Bay FC v FC Barcelona

helloy how are you good to see you big match what's that just saying big match tonight for the franchise how special is it to to welcome Barcelona and play with them it's an honor I mean I believe they're the best team in the world their style of football is something that I've been saying we want to emulate it takes years and um we were just uh honored that we could play with them on the same field I thought that first half was outstanding it was uh 22 we scored two goals we uh decided to press them not many teams Barcelona the way I think we did uh everyone sits back and there's a reason why they sit it back because of how talented they are uh but I was really happy of our teams performance in that first half and then in the second half great opportunity for some of our younger players to come in and play against these World Stars uh so I think some of them were a little bit in awe at first and it's like wait we're playing on the same field as these players uh but it was just great to see all the way around and uh just very thankful of the opportunity from Barcelona from our side uh bringing it together and being able to provide an incredible experience for our fans all right with the addition of Abby was it special to see her take the field tonight and be in front of her home Crowd Oh yeah I mean I also believe she's one of the best uh center backs in this league and she brings a little bit of uh this calmness and and an understanding of our style of football uh but she also has the athletic system right so she's got a little bit of everything and her leadership and her just uh who she is as a person uh is going to help this franchise uh for many years uh to come and uh we threw her out there right in the first half so she could get a run in with uh some of of our players and uh I thought she did very well so we're excited to have her now for Friday night you know her for a long time right yes so my wife and I coached her since she was 12 years old or 11 11 or 12 so we've known her for a very long time and we just more importantly like I said she's a great footballer but we know what she who she is as a person and how she treats other and then the respects that uh you know follows her and uh she's just a great human what do you guys get out of a match like this you had to L Utah Friday quick turnaround of all clubs Barcelona for a quick turnar around but talk about what you get out of a night like tonight going back into leag play a couple days so one of the things that we will discuss now in the next couple days about this is the style of football so if you can see they're some they're not rushing things they're just passing it sometimes it seems like they're not going anywhere but it's because you're moving the defense and it's just touch touch and we're trying to play this onew touch rhythm ourselves but it's it's a bit foreign in this country it really is in the us because we have so many great athletes that we just want to go forward all the time well you could see that they yeah they've got great physical qualities but they're just patient they're composed they move the the other team around our defense by just passing four five six yard passes right and I'm like okay let's learn from that it can be done you don't have to rush things look how you solve problems uh I'm always asking our players don't send it don't clear it I don't care if we give up goals right now play with that confidence spin out play your goalkeeper play the six I'm sure fans and every else and even my coaching stuff sometimes are like no clear it I'm like no no we're calm we can we can play this way but you have to ask them to do it you have to give them the belief and then you have to let them fail and and let them give up goals and go look it's okay it'll come out and when they see this we're going to learn from that uh but then also it should give us confidence because look at that second I mean that first half we decided to press and we're like look we can press you've got to believe in yourself you got to be brave and let's make it difficult for them because very few teams will try to press Barcelona because they're able to get out of almost everything and we create opportunity I mean we could have scored another two or three goals in that first half so that's a lot to go off on and especially after that difficult loss against Utah um frustrating that um like there's no excuses but flying into Utah our legs were heavy a little bit tired and we looked good in the first half and then just kind of ran a little bit out of seam and then later in the second half we picked it up we were all over them uh but that's that's kind of been our season a little bit you know an own goal an unfortunate goal uh but the players feel uh feel pretty good about this game so hopefully uh we'll go into a Friday game with that confidence and excitement of go out there and uh get the three points playing our style of football so pretty much a lot you can build off of at least 80 minute 1 to 89 at least yeah yeah absolutely yep so so coach both of the goals tonight came off of off that High Press plus there were a couple others that you know you could have had a couple others as you were as you were alluding to earlier but is this the kind of football that you've envisioned this entire time as you've grown the team through the season absolutely High pressing uh style of football similar to Barcelona but then the key is when you win it understanding do you go forward or do you connect two or three passes to get out of the pressure and then bring it back around and being patient so it's understanding moments recognizing what the other team gives you and then recognizing moments when to go forward and when to be calm and just control where you're moving the ball around so but as far as the defending exactly I want to press teams I want to make it difficult for them it also looked like on the Press you had a couple of you had had multiple formation changes when you were pressing they kind of confused the Barcelona team a little bit so it's not a formation change it's who presses and when they press and it's recognizing sometimes we press with our white forwards the seven and 11 sometimes we'll press with our nine or Center forward and sometimes we'll press with our eight and 10 so it all depends on where the ball is and the movement but that also takes time because you give them all that sometimes this has been difficult it's like wait they just want one answer I'm like no that's not the game of football and they're start starting to understand it and if we can defend that way against the best team in the world that's Bring It On against anyone else and then ois gets that gets that very very good individual play where it's finally it comes to her gets on her foot and she puts it in for that first goal how does that make you feel for the rest of the season going knowing that that's finally it's finally coming to her coming to her and getting up that's very important for any Strikers Strikers sometimes like they're hot and cold but when they get a goal it's just getting into that Rhythm and this is important she scored a goal against her former team right and she had a couple other opportunities she had one that I thought was going in where it was maybe 10 yards but at least she found the goal and forwards that's what they just crave and uh and I know she's been kind of fighting that and wanting to score uh but now hopefully it puts her at ease and uh she's able to do it a lot more than the rest of the season man managing against bar I know it's a friendly and there is also but what do this fall for you in your soccer comp this I'm curious uh honestly it's