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NWSL Houston Dash

Houston Dynamo Travel West and Dash Host Chicago at PNC Stadium

July 16, 2022 - National Women's Soccer League (NWSL)
Houston Dash News Release


QUOTES:

Dynamo head coach Paulo Nagamura (English and Spanish)

Dynamo goalkeeper Steve Clark

Dash interim head coach Juan Carlos Amorós

Dash MF Bri Visalli

Dynamo head coach Paulo Nagamura

(on preparing for San Jose) "Quick turnaround, we look forward to the game and we have to get back in business. We have to get better, that's the bottom line. That's what we are trying to do these last few days of training prior to this next game. It's another road trip against a team that is playing much better lately. San Jose is a totally different team than the one we faced early in the season, so it's about us getting back to winning ways. The players and coaching staff, we are not satisfied with what we are doing right now and we are working hard to turn this around."

(on the challenges he expects from San Jose) "San Jose, it's a very solid team, they have a great front three, with (Jeremy) Ebobisse, (Cristian) Espinosa, (Jamiro) Monteiro playing. They have great midfielders in (Jan) Gregus, (Jackson) Yueill, (Eric)Remedi, a very solid team in my opinion. It's going to be difficult, they are a team that likes to play, a team that is very mobile and very dynamic. They are strong at home, a difficult place to play and we will be ready. We have an idea of what they are going to bring, but it's about us as well. We need to find an extra gear there, 100 percent is not going to do the job. We are going to go there and work 200 percent because that's the only way we are going to turn things around."

(on how Hector Herrera is adapting to the team) "He has a pretty good engine, so he's going to adapt quickly. He's been with us for two weeks, he's been improving every week and he's further along now, with him coming on in the last two games. In terms of fitness, it's hard for me to say; it's more of a question for him. I'm sure that he is the kind of player that will do whatever he needs for the team. If he can give everything in 75 minutes or if he can sustain 90 minutes or if he can play 45 or 60, however long it is, I think he will do it. We will assess his condition and hopefully he can play more minutes this weekend."

(on finding the core group of players) "I don't think we have found the best versions of ourselves yet. It's in the works, there are a couple of missing pieces and a couple of things that we need to work on as a team to be better. I think we are not there yet, we definitely are way further along than we were at the beginning of the year. With the arrival of Hector (Herrera), I think it's going to help that, we can figure out what the next steps are."

Director técnico del Houston Dynamo Paulo Nagamura

(sobre cómo llega el equipo a este juego del domingo) "El equipo está frustrado con los resultados. Nosotros como cuerpo técnico también, la recuperación es corta, no hay tiempo para lamentarse, no hay tiempo para sufrir. Hay que poner el trabajo en la cancha, corregir los errores que tuvimos. Tenemos que entrar a la cancha el domingo con la mentalidad de cambiar lo que estamos pasando ahora. Creo que con los resultados anteriores nos pusimos en una situación que no nos agrada, pero todavía quedan 14 juegos y esos son muchos puntos para ser disputados. Confío en el equipo, en el plantel que tenemos y en el trabajo para salir de la mala racha".

(sobre cómo levantar el ánimo del vestidor tras cuatro partidos sin ganar) "Nuestro grupo es muy unido, muy fuerte, y no están satisfechos con los resultados, eso es lo más importante. Tenemos que corregir los errores que tuvimos, creo que tenemos motivación, ganas de salir de esta mala racha. Los jugadores son muy profesionales, entienden la situación, no están satisfechos con lo que están rindiendo en la cancha y eso es lo más importante porque hay una mentalidad ganadora. Cuando estemos más establecidos como equipo la mala racha va a pasar y los resultados van a salir".

