Graham Potter was full of smiles after his West Ham United side drew the curtain on their pre-season tour of the USA with an impressive 2-0 win over AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League Summer Series.
The Hammers secured at least second place in the competition standings with their second successive victory, having overcome Everton 2-1 in Chicago on Wednesday following a narrow opening defeat to Manchester United in New Jersey last weekend.
After scoring the winner against the Toffees in midweek, Füllkrug added to his pre-season tally with a close-range finish in the 24th minute, before the goal’s creator, Jarrod Bowen, notched what proved to be the winner midway through the second half.
While he was pleased with the on-field performance against the Cherries, at the iconic Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Potter hailed the trip as a whole, which he believes has proved the perfect way to prepare for the fresh Premier League season.
A final pre-season clash against French outfit LOSC Lille lies in store at London Stadium on Saturday 9 August, before the big top-flight kick-off away at Sunderland one week later.
Before all that, Potter and his troops will head back to London on Monday evening and continue their work at Rush Green, several steps further along the road to peak fitness and with team spirit sky high.
It’s always nice to win.
Regardless of the result, we've had a really positive few weeks, to be honest. Two weeks here in the US, a week in Germany and some time at Rush Green before that.
The team is really connected, and there’s a lot of togetherness in the group. We’re really happy with the environment, and really happy with the culture at the moment.
I think we rode our luck a little bit today, but at the same time, we scored some goals and got better in the second half. So, there’s lots to be positive about.
Our forwards scored, and our defenders kept a clean sheet, which is obviously really good ahead of the new season.
Malik (El Hadji Malick Diouf) was positive in terms of his deliveries, and his crosses were really good.
So, yeah, as I said, there are lots of positives, but there are always things we can improve.
I think this trip has allowed us to take a step forward in terms of the tactical perspective.
I think we’ve had good exposure to the sorts of challenges we’re going to face throughout the season, including during the games.
Training's been good with the players, so basically I think we’ve just taken an overall step forward. I think we’re more connected and together, which is really good.
I’ve really enjoyed engaging with the fans at different events, because that’s the sort of thing we don’t get the chance to do too often.
So, it was really nice to be amongst the supporters at the Atlanta Ironworks event on Saturday night. They were having a great night, and it was nice to meet them and chat to them.
You can really feel the growth of the game out here in the US.
Of course, we're here for West Ham. We want to improve and we want to prepare for the Premier League, but at the same time, we’ve played at some really iconic venues and stayed in some amazing cities.
We’ve had a responsibility to represent the game of football over here. I think we’ve done that, and I think our fans have helped us do that, too.
So, overall, I'm really happy and really positive with this trip.
We have to recover now, head home and then get ready to continue our preparations for the new season.
Every day, we’re getting closer to where it all matters. As long as we just focus on the next day and keep improving, I’m really positive we’re going to have a strong season.
