Amber Tysiak says that West Ham United women’s team know that they need to improve on their performance levels heading into Sunday’s Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Bristol City.
The defender was part of the side that lost 2-1 to Birmingham City in the Continental Tyres League Cup group stage on Wednesday evening, where the Hammers were not at their best, as they struggled to get to grips with the contest for nearly an hour in the Midlands.
Republic of Ireland international Lily Agg put the Blues ahead after 18 minutes, before substitute Martha Harris fired in a second just after half-time to double the hosts’ advantage.
Things did improve for the away side as the match went on, with Riko Ueki going close on a number of occasions before the forward eventually headed in during second-half stoppage-time.
But it was too little, too late for those wearing white, as they couldn’t find a way back into the game in the remaining moments.
Tysiak has called on her teammates to regroup ahead of the clash against the Robins on Sunday.
We started too slowly in the first half.
We didn’t win our one v ones; we didn’t track the runners and we weren’t playing on the front foot.
If you play against a Club like this and you don’t start well, it makes the game really difficult. They managed to get ahead quite early on and then things were tough for us for the remainder of the opening 45 minutes.
The second half was more positive, not at the beginning, but we were able to get back to the performances that we’ve been looking for towards the end of the match.
We were calmer, we kept the ball better, and you can see that if we’re able to do those things then we can play good football. We have to be able to do that from the very beginning, and not three quarters through the game.
What we have been so good at in the last two games, we weren’t able to do today.
In the last two games we’ve been aggressive and had really good energy and have been unfortunate to not come away with more. Today wasn’t like that for the majority of the game.
We need to make sure that we bring all of the good things that we’ve been doing before this game into the one on Sunday against Bristol City. We need to start strongly and be on the front foot because it’s a big game for us.
We spoke as a team about being more proactive, rather than reactive in the second half. We had to come out and be more aggressive, and for the most part I think we were towards the end, but there’s still improvement needed heading into Sunday.
We need to fight for every centimetre of grass on Sunday at Ashton Gate.
We have to be who we are and make sure that we turn up ready to fight. We’re a team that gives it our all, but we also have to show the quality that we know we have on the ball. We need to be calm and wait for our opportunities and make sure we play to our strengths.
We need to be no-nonsense on Sunday. Sometimes I think we can be a little bit too kind, and we need to improve in that area and make sure we’re not giving Bristol City a moment on the ball.
The game will need a mature performance, and after reviewing today’s match in the next couple of days, I’m sure we will be ready to perform.
