Bruins Meet with Media on Eve of College Cup
December 06, 2019 | Women's Soccer
UCLA Press Conference Quotes
December 5, 2019
UCLA HEAD COACH AMANDA CROMWELL
Opening Statement
"We're excited to be here. College Cup on the West Coast we're excited about, especially in California and the stadium, it's my first time here at Avaya Stadium. Love the atmosphere and can't wait for the stadium, with the fans and playing, it's going to be a fantastic game on Friday with a well-known adversary and I'm excited that there's three Pac-12 teams here and almost a fourth โ we were very close. Just excited for the culmination of the season, I think we're peaking at the right time and playing some fantastic soccer, seen last week against Florida State, going in there and getting that 4-nil win at a place that's very hard to win in the postseason. I think we're on the right track and excited for these seniors to lead us home tomorrow."
WAS IT A CONSCIOUS DECISION BY YOU TO HIRE AN ALL-FEMALE STAFF?
"My former assistants, Lou (Louise Lieberman), who's now at San Diego, and Josh (Joshua Walters, Sr.) is now at JMU, and we had that opening, it was on my mind to hire a woman to fill that role, and I needed a goalkeeper. How I found (current UCLA assistant coach) Jenny (Bindon) was actually by chance. I ran into her coming out of the bathroom at the NSCAA Convention, United Soccer Coaches now. A mutual friend introduced us, it was just one of those divine intervention-kinda things. But yes, it was something I was looking to do in my career at some point.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM PLAYING STANFORD TO TRY AND REVERSE THE OUTCOME?
"That game really comes down to key moments of the game. We weren't great in the attacking third with some of our entry passes. We were dangerous enough, but we just needed to get some shots off that we didn't get off. Sometimes we didn't take a shot when it was on to, gotta take some half-chances, be a bit more opportunistic, be better on set plays -we weren't great on set plays in that game, we earned enough free kicks and corners to have some more dangerous opportunities. Those are things now, if you've been watching us, we've been pretty on fire with, making sure that we make the most of our possessions and we're very composed now in the attacking third and we've been scoring on corners. Anyone miss Viviana (Villacorta)'s free kick against Wisconsin, you need to go back and watch it, because it's gotta be one of the goals of the season."
"It's two heavyweight fighters going after it, right? You've gotta take each other's blows and hope your blow hits the hardest. If you watch that second half of that game, it really was a tale of two halves, they had the first half and I think we had the second half, and Jessie (Fleming) ran the show. I mean, she absolutely โ and you could see between their midfielders chasing her around, if we can get Catarina (Macario) worried about defending Jess we're gonna be in a good spot."
ON TEAGAN MICAH MAKING AUSTRALIA'S 2019 WORLD CUP TEAM
"Cool story about Teagan, when she found out she made that roster, we set it up to have a phone call. 'Hey, Teagan, come into the office.' She had no idea her (Australia) coach was going to be calling while she was in the office. She had my phone. First, it was, 'Call her in the meeting.' But, no, that's dumb, she's not going to pick up her phone because she's in a meeting with me. So he called me, and then, 'Teagan, you got a phone call on my phone.' It was a really cool moment. That's the moment she found out she's going to the World Cup.
ON FRESHMAN MIA FISHEL'S STRONG PLAY OF LATE
"She's had some rookie moments, whether it's trusting herself, trusting her teammates or just having a feel for what certain players like and what kind of runs they make. It's really playing to each other's strengths. She's a student of the game โ wise and mature beyond her years. She's come in, as much as any other player, on her own and been doing more video. She's really just soaked it up, just wanting to learn and watch. If you look at her movements and wanting to combine with other players, it's quite different even than from that last Stanford game. And her ability to hold onto the ball and create shots for herself and others, she's at a whole other level right now."
ON WHAT SHE THINKS OF COLLEGE SOCCER POSSIBLY GOING TO A TWO-SEMESTER SEASON
"I've been a proponent of that. I think, as far as soccer goes, it's meant to be a one game a weekend โ maybe with an occasional mid-week (game) โ sport. It's really tough on their bodies. We talk about student-athlete welfare and trying to decrease injuries, and helping them with academics. I would love to see that happen. As far as logistics that go along with that, as far as multiple sports in the spring, sharing facilities, the weather issues, there is so much more to it. I know the men seem to have a big push right now and a lot of momentum. I think it would be hard to do it for the men and not for the women. It wouldn't make sense to me. A lot of the coaches don't really know the ins and outs of it, even the players, because we haven't discussed it much. We weren't sure it would gain traction or not. Regardless of what we do, we've got to have a longer season, to give them more recovery days, to let them have a chance to take two days. In the Pac-12 we're lucky because we don't have a conference tournament. We are able to spread some games out and have two one-game weekends in conference. Too get two days off, it's, wow. It's like Christmas in September or October. It's a gift. It really is. I would be a fan of it, if we go that route."
**********
UCLA Defender #5 Kaiya McCullough
DOES THE GAME AGAINST STANFORD GIVE CONFIDENCE?
"It was a great game, like you said it really could've gone either way. From there, like Teagan said, we have improved immensely as a team and we are a lot tighter and our back line especially, I think we've grown and gotten more comfortable with each other, and I think across the field our defense has become a lot tighter from the forward line all the way down to our goalkeeper. I think it'll be a great battle for us and it'll be a great test for us to see our relationships on the field. I think that trust we have among one another that we've built all season is really gonna help push us through this game."
WHAT DOES IT MEAN HAVING A FEMALE HEAD COACH IN A COLLEGE CUP FULL OF MALE COACHES?