(sobre qué le dice a la afición del Dynamo que está frustrada) "Vengo de un país, vengo de Brasil, donde la presión de todo recae en el entrenador. Siempre que hay resultados negativos la culpa es del entrenador. Estoy acostumbrado a eso. Si en un partido tiramos 30 veces al arco y no marcamos el gol, la culpa es del entrenador, si el otro equipo hace un gol de contra ataque la culpa es del entrenador. Eso es normal. La afición tiene razón de estar enojada. Eso me motiva más para salir de esta mala racha para dar alegría a la afición. Este equipo trabaja muy duro para dar alegría a la afición".

(sobre qué tanta confianza les da saber que ya le ganaron a San José esta temporada) "Si, pero era otro entrenador, aunque es el mismo equipo juega diferente ahora, principalmente a la defensiva. Es un equipo sólido, fuerte, ha mejorado después del cambio de entrenador, está más consistente en rendimiento, en la manera cómo juega, en los resultados. Será un partido muy difícil, porque siempre es difícil jugar ahí en San José. No hay juegos fáciles como visitantes. No estamos satisfechos, sabemos que tenemos que mejorar mucho. El domingo será otra oportunidad para salir de la mala racha".

(sobre qué cree que debe mejorar el equipo) "En términos de organización el equipo se ve bien. Contra Austin estuvimos bien organizados el primer tiempo, aunque no creamos muchas opciones de gol. Defensivamente también estuvimos organizados. Hubo algunos errores individuales, eso nos costado muchos goles en esta temporada. Muchas veces nos ponemos por debajo en el marcador y eso nos presiona. Debemos minimizar los errores individuales, además debemos ser mejores en el manejo de la pelota, ser más contundentes e inteligentes cuando tenemos la pelota. Cuando no somos inteligentes ocurre lo que pasó en el segundo gol de Austin, jugamos sobre la presión de Austin, perdimos pelotas, nos anotaron el tercer gol cuando salimos de una presión alta. No somos todavía un equipo consistente para poder jugar ese tipo de juego. Tenemos que corregir los errores, disminuir los errores individuales y también nos falta contundencia ofensiva".

(sobre cómo ha sido el proceso de adaptación de Héctor Herrera) "Herrera no va a poder pasar a jugar con el equipo de 35 minutos a jugar 180 minutos esta semana, en apenas tres días de diferencia. Para él es como una pretemporada porque estaba sin jugar, sin practicar tras salir del Atlético. Hay que buscar que continúe la evolución de su forma física y que contribuya ahora con la máxima cantidad de minutos que pueda darnos en la cancha".

Dynamo GK Steve Clark

(on preparing for San Jose) "It feels good to get back out on the pitch after Austin. They are a good team up in San Jose, much improved and super dynamic attack, so it's going to be a big challenge out there."

(on what makes San Jose dangerous) "They have really good movement up top, dynamic players, you see (Jeremy) Ebobisse, they have very good players up top. A team that's better than the amount of points they have, so overall, I think we are excited for a big game. There's one after another, this is crunch time in the season for us, so we will be ready for that."

(on the addition of Hector Herrera) "He's a humble guy, a leader and we all respect him for what he's done in his career. There's the off-the-field part about who he is and how he holds his standard around him by being himself. Then there's his ability to play on the field, which you see in the games. He's a very good passer of the ball and can keep possession and break lines. All in all, it's been awesome to have him, it's been really great."

(on defense) "The last few games, giving up two goals a game - we just want to be a better defensive team. That's not just us, it's the whole group. It's who we want to be in our ideas."

Dash interim head coach Juan Carlos Amorós

(on arriving to the club) "It's been amazing to be honest. The players, the staff, the fans, the club - everyone has been extremely welcoming. It was difficult because I traveled to Houston on Sunday and landed here and started on Monday morning. With the effort from everyone and the willingness to work, it has just made everything really easy, and the transition has been absolutely brilliant. So hopefully tomorrow we can start showing a little bit of that work that we're doing."

