Quotes From Head Soccer Coach Felix Oskam
October 02, 2000 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 2, 2000
LUBBOCK, Texas -
"What a difference a week makes. We obviously had a very good weekend this past weekend. These were two big, big conference wins for us. It puts us right back in the race for the Big 12 conference tournament. We are tied for fourth with four other teams in the conference."
"Against Oklahoma Friday, we outplayed them the first half completely for 45 minutes. In the second half, I think Oklahoma got back on us a little bit and put a little more pressure on us. Then Oklahoma scored for a 1-0 lead, and I'm looking at my assistant coach Dave [Bucciero] and said, `Here we go again. This is so typical of our season.' We were outplaying them, outshooting our opponent, and they score."
"But fortunately our players got back into it. That's one thing I told them beforehand, no matter what the score is, whether we're behind or we're up, we have to find a way to put the ball in the net. And that's what they did. Marie Valdez scored a beautiful goal to tie it up. Then a couple of minutes later Carrie Graham scored the winning goal. That was a big victory for us, because we needed that first win Friday against Oklahoma to get confidence to play Oklahoma State on Sunday."
"Oklahoma State came in struggling just like we were. I told my players that we need to score the first goal. It was very important because Oklahoma State has a tendency to let their heads hang down once they get scored upon. It was big for us that we were up 1-0 in the first half. In the second half we finished well. That's one thing we've been struggling with this whole year is not finishing our opportunities. That's what we did Sunday, and it was a great win for us. Our kids were so excited after the game. They deserved to win, and we just have to work hard this week to play Kansas and Missouri."
"Those two teams are also 2-2 [in the Big 12]. Last year we lost to Kansas at home, then beat Missouri at home. At that time [Missouri] were ranked 17th in the country. We just need to find a way to get two wins on the road. It's very important for us to at least get a split, but we're looking to win both on the road. I think playing Kansas first might be an advantage for us."
"They're both good teams. Kansas had a great recruiting year, but they've been up-and-down. Missouri's kind of been up-and-down. I'm surprised [Missouri] lost to Iowa State [Sunday, 1-0]. It's going to be tough. Our kids have a lot of confidence going into this weekend. We should be ready to go."