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Texas A&M Soccer

Aggie soccer coach G Guerrieri talks about his surging team, post-season

October 25, 2016
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On newfound confidence going into post season ...

"I think it gave them a lot of belief that the hard work that they put in, the rehabilitation that our injured players have gone through is something that's working. We've been fighting and fighting and I can't fault the players at all for how hard they fought in the games that went against us. And that was the same type of fight that we saw this time around but really, we added that with a little more quality. It's nice having some key people back in. Emily Bates in her limited time was very very influential. She made a difference in making things a little bit easier for Haley Pounds - we moved her into a little different role this week. Grace Piper is back but we had to move her into a different role because of where she is coming back from an injury. As we kind of cobble things together from day to day it gets a little bit better. This was a little bit more of a Texas A&M soccer weekend where we get two big wins, SEC announces their all conference players of the week and two out of the three are Aggies. It's more like what we are accustomed to than what we had been going through for a while."

On injured players returning to the lineup ...

"I think, right now, we're probably the team you don't want to play. I think when people go in and look at the standings and see that Texas A&M is going to be seventh or eighth in the league - they all know the kind of talent that we have on this team it just hasn't been available to us. So all of the sudden, you get into an elimination type of game situation and you look on the other side and it's Texas A&M, I think that helps us. Obviously, it's a tough road for us because we have to play a first round game against somebody that we lost to in the regular season. Then, in the second round you have to beat a really, really highly ranked team. We've done what we've done. We have to deal with it. But we get better and better every day and I like our chances more and more every hour."

On if there is a change in mentality approaching post-season play ...

"Not from what we've been going through this past weekend. This past weekend, if you look at the game on Sunday, the game on Sunday was a big win. But it was only going to be a big game if we had won on Thursday. So falling behind on Thursday and then having a penalty kick against us and then Dani Rice saving that penalty kick changes the momentum, Sarah Shaw scores and then we win it in overtime with [Mikaela Harvey]. All is said, and the belief started coming back and that put us into what we knew was going to be a really difficult game against a good as an Auburn team as I've ever seen. And that was a really great win. So now, we've put ourselves back into the conversation. We have a very difficult, what a lot of people would say is a trap game, coming up on Thursday. You've got a Mississippi State team that is going to play their last game of the season. Seniors are playing their last game. You know there's going to be a lot of emotion. They play with a lot of emotion anyway. It's a really tough game for us. What ever we do with that, we have to play a team that leads the league in fouls, that leads the league in yellow cards, and they're going to be pumped up. Buckle up and get ready it's going to be in 'Starkvegas.'"

On preparing for Mississippi State ...

"We have to play with speed. Today was a day in training where we were really focused on speed and playing hard, defending hard. Obviously, we don't go out to try and hurt anybody and nobody in this league does. But it's a deal where you have to practice with physicality, you have to practice with speed, you have to practice with control. If you expect to be able to do it in a league like the SEC where there's four, five, sometimes six teams ranked in the top 25. You're never going to get an easy game."
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Aggie soccer coach G Guerrieri talks about his surging team, post-season

3,136 Views | 1 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
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