(on goals for the first week of training) "The target for this week was just getting to know everyone personally. I am a big fan and my values are about people, (getting to know them) and at the end of the day we are all people. So, getting to know the players, the staff. How they think, who they are, how they are. Getting to know each other was definitely one of the targets. The same time (I come) into our team in the middle of the season and it is not the same than when you start in preseason. You have time to adapt, time to install your principles, your values, your way of doing things. You have to adapt really quick so obviously the other target is we will see tomorrow if we can achieve it by beating Chicago in first game together. Our target is to compete, to win, like it will always be and tomorrow after the game, I can tell you if we accomplished our goal or not. We definitely got to know each other and its over exceeded my expectations. So, we can definitely tick the box there and if we could tick that box tomorrow of getting three points against such a difficult team -- it will be it will be an unforgettable week."

(on learning more about the team) "Trying to spend as much time as you can with them. I haven't met everyone individually, but there has already been some individual meetings, there have been connections on and off the pitch here at the training grounds - that's massively important. How they behave on the pitch, with experience, I've been coaching now for 24 years, so you quickly get to know people. Learn how they feel in certain situations, starting to know how to approach players because every player, every person is different and every person needs a different approach. Some players need to need to be pushed, some players need to be rewarded at certain moments. I can't explain it because I think it comes with experiences in a coaching role, but I think that's massively important. They know that my door is open that I'm here for them, they're here for me I will tell them what I think they have to be ready. We are in a high-performance environment. I always do it in a respectful way and in a way that I can I help them be better, because if they are better then the Dash is going to be better and that is my goal."

(on working with Sarah Lowdon) "She has been brilliant. I met her before online it was like a long distant relationship. It was great to finally meet her in person. She's been brilliant. The same goes for the rest of the staff Hiro (Suzuki), Michael (Balogun), Matt (Lampson), Corey (Ashe) those are a little bit of on the coaching side. We have such an amazing supporting staff as well with the medical team, the media team, the player care coordinator, psychologist. Everyone plays a part. I've been trying to start pointing in the direction that I want to go and if everyone pushes in that direction, I'm sure we are we are working toward a successful formula. In terms of football, we've been trying to touch on key concepts on every aspect of the game in order to be prepared for the game tomorrow against Chicago."

(on FW Maria Sanchez's return) "It's difficult to say because she's had several games in such a short period of time. The outcome is not what we wanted. For me I want my players, when they go internationally to be successful. In this case, unfortunately Mexico didn't get the qualification that they were looking for. We will have to really wait until tomorrow to see how she recovers. She trained last night, she will train today. Tomorrow we will make the decision if she's ready to start or play. She's had a heavy workload these last few weeks now."

(on Elizabeth Eddy) "It has been a difficult time for her and her family. I think she's very appreciative and she's grateful for the way the club and everyone has behaved. Her teammates took a picture before the game the other day. I think the club has been supporting her in every way or form from here. I would like to send the best wishes to her dad, hopefully he recovers quickly. Liz (Eddy) has been training throughout the week, has been competing with her teammates and we will see tomorrow. She could be in the starting lineup and could be on the bench. She's available to play."

(on MF Bri Visalli) "She's been fantastic when she's been on the pitch lately. She's been very good at training as well. Same goes for the rest of the midfielders that we have, they are definitely talented. There are different ways of understanding the game, I think Bri (Visalli) is doing really well and will see how she will play some sort of role tomorrow. I'm not sure if it will be starting yet or if she will come off the bench, but she definitely deserves to be on the pitch at some point."

(on similarities between the teams he has coached) "I think the (Houston) Dash is a bit more similar to the team I had at Spurs in Tottenham. A little more similar compared to Real Betis. I think we have a very solid goalkeeper with a lot of experience. We had that in both teams. The team defensively is very physical. Maybe at Real Betis, we had very strong players, but I think the physicality, the Spanish team was a bit stronger. The one thing across all three teams is players are willing to learn, work hard and develop. That's massively important. There are players that maybe people don't pay that much attention to, because they're not playing every game. I've seen already some special talent maybe with some people that wasn't on the radar. I hope I can help these players develop and achieve big things at the international level, club level, helping players and people to develop is one is one of my targets."