got to be up there because Barcelona the club I've been a fan since I was 10 years old I've been following them since that long uh my hero growing up was Diego Maradona when he went to Barcelona that's when I really started following them and uh ever since I F i' fallen in love with their style of football but not only their football it's who they are how they treat people they just uh their culture and how they do things um there's a lot of respect for the game there's a lot of respect for their opponents and everyone else they're around and I've been fortunate to spend time there so I've seen just their training and the way they they just treat everyone right and uh and they enjoy they let their players enjoy their football obviously with some Direction so the fact that we were able to play against a club that I follow have followed all my life that I absolutely love their type of football and the best team in the world and also the best player in my opinion in the world itana bonmati outside of all of our players right but uh itana is uh I saw her play live a few years ago before she really had made a name for herself and within 5 minutes I said oh my gosh who is this this is this she's absolutely incredible and I was just mesmerized by her quality and then within that next year she just took off and it was really nice that I saw her at the beginning and uh it's great to see how much success she's had pivoting backwards for a second just talking about the style of football yeah thank you when it comes to the style of football how would you say uh Abby factors into this style you guys want to play so again she has the understanding of the football we want to play She's composed she's calm she's really comfortable on the ball but she can also understand the moments to play that longer ball she has the ability to play a 60 yard ball like maybe no one else in this league can right but she can also play that 10 yard ball that's right to the right foot or the left foot depending on where the player needs it so she understands moments really well uh she's comfortable on the ball and she's also a very good Defender she's great in the air she can track back she can tackle she's Brave she just brings uh a little bit of everything for us and we're excited to have her thank you thank you question sorry um you brought up you know being able to bring in the younger players for the second half what did you see from them and what did you take away so what you see with them and this is what I've been saying all season long is their energy their excitement right regardless of how the game is going on we know that we're going to get everything from them they don't leave anything behind on the field and it's just that mentality and the understanding that they're here and it's process and they're going to get better right so whether they play 5 minutes or 45 minutes they always give us uh the same kind of energy and they have a great attitude toward the game so I really appreciate that and they're trying they're trying to do the things that we ask them to do so credit to them under these difficult conditions especially in that second half what did you think of em all performance you back so again very happy for Emmy because she played in a game during the summer Cup against San Diego and know was the first time ever playing with us and I think you know that was a little bit difficult for her because kind of like your first experience a little bit sh shocked and then I knew it was just a matter of time because we see it every day in practice she's outstanding and finally she gets her second opportunity against Barcelona out of all teams and she came out and did what she's been doing for months for us so it's nice that uh she was able to have a great performance like she did in that second half so at the end uh Barcelona brought in a couple of their big guns they they said seemed like it was like Hey this score isn't enough and except for really a couple of uncontested shots at the end I think how do you feel that the players that you were giving more opportunity to seeing what happened in the second half how do you think that they held up against a team that really has that much fire well again they I thought they did very well they listened to the instructions so we asked them we were we knew we weren't going to say attack us much and it was just going to pick our moments and we had one there with almost Alyssa when she got in and around there uh but it was all about being compact organized and not letting them play through the middle because they can play through almost anyone I mean through anyone right right and that's what we asked them let's defend the middle let them play around try to defend the crosses which we did well but there's so much quality there that at the very end you know you get your legs get a little bit tired when you're having to chase and cover for for so long but it just shows that they were able to listen to to the instructions applied it and then couple of those goals were quality I mean they're finishing from outside the box I mean there's not much you can do but we were organized for the most part and credit to all the younger players now in the first half um aiz had that had that uh cross P right at the top of the six which I would I was just say like no I was like oh God that's got to be a goal but how do you feel that that has also become part of her game she used to be a little more bullish towards the goal trying to get the shot and to see her making that pass to try to to say like I haven't got the angle let me let me see what else I can do where does that make you feel about how how she's starting toel with the rest of the team well that's very important because now she's become much more of a team player right and you have to find the right balance because as a forward you want them to be greedy and aggressive and going to goal but then you also have to understand moments that there's someone that's in a better position to score and she's starting to do that and it's not only her it's also Rudy uh which uh um kundi we we call her Rudy but but going back to asisat she's really is finally starting this finding this balance but we see it at practice as well okay she's finishing but she's finding her teammates more than she has before but that's also comes with time trusting your players understanding where they're going to be and uh it's you know it's a process it's a process and every day most of the days we take a step forward every once in a while we take a step back but hey um we're constantly moving forward and what did you think about the uh connection between ra Rachel Hill and uh and Rudy as you were referring to um in in the first half on that second goal that's that seemed to be like something they've been working on for a while there we're you know expecting that path to come across now yeah so it's not necessarily that we've been working on it it's just it's what we ask of our players to be in certain positions to press in a certain way and what I loved about Rachel and Rudy is they have a mindset that they're willing to work for the team defensively because that you see them they're just always applying pressure in the appropriate at appropriate times and they're working off each other's energy but then when they do that the rest of the team follows as well and I have to give them Rachel and Rudy a lot of credit and now said but the rest of the team but those two started kind of depressing when we decided to press um and uh that's what we've been getting from them and now it needs to continue for the rest of the season we can't have uh you know games that we choose not to do that all right you guys thank