Head Coach Jimmy Walker talks success on the field in September for the Bluejay’s ahead of the team hosting BIG EAST opponent Xavier.
0:15 Opening statement
1:31 Missing ingredient at the moment?
3:30 What type of challenges pose for upcoming game against Xavier?
4:28 Players response after talked to?
5:15 How is Jalen Chaney doing?
6:20 How important is it to win home games at Morrison Stadium?
7:45 How has the team communication been better especially from the defense?
9:23 How do you get them started in the right way?
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hear myself. You got everything. I got it. Women’s soccer head coach Jimmy Walker, Blue Jays after a hard fought 1-1 draw with Marquette host Xavier on Wednesday, tomorrow. Coach, you’ll begin with an opening statement. Yeah, so um we’re we’re wrapping up the month of September. Um September’s been a pretty good month for us in regards to success on the field. Um over the month we’ve won three, tied two, lost one. So it’s been a much more productive month than than August has been for us. Um so pretty happy with the way that we we’ve done in September. Uh feel like we could have done a little bit more with particularly the last game. Um where we should have gotten a little bit more out of it, but now we start October. We’ve got two big games coming up this week with Xavier on Wednesday, Yukon on uh on Saturday. Um but just kind of looking back to the last game um to to wrap up our last game for September. We played well. We created a lot of chances and we had nine shots on target, 15 shots on on uh on the game and only came away with a 1-1 tie. So we’re going to start being more productive with our attacking and our offense. And if we can put that right, I think there’s no reason why October can’t be a great month for us, too. Open the floor to questions. You you and Zeb both talked about just the lack of clinical Mhm. composure in in those final moments. Obviously to create those moments you do something right, but what do you think is the missing ingredient at the moment right now? Yeah, I I mean I think I mean respectfully it was the same last year. Uh it wasn’t like we’ve been fruitful in front of goal the last two seasons since I’ve been here. Um now where I am happy is we’ve been scoring off set pieces. I think six straight games we scored off of a set piece which is keeping us in these games. But, you know, we had a video session on Monday with the attacking group and talked about the chances that we’re getting. Um, you know, and then we have to break them down and say, right, what is it going to take for us to whether it’s having more concentration in front of goal or what’s our movement like in the box to lose our players? Um, are we getting into the box quickly enough when the crosses are coming in? So, things have to happen. There’s got to be movement in the box. We’ve got to be desperate to get there to score goals. We’ve got to be a little bit braver to pull the trigger a little bit quicker. Um, at the end of the day, scoring goals is a mentality. And we’re coming up against a team on Wednesday that have got them in abundance, and it’s a mentality. They’re scrappy. They work hard. Um, and that’s what it’s going to take if you want to score goals in this level. It’s not going to be easy. You’ve got to work really, really hard in front of goal to score goals. Uh, we’ve worked hard this week at training. Hopefully, we can get a little bit better with it. But at the end of the day, you got to want to score goals. You got to be aggressive. If you if you’re not scoring goals, then you’ve got to look really hard at yourself and say, “What am I not doing?” And then you got to work a little bit harder. Even as a player when I played, you went through a spell where you didn’t score goals. You’re going to have to work harder. Maybe the next one comes off your shin and then you’re up and running again. But, uh, scoring goals is a mentality. It’s a toughness. Mental toughness is not just running around a field kicking people. Mental toughness is missing a shot and being prepared to take the next shot like a Michael Jordan in in basketball. That’s what mental toughness is, is being able to step up and take that next shot after you’ve missed a shot. I mean, every coach I’ve ever talked to in soccer has mentioned how infectious goal scoring can be once they find the back of the net. Um, you’re facing a team on Wednesday that’s I mean, they were a good goal scoring team in general and they’re coming off a performance where they scored nine. What type of a challenge are you facing on Wednesday? Yeah, it’s going to be a very different challenge. What’s really interesting, I was watching the game last night against Villanova. Villanova could have been two nil up in the first seven minutes of that game. If they score those two chances, it’s a very, very different game. But as the game goes on, Xavier weigh you down. They’re really, really hardworking. They’re very, very scrappy. They pressure you. They’re not scared to take you on. They’re going to shoot the ball. We have to be at our very best to get something out of that game. But where they’re so good is they’re constantly running at you. They have that attitude and that mentality to say, “I’m going to go at you all day long, and I’m going to shoot the ball, and I’m going to make it difficult for you, and I’m going to get across you, and I’m going to elbow you, and I’m going to scrap with you, and I’m going to do everything I can to score goals.” And we’ve got to have the same mentality defensively and we’ve got to do the same down the other end to them. Coach, I guess you talked a little bit about the chat you had with with them on trying to be more aggressive uh on on the goal scoring and the offensive side. What I guess what was the response from the players when you uh having those discussions uh and you know watching film, it’s not always a great response when the coach chews you out, right, for for not doing your job. Um, so it took them about 15 minutes at practice that day where they sulked a little bit and after 15 minutes they woke up and actually started they were unreal. After 15 minutes of training they were fired up. They were they were sprinting. They were doing everything they could to score goals. And it’s just it’s an intrinsic motivation that you come every single day to want to do that. It’s a mentality. It’s a motivation. And they did it really well