(on Houston's strongest quality) "The Dash, I think at the moment, probably the counter attack is their strongest phase. That offensive transition at pace is something that because of the characteristics of our players is something that the data is there is where they've been, the most dangerous."

(on past performances and preparations) "By only focusing on one game is not realistic. Coaches do a lot of work to try to help the team, obviously the last game it wasn't a very good game. The performance of the team under Sarah (Lowdon) and the coaching staff has been fantastic given the circumstances and the change in the roster between last year and this year. The team has been performing fantastically well, so it's a question we haven't really looked at the Orlando game that much. It's been an overall analysis of what can be our strengths and going forward how we want to play, how we want to face this very difficult game against Chicago. We want to go out and compete, try to win. We want to win the game against a very difficult side. We have been focusing on what we want to do against Chicago more than what we didn't do right against Orlando. We've tried to install some principles in in every single one of the phases, what do we want to do in possession, the counter press, when we lose the ball, when we have to defend. Trying to be a bit more organized in the counterattack and also in set pieces. It's been a lot of information trying divide it during the week so players don't get overloaded. Hopefully tomorrow you can see certain patterns or certain ways of doing things that you and others who come to the stadium or watch on TV can enjoy. I think that football is a very dynamic game. I don't really like talking too much about shapes because it changes constantly. Sometimes it looks more like a 3-5-2. Sometimes more like a 4-5-1. There will be something that changes. It's more about making waves working, making that stronger and fixing the things that aren't working more than completely changing everything."

Dash MF Bri Visalli

(on prepping for Saturday's match) "It's been an interesting week, obviously, with the arrival of Juan (Carlos Amorós). It's been intense, a lot of information has been put into place. Not necessarily anything that's reinventing the wheel, just more so principles of play, which is a good reminder, honestly, at the midpoint of the season as well. Those details are going to really see us through positive moments, as well as when the going gets tough. This previous result was not at all one that we saw coming. It's definitely been an interesting week, but one that's been really rewarding on a day-to-day basis."

(on adjusting to new coaches) "It's not necessarily ideal because you're getting different cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. That might be challenging for players to adapt specifically to what is required or, tactically speaking what division is. Adversity really pulls a team together. So, I've seen, in my opinion, a positive external approach, but it's obviously very different. The systems are different, the styles of play are different. With Juan, it's not necessarily that we're reinventing the wheel either. It's just, at least this last week been a reminder of what makes teams successful. It's not something that's different from each coach that we've had at the helm. Moreso just a reiteration of the basics. It's been a positive week overall and a positive transition. I'm not going to lie, there are some challenges to that. Obviously, for individuals within the group to you know, someone's opinion of you as a player might be different from another person's opinion. For some, it's an opportunity and others it might be scary with the arrival of a new coach and just the uncertainty but for the most part, I don't think that most of us have focused on that necessarily, and it's been less of a distraction and more of let's just get to work. I mean, like the first two days of training, were pretty high intensity. So, it's kind of hard to focus on your anxiety when you just like literally running across the field, so it was overall, in my opinion, really positive."

(on Juan Carlos Amorós) ""It's going to take time. I definitely see the motivation to get to know us as like more than players as people, which I appreciate. Little things like greeting us, every time we come in and out of the training ground has been really nice. When he has one to one with a person is just like speaking to us, like frequently. It's been a short workweek. I'm sure he's going to take the time to get to know a lot of people. I know that he reached out over a phone to a couple players on the team just to introduce himself. He has like past experience with some players that are actually on our team at the moment. I just think it's going to take time it's been going on a few days of him. Can't ask him to meet the whole group yet."

(on Sarah Lowdon's role) "Sarah was really excited for Juan to arrive just so that we can all be all on the same page. We were going to have a transition period of tactics versus what Juan wants us to do now. I've seen her just really facilitating a lot. Last night, some of the things that we were working on, we split the group into and she led one group. You can just see like it's a really strong work relationship, in my opinion. Sarah's been a positive light. It's hard to deny that and moving forward, she's already played such an instrumental role that it's hard to not see Juan without, like, his assistant."

