What They’re Saying After the Spirit’s First Win
Hal Hershfelt & Croix Bethune Hal Hershfelt on her goal: “I was able to watch the video back. Just the ball movement that went up to it. When something happens like that, you know that there’s going to be something great at the end of it. When Trinity [Rodman] played me that ball in, […]
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Hal Hershfelt & Croix Bethune
Hal Hershfelt on her goal:
“I was able to watch the video back. Just the ball movement that went up to it. When something happens like that, you know that there’s going to be something great at the end of it. When Trinity [Rodman] played me that ball in, I knew I was in the 18 and I was like, ‘I’m just going to turn around and smack this,’ because she played me a really nice ball.”
Croix: “And hit a banger.”
On what it felt like to score:
It just felt insane. The energy at Audi [Field] was something that, I mean you have games in college in the tournament and stuff where you have your school come out and stuff, but that was something different. I had never experienced anything like that before so that was crazy. Really exciting stuff.
On Andi Sullivan:
I personally love playing with her. She’s just such an experienced player and I feel like I get to learn so much just by being by her side. I feel like it’s just going to grow more and more as the season goes on. It’s only the start. I think we’ve been doing pretty well together so I can’t wait to see where that takes us.
Teamwork on these goals was outstanding!
Listen to what Croix Bethune & Hal Hershfelt had to say about their debut goals
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— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) March 25, 2024
Croix Bethune on her goal:
I feel like toward the end of the game, we were knocking on the door, knocking on the door, and we knew one was going to come eventually. We got a foul in the middle of the field. Tara [McKeown] played a great ball in and Courtney [Brown] left it and just tried to get a touch on it. And then [Ashley] Hatch had it in the center of the field and I was like, ‘I’m facing forward, I’m gonna go’, and just tucked it under the keeper.
On what it felt like to score:
The energy from the fans and them showing up for us it’s always great. Scoring, it didn’t feel real honestly. Different level, pro now, to see it hit the back of the net it’s just like ‘OK!’
The Rookies on Trinity Rodman:
Bethune: “Trinity is just such a great player that it makes your job a lot easier. She’s an attacking player, so for me it’s a lot easier to find her the ball or also play off of her. She has soccer IQ, skill and talent, so it’s great playing with her.”
Hershfelt: “Definitely the IQ piece. Just her being able to find – the first goal of the game she found me, and usually I feel like, it was kind of nice. She’s also, I’m a little deeper in the field, so usually when I’m playing it to her, she gets to it every time without a doubt. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s not getting to that ball. It’s nice playing with her.”
Trinity Rodman
On the process week over week:
“I think the improvements we’re having every single day, even just since I’ve been back – which hasn’t been that long – but it’s so good. Our connections are growing every single training, every single day. I think we proved that today. Obviously there are moments we can get better at always, but the patience and the ability to kind of change the tempo throughout the game I thought was really good. We did have a lot of control, which I think was the main switch-up that we wanted from last game. Obviously, we lacked that control [last week] so I think we did a really good job with that today and pushing the pressure as well and getting them to make turnovers in our favor so we could either transition or just pull it back and get into our shape again.”
On the system:
“Just the ability to interchange between positions is a strong suit that hopefully we’ll continue to show through these games. Through the years, I feel like it’s kind of always been, ‘outside forwards kind of stay wide and stretch ‘em and then kind of get it 1v1 and do your thing’. Now it’s more of a team: ‘let’s connect, let’s move off each other’, and I think a huge focus is that movement off the ball which I don’t think gets seen enough. I think this game especially, it was that for me, movement off the ball. It wasn’t just kind of sitting on the sideline. Gabby [Carle] has great positioning. She’s always stretching them as much as possible. If she’s dropping, she’s creating even more space for herself she can make that decision. Croix, I mean, I’ve barely played with the girl and I feel like our connection is really good and we play off each other really well. I think the freedom in a structure is really amazing and it brings out the best qualities in people. I’m really excited to play in this and tonight was fun even though it was very tense and we got scored on first. It was a really fun game to see our team thrive.”
On the rookie goals:
“Hal’s goal was amazing; couldn’t have gone more in the corner. I’m just so happy for them. I think that just proves how many players on our team can score and the versality with that and not just having one or two dangerous players. I think we can score from every angle from Casey Krueger in the back flying forward for a header or if that’s me or whoever. I’m very happy for them. I thought it was amazing, obviously. Hal’s reaction to her goal, I don’t even think she thought it was going in. But yeah, it was great. And Croix, game winners are always amazing. She hit her little dance. You know I love that, so yeah, just really happy for them.”
Andi Sullivan
On Trinity Rodman:
“I think obviously Trinity has so much attention around her for so many different things, I don’t know if she gets enough credit for setting other people up, because she has so many other things that are so jaw dropping and show stopping. I didn’t know that [she tied the club record for assists] – that’s pretty cool to hear. It won’t be long until she’s leading that category. Her assisting more, people have to worry about that more which makes her more free to take them 1v1.”
On Hal Hershfelt:
Especially in the first half, I thought she was incredible. The shot was an absolute banger so I don’t need to even talk about that. Getting into tackles, her change of pace at the right time, reading things and smoothing things, when to play simple, she’s a stud and I enjoy playing with her. Obviously, we have some relationship stuff to build and some things to fix tactically, but she’s great… She’s easy to work with. She’s super communicative which I like because I’m very communicative, but she’s also really receptive. She’s always looking and asking questions, very steady, looking for feedback.
Adrián González
On the win:
“So happy for them to be honest. I think they are improving a lot. They are doing a really good job during the training sessions. This week has been a great week after we lost the first game. I could see players, the attitude was fantastic during the week. I think to be honest, today we deserved it, that goal. We had, I don’t know how many chances we could have scored before. One positive thing, the team just believed until the end. This is a mindset we are trying to get, fight until the end, I’m so happy for them.”
On the rookies:
“They are ready to compete. I’m so happy for them. We believe in the young talent. This is why we drafted those players. We are helping them to develop as soon as possible. They are improving a lot, so quickly. I’m so happy for them; really good performance. I think for the future, Washington Spirit has amazing talent here, especially with young players, so we need to be happy.”
On the message at halftime:
“The message – we always try to identify what happened during the first half: where we have those advantages in terms of spaces, how the opponent is pressing, how we can progress much better. After that, the message was that we knew that the game would be long. We said that at the beginning, ‘we need to be patient today’. Maybe the result is going to be like today, we were 1-1 but the last 15 minutes I think it was a little bit crazy but we knew it would be a long game. Tried to believe until the end, keep fighting and today we had the chance to score at the end.”
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