"As a woman, especially in a sport where most of the attention is on the males a lot of the time, it is very inspiring for us being led by not only a head coach who's a female but an entire staff that's female, and I think it just motivates us a bit more just to kind of get this done, not only for ourselves but for her and to just help further the women's game as much as we can. I mean, how many people get the opportunity to play in a stadium like this. It's awesome for us, I think."
"(Head coach) Amanda (Cromwell) was my first female coach. We were talking about that the other day, actually, about how I don't think I would've liked having a male coach as much in college just because how taxing it is, not only the soccer, but the mental aspect and especially going to a school like UCLA, the academics are very hard, too, so I think that having a mentor I could relate to a bit more really helped me in my career here. Obviously I'm almost done, but it's been a really good journey, and I'm glad that it's been aided by Amanda.
WHAT DOES IT DO FOR YOU AS A CENTER BACK HAVING JESSIE IN THE MIDFIELD?
"Obviously she's a very special player. Not sure I'll ever play with anybody like her again, but she is just a workhorse. Especially with her sitting at that 6 position, it helps so much to just have somebody who's so willing to sacrifice their body and put that on the line and just work really hard defensively. She's as hard of a worker on defense, if not more so, than she is on offense. So I think for us as a backline, it really helps knowing that we have players like Jessie or even players live Viviana who are in front of us, and most of the time they stop things before it even gets to us, so I think that helps us stay really compact and helps us be really organized on defense. I think since we have played Stanford, we've improved on that a lot and that will help carry us through this game."
ON HOW THE STRONG COMPETITION IN THE PAC-12 HAS PREPARED UCLA TO GET THIS FAR
"I think I tweeted about this not too long ago, about how hard the Pac-12 is. We're lucky to come out โ not lucky โ but every single team, you have to go in with a mindset that this team can beat us. We know that UCLA is obviously a very decorated program, and there is a legacy there with Stanford and USC. But as we can see with Washington State, every team comes into every game to compete. We took some heavy losses that kind of woke us up during Pac-12 (games) that helped push us to where we are now. Overall, the competition in the Pac-12 is phenomenal and I think it will continue to grow and hopefully will continue to offset the East Coast bias that you continue to see in college soccer."
ON WHAT TEAGAN MICAH AND JESSIE FLEMING BROUGHT BACK FROM THE WOMEN'S WORLD CUP
"That's like a chicken and an egg question โ part of their work rate, professionalism and attitude they already have is what got them there. But then going there reinforces it again, and so they bring it back. It's a bit of both. Obviously Teagan and Jessie are very special players, and it's been an honor to play with them for as long as I have. Seeing them live out their dream, I know for Teagan, she was a bit emotional about that. We're teammates, but we're also best friends, so to see her be able to live out that aspect of her life, with Jessie as well, was awesome. The joy was a big thing because it was like it wasn't just Teagan's victory; it was my victory as well, because my best friend got to play in a World Cup. Again, the professionalism was something they already had but also brought back. It was inspiring for players like me, who, I've been in and out of U.S. stuff. But that just goes to show that, hey, I can play with these people and that is an attainable goal for me."
**********
UCLA Goalkeeper #20 Teagan Micah
DOES THE GAME AGAINST STANFORD EARLIER IN THE SEASON GIVE CONFIDENCE?
"Yeah, of course. We've looked at film and I think our team has improved immensely from that game. We're a different team, especially at defense. We're a lot tighter and winning balls that we weren't really doing early on in the season, so for us I have all confidence in my back line, like Kaiya, all the girls were huge against Florida State, they had no answer to us. For me, it's us just playing our own game, winning those individual battles across the park and I think we'll do well against Stanford."
WHAT DOES IT MEAN HAVING A FEMALE HEAD COACH IN A COLLEGE CUP FULL OF MALE COACHES?
"I think it's super inspiring for our coaches. I love that they're all females. I love that we're all able to connect to them on different levels and for me, I think it's huge that we have more female coaches in the game and they're just showing other coaches it is possible. It's possible to get a team to a Final Four, and we wanna show people, especially female coaches, that it is possible to win a national championship with an all-female staff."
(Cromwell) has been a mentor for us off the pitch as well. I grew up with quite a few female coaches, too, but one of the main coaches in my life is male but I don't really see any difference between the two. At the end of the day, they're there for us and they're there to support us and she's done that amazingly throughout our whole entire career at UCLA."
ON HOW THE STRONG COMPETITION IN THE PAC-12 HAS PREPARED UCLA TO GET THIS FAR
"In the Pac, every game you have to show up. I've learned that throughout my career. We even took a loss to Cal and to Arizona, and it just proves every single team is out there to beat you. The way that each team plays in the Pac is really great soccer, so I think if it continues to grow as it has been, we'll see an all-four (Pac-12) College Cup one day."
ON WHAT THE AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL BROUGHT BACK FROM THE WOMEN'S WORLD CUP TO THE COLLEGE SEASON
"I just wanted to bring back some professionalism and honestly just some excitement around the game. I loved playing soccer year-round this year. To play every single day during the summer at such a high level was unreal and it really just brought back my love for the game a lot. I wanted to show the girls (at UCLA) that it's possible. I really had no clue that I was going to make that team at all, so it was such as surprise. I know that for Jessie (Fleming, a Women's World Cup player for Canada), she brings back her work rate; that's phenomenal. Every little detail we that we bring back technically, tactically, we try to instill into our team and just give every little bit of knowledge that our players are willing to soak up, along with that professionalism and happiness around the game."