(on having a new coach) "It honestly feels like a fresh start for I think most of us, it's like midway through season. You almost have to close the door on like, the past successes that we've had and focus on what's to come because that's what will help us get to playoffs. Injecting a new coach at this point in the season is bringing like a fresh passion or excitement that like a lot of us have -- we have a whole week off coming soon -- so this feels like a party going into that week because we've literally worked our asses off. We get the reward to play and then we have that whole week off where I think a lot of us are going to use that vacation just for how long the seasons already been. There's more positive vibes sounds like a total weirdo like a hippie there's more positive vibes going into the game then there's pressure in that regard. Because I think like I said, it's just a fresh start for everyone."

(on how the team has changed) "Personnel wise it's changed quite a bit. I think like the same excitement that I felt in 2020. With me coming to the club, I guess it's like a fresh start, I'm feeling again with Juan (Carlos Amorós). I really am looking forward to this weekend's game as well as the rest of the season. It just feels like a brand new start for a lot of us, which is pretty energizing, you can hit a lull mid-season a lot of times, and then you can drop points. Quite frankly, we haven't done a good enough job of picking up points. Hopefully, this will inject some positivity as well as, like a fresh start for a lot of players. So, I'm personally really excited. It's hard to quantify, because we have different players, but I do feel the same energy from 2020."

(on how to improve) "The obvious one, would be to score goals. We've created a lot in terms of building up, and we got to the final third. It hasn't seemed to click, regardless of goal production, I would say that even hanging out in the final third. Putting teams on their heels and putting the pressure on them to defend us hasn't really been the case in the last couple of games. That totally changes in my opinion, the feel of a game, you can feel the momentum. That would be definitely something that we would need to improve on. Hopefully that can happen. Chicago's a really good test for that, they're very hard working. disciplined, as well as organized in their attack and defensively. It's going to be a real test this weekend for us to improve and really put into action, everything that we say we want to do. But goal production would be great."

(on Juan Carlos Amorós' approach) "Prior to Houston I had a Spanish coach. It feels like I have deja vu. It's like the same principle principles of play. One thing for me that I really have appreciated is the idea of the counter press. I'm a firm believer that you can control your energy, attitude and effort. Like other things in the game, sometimes they're just completely out of your control. He made a comment within training, for instance, that he wasn't going to get mad if we took a shot and it didn't go in but the one thing that he would get mad was our effort, in terms of like if we turn the ball over, and we needed to recover it. That's something that I resonate with, on a culture standpoint, as well as I think is just like a huge key marker of success for most football matches is how can how quickly can you then get the ball back once you've made a mistake and counterpressure in my opinion, is what wins and loses games a lot."

(on returning to midfield) "For me, just getting back into the midfield has been a real treat. I had played left wing previously, the last couple of seasons. I didn't mind, but I didn't feel like I'm really a left winger by heart and trade. Since being in the midfield, I've played defensive roles then played attacking roles. It's really hard to say at the moment, just because I feel like I haven't even had that many games to really settle in. One thing for me that people can always rely on is just my work rate, and the ability to also win balls back. I'm not scared of challenges, and I have no issue getting into tackles. That's not trying to be like nasty, or I'm like this player that's a big shot in terms of hitting people. The counterpressure aspect of the game I like really resonate with. Hopefully that's already shown through and then you just refine the other pieces of the game that's necessary. That's always something that I think a coach, as well as a fan, could hopefully rely on me to do."

(on the key to beating Chicago) "Using some of the back to basic principles that we've gone over throughout the week in training and some of the high-intensity sessions that we've used will hopefully pay off. With the arrival of Juan Carlos Amoros, we'll use that excitement and energy to really put out a proper performance against Chicago, deny them the ability to play the way they want to play, and play into some of the positive strengths that we have as a group collective."

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