Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines
Opening Statement
“The result was a tough one to take. I don’t think it’s a reflection of the performance; I thought we were brilliant tonight. I thought, even toward the end, that we were going to be the team that scored the first goal, but it wasn’t meant to be. This is a cruel game, and you don’t always get what you deserve, but it’s going to be a motivator for us now. We’ve had so many highs in the last couple of years. Obviously, this is a disappointing result, but this will motivate us to move forward, and we’ll reflect. It’s bittersweet because we’ve done so many great things this year and faced so much adversity. One thing that I’ll speak highly of about this team is that we’ve got some grit, and we have to continue that. That’s part of the culture, that’s part of the togetherness, and that will never end.”
On the team’s tactical approach tonight
“Yeah, we kept the same team, but we moved personnel a little bit. We obviously played Marta at the nine, Julie [Doyle] as an 11, Jacquie [Ovalle] as a seven. We knew going into this game Gotham was a very aggressive team. They want to win the ball in the opponent’s half. You know, players like [Jess] Carter and [Emily] Sonnett are very front-footed. So, using Marta as an extra midfielder and trying to exploit that space they left behind was our game plan going into it. We probably didn’t see as much as we would have liked in the first half. The second half was much better. And yeah, I think in the first half we created probably the best chance in the game, some really good combination play again out wide and then, unfortunately, just missing the ball. But I felt we created the better chances throughout the game, and it comes down to that last bit of execution and some good defending and goalkeeping as well. But overall, really pleased with the performance. Obviously, just would have liked the result to be a win.”
On the team’s characteristics and culture
“I think we’ve established that type of culture in the last three years. Shoutout to the fans, as well. I thought they were terrific tonight. The front office did a great job getting as many fans into the stadium as possible. The fans really helped the team create that atmosphere, which is also part of the process. You want to make it intimidating for the opposition, you want to make it hostile and you can see the determination, the desire, around the team. Moments like this, you say, ‘We’re not losers, we learn from it, we get better.’ Obviously, we’ve had a lot of highs, but we’ve faced a lot of adversity, like you mentioned in that midseason period. But the team never had their heads down at all. Throughout all of the challenges we’ve faced, we’ve got on with it, we’ve put our heads down and stood together. Those are the characteristics that we need here. We’ve also shown that we are adaptable with key players missing, as well. Next player steps up. Even though some players may not be getting as much playing time as they would like, this is a funny old game, and things happen, and you have to make sure that you are ready to perform and keep ourselves to a high standard. So, what you’ve seen this year is that there have been players who have done that, and without these characteristics we would never have put ourselves in the position we are in tonight, where we are now fighting for a final. Obviously, the result didn’t go our way, but without these values, characteristics, principles, all of those core personality traits, we would have never gotten to where we are tonight. That’s what I’m most proud of in this team. Obviously, it didn’t go our way. It would be nice to go into two finals in two successive years, but it wasn’t meant to be. We will come back, though, hungrier than ever.”
Orlando Pride Midfielder Marta
Opening Statement
“Well, of course we are disappointed, you know. At the end of the game, I was pretty sure that we were going to play 30 more minutes, and I was talking to my players to be smart, like, don’t do stupid things, because they were tired, we were tired. But I saw that they [Gotham FC] were more tired. So, for me, it was more comfortable to play 30 more minutes and take a risk and to go and score a goal... I don’t know if I need to see again what happened, but from the field, I did see there was a foul. I did see there was a foul. But we need to be smart. We can’t give easy fouls, you know, free kicks like that, especially at the end of the game.”
On the team's performance
“Well, they have a good team. Of course, they have a good team. We just needed to be a little bit more aggressive. Most of the time when we were aggressive with the first and second balls, we had success. And of course, we need to score. We had maybe two good chances in this game. At least one we needed to score. We need to put the ball in. It’s all that I can say to you guys now. It’s really hard to talk after a game like that. I’m still trying to understand why we lost like that, besides the free kick. But after they scored, we had a very nice chance and should, you know, score too. But the goalkeeper did very, very well. So, congrats to them and good luck in the final.”
On putting this season into perspective
“Well, we play in the best league, and we need to deal with ups and downs in this league. Even the best team this year lost against [Gotham]. So, you know, you need to improve after every single game because you don’t know what kind of result could end the game. I think we were so resilient this season. I don’t know if, besides us, people believed we would go so far, especially after we lost Barbra [Banda]. The team needed to find a way to work a little bit more and better together and run for each other and open spaces for each other and expect that everyone can score goals because we didn’t have Barbra there. At the end of the day, I’m very proud of this team. I’m very proud of what we showed this season. We can’t lose this feeling, the way we believe in each other, the way we work so hard to achieve our goals to keep going next season. Like I said, we play in the best league in the world, and we can’t just complain about things that didn’t work this season. We should look behind us and take what we can improve into next year and look forward to doing much better.”
