Ahead of the Chicago Red Stars’ match against NJ/NY Gotham FC, Coach Petrucelli, Emily Boyd and Danielle Colaprico took questions from media members. The Red Stars play Gotham in their 10th match of the season on the road July 2 at 6:00 pm CT.
On the getting playing time and being the number two keeper (from Claire Watkins)
Emily Boyd: I think going into this season with Cassie and I, we didn’t know who was going to be number two. Obviously, she played a lot of games last year and did really well, so the number two was up for fighting for and they told me that it would be week-by-week I was just ready to fight to take that spot when I could.
On the process of being ready for this moment (from Claire Watkins)
Boyd: I feel like our training environment is really intense and I really love it. As goalkeepers, obviously Alyssa is the best and so training with the best, you have to keep yourself at a certain standard so every day we just try and train hard like it's a game and it'll just prepare us for the games as best as we can.
On how the team is feeling after a week off (from Claire Watkins)
Danny Colaprico: I think it's definitely nice to get a little bit of a break from the games. At the same time, I feel like we've still been hard at work, training, each and every day of this little by-week so we've been working hard working on some things that we need to clean up. A lot of our work these past weeks has been in our attack which we haven't had a chance to focus on as much so it’s important for us to use those things this coming weekend and we're excited to get back on the field and kind of just a breath of fresh air to take a step back and get some training in when we had those weeks, where we had so many games.
On the battle of the midfield against Gotham and playing them for the first time this season (from Claire Watkins)
Colaprico: Gotham has a strong midfield I think we also do too, and I think this week, as I said, we worked a lot on the attack and a lot of that was working on our box in the midfield and how we utilize that building out of the back, or whether it's sealing teams in and creating chances in the box. So, I think it'll be important for us to just focus on ourselves and use everything we've done over the past few weeks in the game this weekend.
On replicating moments from matches where the ball is on the other side of the pitch in training for keepers (from Alex Aziz)
Boyd: In training, we don’t play 11 v 11 all the time, but we play bigger games, where we are kind of building that like null period of not doing anything. But I feel like in the game that's almost like a time where we can just communicate and do the best we can, work with the team so it's not so much downtime mentally just downtime physically and we have that training
On Tatumn making June Team of the Month (from Theo Lloyd-Hughes)
Colaprico: I’ve always said that Tatumn’s a brick wall back there, I think it's amazing that she's gotten some recognition for all her hard work, especially this year. I feel in this league it's not easy to come in as a younger player and make such a huge impact and she has all year and we can constantly rely on her back there so it's huge for her to get that team of the month and we're excited about that, but at the same, at the end of the day, we have a lot to clean up so great for her and we're excited about that, and I mean she deserves it.
On how training has been and how the group has been feeling (from Claire Watkins)
Chris Petruccelli: The last two weeks have been really good. I always like training better than matches anyways so. But we had a good week last week, where we focused on sort of the defensive side of the ball. And then took a few days off and came back this week. We've worked on the attacking side of the ball and I will say that I feel like, I hope it shows, but I feel like we've gotten better in the last two weeks and that's obviously the goal of training.
On the absence of Pugh (from Claire Watkins)
Petruccelli: I think we're going to make a little tweak here. I think it’s to try to replicate a little bit of what we get with Mal, and probably going to switch up Yuki and Vanessa to try to get Vanessa forward a little bit more. I think she's going to be a little more active, you know Yuki likes the ball into her feet, and sort of play make from there. I think Vanessa gets to goal a little bit more, and so knowing that we don't have Mal and we don't have Bianca, I just feel like we need a little more scoring presence up there, and so that’s the shift we’re going to make.
On Ava Cook’s availability (from Claire Watkins)
Petruccelli: She flew back and got back pretty late last night. First of all, you know she played in both matches and then obviously the trip so she's had a good deal. I don’t think we'll train her today, just a little recovery with her today. She did take an injury, her toe got stepped on and we're waiting on X-rays on that I'm hoping it's not broken, I don’t think it is, but she does have a real sore big toe at the moment, so I'm not sure how many minutes we'll get out of Ava, I hope some.
On Jaedyn Shaw’s availability and how it will affect the college game (from Theo Lloyd-Hughes)
Petruccelli: I know Jaedyn actually quite well. I’ve worked with her for a number of years in the US soccer training centers. She's a very, very good player, and will be a very good player in the league. I think it's what we're going to start to see this more and more, I think that there are a lot of young talented players that can come in the league and make an impact like Jaedyn will. I'm happy that the league is open-minded about it and giving these players the opportunity, and like I said, I think we're going to see it more, so it's kind of exciting.
Petruccelli: I guess I always thought it was inevitable. It's not affecting the college game really at all right now. You know we'll talk about a player every other year or so, you know that that right now whether some of them going overseas or coming into the League, they're having there haven't been that many. So, I don't feel like it's had a big impact on the College game. I think it'll become more and more like the men’s side, where the top, top players, the colleges don't even look at them, because they know they're you know they're going to be professionals, but I think we're a few years from that.
On working with Shaw in past and what player can she be compared to (from Theo Lloyd-Hughes)
Petruccelli: She's really talented, she's explosive. She's probably more of a 10 than she is maybe a player who's going to be a forward, but she can score. She’s a very smooth player. her ability to dribble penetrate, maybe an Ashley Sanchez, who certainly you know is actually further along in her career, but she can beat you on the dribble and she can score goals.
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