Orlando Pride Head Coach Marc Skinner
Opening Statement
“I thought that I’m so proud of the players for, you know...one of the things we’ve been asking for a while is a clean sheet. You’ve heard me sit in this room many times and say that we’d like a clean sheet because then you only have to score one goal, and that’s the difference. I think we’ve created enough tonight to be well away, I wasn’t really nervous. I think we had control of the game, I thought players played particularly well, and what a way to win the game. What a wonderful goal from a fourth-round draft pick [Marisa Viggiano], so it’s a wonderful story and a testament to the attitude of all the players that have been here while our internationals have been off doing their thing.”
On Marisa [Viggiano]’s goal and what she has been bringing to the attack
“I think what Marisa does, which we identified in this game that’s why we made the change, is that she finds space. I’m going to have a really bad pronunciation but I think it’s ‘Raumdeuter’, I think it was coined by Thomas Muller, and it’s basically ‘space finder’, roughly in translation. She is a space finder, so she picks up pockets. We knew that Sky Blue would play a 4-1-4-1 so we knew the pockets inside of the midfield would be places we could pick it up. And with somebody like Marta, who is easy to read off, Marisa read it in those situations. I think on the ball she has lots and lots of quality and believe it or not for such a small player she has good power in her legs. I’m really pleased with her, and I’m really pleased with all of them because we have international players with really high quality but you know, I challenged the kids to step up and be part of the team, so I think she was excellent tonight.”
On his message to the team at halftime and moving forward
“Absolutely, I think what was key, what was said at halftime was don’t let them have a sniff, don’t let them back into it, control the game psychologically and by that being in the right places, to not drop your lines too deep, which at some times I thought we did without pressuring the ball. I just reiterated to them that you don’t come here and go away with an easy game and I think that we want to build that mentality that you don’t come here. It’s going to be the hardest game that you play all year and once we have that, then you’ll see more clean sheets and you’ll see more goals. So tonight was about building mentality and we built that mentality, sort of breaking the wall for the mentality tonight. It was really good having your senior players, like your Ash [Ashlyn Harris] and your Ali [Krieger], because they’re very vocal and it was excellent to have that balance behind the backline as well.”
Orlando Pride Forward Claire Emslie
On getting in the match and her first experience as a Pride player
“Yeah, it was amazing. Even watching from the sidelines just seeing the atmosphere, the crowds were incredible and the atmosphere was electric. I think the girls, you can tell we’ve been working really hard. It was a good hustle first half and just exciting to get on the pitch with the girls and get a win.”
On integrating with the team
“Well the girls are amazing, they made me feel really welcome from the first minute. So I’ve got to know them pretty quickly, and jumped straight into training. I’ve trained twice and so it’s been a lot of learning, learning the tactical side of the game, and learning what the players strengths are. I’ve jumped in at the deep end but it’s been good getting this win.”
On what the assistant coaches told her before entering the game
“Yeah they just told me, obviously, my role is a winger and just to be positive with it and go express myself and be creative. So, they gave me the license to play and yeah, I enjoyed it.”
Orlando Pride Midfielder Marisa Viggiano
Thoughts on the game
“It was a great game by both teams, you know hard fought for 90 plus minutes and really proud of our team stepping up in the circumstances that we’re in and really just putting out a dominating performance in front of an amazing atmosphere, so it was overall really really good.”
On her goal
“Chi [Chioma Ubogagu] pulling out into the midfield opened up that lane for me so I was able to get the ball and face forward and just drive at the defenders and just took a touch and honestly it kind of just happened and I shot and it went in and it’s really, really cool”
On finding her place on the team
“You know I’m surrounded by the most incredible players in the world, so I just want to come into practice every day, give it my all when I get my opportunity to step up, so that’s I feel like where I’m at right now. Just keep working and keep learning, keep growing, taking it day by day.”
