New England Soccer Today

Post-Game Uncut: Abby Wambach


Abby Wambach:

Q: You were knocking on the door for most of the second half and you finally broke through, right?

AW: “That’s the hard part about coming in for only a half, sometimes it takes you 90 minutes to put those chances away and it brings my respect level for what Sydney Leroux’s been doing for this team for the past year, or year and a half, scoring as many goals as she has in the limited time that she’s been getting. So, I’m glad to have gotten the penalty kick. I think I probably deserved one earlier, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. And Heather O’Reilly and Christie Rampone, they were sending some great service into the box and I feel a little unfortunate not to finish at least one of them.”

Q: You’re one closer to the record and you said yesterday at open practice that you were excited to just sort of be done with it. So, are you glad that you’re just one more closer now?

AW: “Yeah, I mean, the thing is it’s not easy to score in international soccer no matter who you’re play. I think Alex (Morgan) probably was a little frustrated at not having as many chances as she normally creates, and you know, part of that is the surface here. You play a little different. You’re not going into every single tackle like you would on a grass field. This surface isn’t very forgiving when it comes to stuff like that, so I’m pleased with some of the great performances out there today – Carli (Lloyd) sticking one in the net, Lauren Cheney, obviously Kristie Mewis, her first goal. So, pretty special night, Morgan Brian getting her first cap and I’m one more goal closer to getting there.”

Q: You guys seemed to drop off in the second part of the first half. You came on and things picked up immediately. Do you think it was just you or do you think it was a whole team effort?

AW: “Well, I think that our team, historically we are really good at following directions, right? So when we go into halftime and coach gives us things to work on, usually they’re things that are going to really help our team and I think that that was a big difference. I thought we were really dynamic and the first 20 minutes and, yeah, it died off a little bit, but for me, when I come on, I want the ball in the box as much as I possibly can. Especially against a South Korea where we need to test them in the air, test them on our crosses, see what they can do defensively on crosses in the box and I think we’re unfortunate not to get a few more goals, but we get to see them on Thursday.”

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