach Mark Parsons
On his thoughts about the game…
“It’s tough to evaluate right now because of the emotion. There were a lot of things that happened within those six minutes that I can’t remember. It was a rough night in the office, it’s tough to concede the [second] goal when we were doing really well to manage the game. Both teams were getting the same types of opportunities, which was in transition. I thought Debinha and Crystal Dunn were getting on the ball and running at us in the first half, which were creating some problems. When Tobin [Heath] was running and [Christine] Sinclair was distributing in the pockets, we looked dangerous. But at halftime 1-0 down, we felt very confident. Zooming in right now too much is not going to help, we have players going away for international duty and the [international] break comes at an amazing time for us. We needed either a break or some training time a couple of games ago. We look forward to refreshing and recharging and getting to work and make improvements.”
On bringing Andressinha into the game 1-0 down…
“The game changed from the first kick once we subbed her in. We took a goal kick and they won a header and went through and scored; then more craziness happened in the minutes after. We felt with the spaces in the pitch she could cause more problems but we didn’t get to see that. It’s a shame that we blew open in those few minutes [after subbing her on]. North Carolina was very good on both sides of the ball and we were not as consistent as we normally are. When you let a good team have chances they are going to take it. We could keep things tight and compact and we could deal with their energy for a full 60 minutes. Then being the home team, having Andressinha come on would give us some quality. If we would have seen [Andressinha] play for a couple of minutes down just 1-0, things could have been a little different.
On starting the game with a back-five…
“We had a certain shape to start and thought there’d be two ways we’d finish the game; a variation of the way we started or go into a back-four. We didn’t get a chance to see what that [back-four] shape would look like because of the quick [second] goal. The reason for the starting shape was because we wanted to apply pressure everywhere. We had some half-chances but it wasn’t the night to create something from them. We did well in stopping [Samantha] Mewis and [McCall] Zerboni getting on the ball.”
On what makes North Carolina so good…
“They’ve been a good team for the last couple of years. Everything is forward with their passing and they have 11 players ready to pass and get the ball back. It’s a hard-working direct team and it’s tough to deal with that. They’re a very good team playing really well right now and I think it’ll be exciting to get back to a better place with our group and get back at them one more time later in the year.”
On the biggest priority heading into the international break…
“We need to refresh and recharge, I bet everyone in the league feels the same right now. We need to get some quality training time. In regard to training, Ellie Carpenter and Andressinha have been here for five weeks and we haven’t trained with them yet. We’re excited to train and then we hit the road with Chicago and Houston, a trip that we’ll be prepared for. We set up tonight as a cup game and rolled the dice and wanted to give everything that we got and we came out on the wrong side in a big way. We can’t get too low at this point. We’ll keep grinding and there’s no doubt that this team has the quality and heart to be in a better position in the next few weeks and months.”
Portland Thorns FC defender Katherine Reynolds
On scoring her first goal for the Thorns…
“Bittersweet feeling. Obviously very disappointed about the game, but you know, it was awesome to get a goal and gave me something to smile about tonight. But obviously super bummed.”
On playing her 100th NWSL match…
“It’s a really great accomplishment and I’m proud of myself for playing that many games. I wish it had gone our way tonight. That would have made it a lot more fun, but can’t win them all.”
On the six-minute period in which North Carolina scored three goals…
“Honestly, I need to watch the film back because I’m not really sure. That was a really chaotic time. We switched formations and I don’t know if that caused some confusion, but I can’t give you a good answer on that right now. I don’t really know what happened, but it was not good.”
Notes:
- Defender Katherine Reynolds made her 100th career NWSL appearance in the match becoming the 15th player in league history to reach this milestone.
- Reynolds scored her first career NWSL goal in the match. She is the seventh different player to score a goal for Thorns FC this season.
- Forward Christine Sinclair started her 95th career match for Thorns FC to become the club’s all-time leader in career starts.
- Thorns FC extended their streak to 25 consecutive regular-season home matches with a goal.
- Midfielder Lindsey Horan appeared in her 50th career match for Thorns FC on Wednesday night.