that day at training. I don’t want to have a 40minute video session to have to show them that next week. Why don’t you just do it and spare the meeting? Easy, right? Uh, how’s Jaylen Cheney doing? Obviously, she was the two to three weeks is kind of right where we’re at right now. She progressing at all and you have I mean that that’s a kid who will score goals and unfortunately she got injured after scoring two goals against one of the best teams in the country. So, it’s been tough losing her because she was on fire right at that moment. Um, she’s back to training today. She could feature tomorrow, but she’s really not had a lot of training. So, um, she may feature tomorrow. If not, it, you know, realistically Yukon and then for sure the next game at Providence. So, she’s back. She’s she’s a good player, man. She’s she’s a very talented kid. She’s got great technique on shooting. She’s got that attitude. She’s got that mentality. And we’ve kind of missed that the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Uh, he’s going to four teams this year in the conference tournament. Yeah. the average point total of the fourth place team over the years 16 and a half. That obviously shrinks everybody’s margin for error once that that happens. How important are the home matches? Especially you only have um three left. Mhm. One’s against Xavier. Yeah. Um how important is it to defend Morrison? Especially when you’re going to be just that everybody’s going to be scrapping just to make this Yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s important you win your home games because you don’t have to travel. You’re in your own bed. You’ve got all everything going for you in those moments. It was difficult Saturday with Marquette having the by-week. That’s so tough to do in this conference when a team doesn’t play and you do. But no excuses. We still should have won the game. And then this season we just happen to have Xavier and Georgetown at home which are two of the toughest if not the best teams in the conference. So you know the home matches are important but the away matches are going to be just as important as well. And you know we were sitting here last year um one and three at the end of this segment and we won one and one right now and we were finished fourth last year. So, we’re still in a better position than what we were this time last year. Uh, but these two next games are going to be big for us. If we can get something against a on Wednesday night, puts us in a great position that could elevate us to second or third in the conference and then it’s game on again. I mean, we’re fifth right now with everything to play for and some really good games coming up. And then on paper, you’re looking at the top teams. It’s been, you know, it’s been Xavier, Georgetown, Yukon. We’ve just happened to have them in the first four games of the season. So, you’ve got to play him at some point and we’re going to get this good competition out the way pretty early. Two more questions. What do you What’s the in your opinion what you’ve seen on film and then in matches about just kind of the evolving communication development that you really wanted to see after Georgetown and how well like that whole back line especially from Alyssa on up is is doing to improve that area. Yeah, I’d just love to see a team Well, I wouldn’t love to see a team score a good goal against us. I don’t want to see anybody score, but if teams are going to score goals, I want I’d rather see a banger of a goal, not a, you know, a mistake or an error or a set piece. Um, you know, when you look at the Georgetown game, we played really well between the box to box, we played really well. It was two set pieces that undid us. So, we got better in that moment the last two games and knock on wood, we won’t concede off a set piece tomorrow, but our set piece defending has been much better in the last two games. Um, so defending has been sharper. Was disappointing in the way we gave the goal away against uh Marquette, but again they were a little bit fresher than us, a little bit sharper than us in moments in that game due to two games in four days. Um, but we’re certainly creating enough chances as well. Defending’s gotten better, but tomorrow night against Xavier, if we have an average performance, we won’t beat them. We we’re going to have to be good tomorrow night. There’s no passengers tomorrow. We can’t have an off night. if if one player has an off night, they’re going to be good enough to take advantage of it. So, it’s going to require an excellent performance, a team performance, a gritty performance, and we’re going to have to be really organized, make it difficult for them, and then when we do get our chances, we’re going to have to take them. We can’t have nine shots on tomorrow night and not score. We if you get three shots tomorrow, you’re going to have to score one. So, it’ll be important for us. How How do you get the team started earlier? I mean, just when you think about your last handful of home matches, you know, deficit against Arkansas, deficit against Omaha, early deficit against Georgetown, early deficit against Marquette. How do you how do you how do you get them started from Yeah. Um I thought we were much better. Um when we played uh our last non-conference game, we won 4-0. We got off to a fiery start there. It was senior day, so they’re all amped up anyway, but they got off to a great start. We also got off to a great start against Villanova. Okay. uh where we were one n up in the first 15 minutes. We actually got off to a great start against Georgetown. I thought we were the better team for the first 30 minutes. Um and then they kind of found their rhythm a little bit. So I feel like we’ve gotten off to a faster start. Um we got off to a hell of a start against um Marquette. We should have been two up in the first seven minutes of that game. So we’re getting off to faster starts now, but it’s no good getting off to a faster start. It’s like if if you know if you’re a lion and you got to bite someone, you need teeth. And right now we’re biting people, but we have no teeth to it. We need to have a little bit more substance to our attacking play and a little bit more bite to it with with a little bit more of a grip. And if we can finish in the first five minutes, these half chances we get, we’re going to be in great positions. Thank you, coach. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Appreciate.
