Prior to the Chicago Red Stars’ match against the North Carolina Courage, Defender Zoe Morse and Head Coach Chris Petrucelli met with reporters. The Red Stars face the Courage for the second and final time this regular season, with the first matchup ending in a 2-2 draw.
On playing North Carolina for a second time (from Joe Chatz)
Chris Petrucelli: I think that obviously we don’t want to leave it that late, but I also think that the last time we played they were missing players and we were missing players. I’m not quite sure how relevant the result is. I think both teams played the system and style they wanted to play, but the personnel will be different for both teams. I don’t expect it to take the same script as last time. I don’t know what the script will be, but I think it will be different.
Zoe Morse: I pretty much echo that. I think we’re looking forward more than thinking about how that game went. Obviously there was a big burst of energy at the end to get the tie, but it’s going to be such a different game. It’s looking more at the last couple of games and what we have to improve on from that going forward rather than thinking about that last game.
On what the team needs to improve on from the last couple of games (from Joe Chatz)
Morse: I would say the biggest thing is just tightening everything up. I think we have all the pieces and we’ve gone over the tactics, we know we have the technique in our tool box. We just need to make sure that’s on and everything’s clean on game day and figure out how to be performing our best when the whistle blows.
On the injured players this week (from Herrnan Espinoza Jr.)
Petrucelli: New ones would be Arin Wright with an ankle sprain. We’re not sure yet on Mal. She’s not gone through a whole practice this week, we’ve only had one. She’s working in more and more, but at this point I don’t know if I can exactly say what Mal will do. Sarah Luebbert has a bit of an ankle issue as well and will be limited some. I believe that both Mal and Sarah will be available, but exactly how many minutes, we’ll have to see.
On how this game will be different from the first matchup considering the injuries (from Herrnan Espinoza Jr.)
Petrucelli: The thing that we know against North Carolina is that you have to score goals because they score goals. We’re going to have to limit how many goals they score and try not to get into a 4-3 kind of game. I think we’re better when we have the ball and control the pace of the game and it’s not transitional and we’re not running back and all that kind of stuff. So, we have to try to control the pace of the game and try to keep it more of a traditional soccer game than more of a high scoring affair.