Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines
Opening Statement
"I think obviously being 2-0 down in this league, it’s incredibly difficult to get back into it. But we showed our character, we showed our mentality. The never say die, never give up mentality. We showed what we're capable of doing in that second half by scoring three goals. We missed some chances as well, so it could've been a lot easier and different. But, thankful for the three points and we move on."
On the team’s performance in the first half
“Angel City are a good team in transition and if you give away the ball in dangerous areas, they can punish you. Ultimately, their first goal comes from a transition moment. The second goal is a set piece. It’s unfamiliar territory for us. It’s been a while since we’ve been a couple of goals down in games, but again, two halves are never the same. We rectified it in our halftime team talk and we went after it. Nothing to lose at that point.”
On what the message to the team was at halftime
“I think a lot of it is down to fundamentals. We can talk about strategies, but you have to be motivated to make sure you tackle, make sure you look after the ball, not give it away, and have an objective to score. Put pressure on, put fear into opponents and certainly we did that in the second half and the crowd fully got behind us. When the crowd gets going, it can be intimidating for any team. And so, we use that to fuel us all the way until the end, and we managed to get the result.”
Orlando Pride Defender Carson Pickett
Opening Statement
“I think the game was a bit of a roller coaster for us, but honestly, good teams find a way to win, and I think we did that. We dug deep and it took every single person on this team, every single player, and every single staff member. We talk about it every single day. Everyone matters, everyone's just [as] important as the other person, and I think it took every single person at this Club to win that game tonight, especially the fans. They really helped us through that. Then the goal; I love a good left footed service, so when you see people like Ally Watt and Barbra Banda in the box, you put it on their head, or you try to find their heads. So, I think that's what I was aiming for. I always tell Ally Watt when I get it, just to get in the box, and she did exactly that and it was a great team goal.”
On the message from Seb Hines coming into game
“His message was that we don't lower our standards just because we had a loss. The best teams in this league and the best teams in the world find a way to win after a loss. I think everyone looks at you a little more to see how you're going to react to a loss, and I think that we did just that. It started a bit slower, but it doesn't matter. This team digs deep every time we're on that field and we never turn on each other and I think that speaks of the culture of this team.”
On the impact of Marta’s goal
“It was huge, it gave us belief. I think we deep down had belief, but we needed that ‘okay, we're really in this game and we can fight back, claw back’. It gave us that extra bit of confidence to go out there and continue to score because we saw that we could find a way to break them down and we needed to do it again and again.”
Orlando Pride Defender Kerry Abello
Opening Statement
“First half we just weren’t ourselves, that was pretty obvious. We just couldn’t get a rhythm. Obviously, [we] let in the two goals and needed to have a full vibe check at halftime and we did and came out super strong in the second half. I was so proud of the team for the drive, and I had every belief that we were going to put some on them and make it a game. We just went after them in the second half, and we were going to stop at nothing to score those goals. I’m just super happy that we came back and got the result.”
On the first half
“I think we just weren’t ourselves individually, I think our press was a little off and we kind of got in our heads and they broke it a few times. When they break it with players like Alyssa Thompson and Gisele [Thompson] and [Claire] Emslie, you feel that because those players can do really dangerous things. And then we weren’t connecting our passes on the flip side. We’d win the ball and give it right back to them. Honestly, I think that was the hardest part for us, just keeping possession, because again, they have dangerous players that can exploit you when you give the ball away, so, not our best half.”
On the pressure from Angel City
“I think we were rushing ourselves. I think we had more time than we thought we had. It’s a mind game. It was just uncharacteristic of us to do that, and we can be cleaner with much more pressure. We’ve shown that we can do that. It just wasn’t our half, and I think we got in our head. You miss one pass and all you are thinking for the next pass is ‘don’t miss the next pass’. It just a weird funk for that first half.”
