Thorns Post Game Interviews - July 13, 2014

Head Coach Paul Riley

"I think in our own mind we know. The players know. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time. We knew coming in here, we had to give a good home performance. We haven’t given one all season, to be honest with you. We’ve had decent performances, but we haven’t really gotten the goals and I think that’s what we wanted to do. I didn’t expect it to be this kind of score line. I think we’ve had some great energy. Even in Chicago, which is a tough place to play, we had great energy. If we just bring that verve and that energy, we’d have a good result. I didn’t give them a day off. We’ve kept them in here, even if it’s just looking at tape, just doing something so we’re around each other and they’re not hiking around or canoeing the rivers. I want to keep them and its going to be like that for the next six weeks. They’re going to probably be so sick of me talking to them in the next six weeks, but whatever it takes just to get in [the playoffs]. We’ll take anything at this point: fourth, third, second, whatever it is we’re striving for. We just want to get in and hopefully we can do some damage when we get in. But we have a lot of work ahead of us. Chicago had a great result last night against Seattle, so now we have to go into the cauldron and it’s a tough place to play. We have to be almost a little bit different than today. Today we played some great football and there we’ll have to play some great football. It’s going to be a difficult game for us, but hopefully we’ll get some points."

Midfielder Allie Long

"Paul has told me when I play defensive mid to take my creative card and put it in my back pocket, and kind of just stay disciplined. It does take away from part of my game, but I also really like the aspect of just sitting there and protecting the defense, and basically just keeping possession and starting the attack. Whereas as an attacking mid, I’m getting the ball off the defensive mid, and I’m kind of creating and looking to find Alex and Sinc and create some stuff and hopefully get some goals."

Midfielder Vero Boquete

"It’s a final. For us, it’s a final. For Chicago, it’s a final. We know that not all the games will be like a final, but this is a real one. It’s two teams that are fighting to be in the playoffs. It will be hard. We know that the last two games were a surprise. We know them. They know us. Maybe we wish that we could play here. Chicago’s field is not that good for us, it’s hard to combine, but we don’t have an excuse. We have four days to recover and Thursday we have to get back at it."