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Michael Shaw 9/17/25 Michael Shaw 9/17/25

Reign 1 Racing 0 Post Match

This brief post is a buffer between the big picture and the smaller picture. In the bigger picture, nothing else matters other than Savannah DeMelo’s health. If that is all you feel equipped to handle at the moment, this is your chance to beg off a normal match review. If you stick around, I feel obliged to say that you are going to get a “normal” match review from me and I don’t pull punches on those or censor myself due to other circumstances. I acknowledge Sav’s medical issue, but do not dwell on it. Here is the link to my normal piece.

“Don't matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin' the same.” — Fleur-de-lis FC

Michael Shaw 9/16/25 Michael Shaw 9/16/25

Reign 1 Racing 0 Player Ratings

The unusual circumstances of this match led to a choppy affair. One thing is clear: Racing has to finish their chances more clinically.

Bloomer-8: Made 2 fantastic saves when she had to.

Petersen-6: Went down on contact prior to Fishlock's goal leaving Jean powerless on a 2 on 1.

Wright-7: Excellent, but went down on a non contact injury.

Jean-8: Had another excellent match but was left stranded on the goal.

Sonis-6: Some good moments and a few nervy ones.

Flint-6: Silly yellow card and needed to do better on her offensive chances.

Borges-7: Really good on Sunday and decent on Tuesday.

O'Kane-6: Played less than 40 minutes and didn’t make too much impact.

Hase-8: Racing’s best offensive option by far on the evening.

Weber-6: Not super involved.

Sears-7: Has to finish better when she finds herself in good spots.

Michael Shaw 9/13/25 Michael Shaw 9/13/25

Reign v RLFC -1

I will start off with one bit of excellent news and that is that Lauren Milliet is back to “full participation” in training. Note that this is different than “full fitness” although with Lo, that seems to not take very long. She had been practicing in drills for some time and was working on her fitness on the side pretty much since she sustained her injury, so I figure it is just a matter of time before she is fully available. Nobody works harder than she does. I had heard some buzz that she was pushing herself to be ready for the “end of the season” which I took to mean the last match or two. It appears that she could be ready much sooner. One potential wrench in those plans is that Racing will be staying on the west coast after the Seattle match since there is a short window between Sunday’s 8pm EDT kickoff in Seattle and the Friday 10pm EDT kickoff in Utah. If Milliet isn’t ready for Seattle, I see no need for her to make the trip.

Racing has only ever beaten Seattle once (Semi-final of the 2023 Challenge Cup) but has drawn them 6 times. This feels like a chance to get all three points. Seattle’s form has been rather unimpressive, but they do tend like to “win ugly” from time to time (see the win in Louisville earlier this season). That match was a clinic in not finishing their chances by Racing. Finishing is the next stage for this team (matches and chances).

There are a couple of things that I think could be logical contributors to Racing’s lack of finishing matches. First, is that recently they have been short on match-killing subs. Balcer keeps getting used, but she is not a possession-oriented striker and is consistently put into situations where she is not asked to play to her strengths. Another available midfielder or defender would be better. However, Racing is starting to get some options healthy. Maddie Pokorny would be fantastic in a 60/70th minute sub role and she is practicing but hasn’t made a squad yet. The second and more subtle factor is that I think pressing teams fade past the 80th minute. Racing keeps giving up last minute goals and in the match they didn’t (San Diego) they did give the Wave a few corners and they couldn’t convert.

That is what make finishing chances so vital. Listening to BTRD this week, Kaitlyn Whiteside echoed a point that I have made plenty of times. Your best striker can’t be so one-dimensionally one-footed. At least not when your other attackers don’t score all that much. Set pieces and corners are great weapons, but sometimes they disguise the fact that a team can’t really score as often as they need to during open play. One of the things I track is goals scored from what I classify as “sustained possession”. What I mean by that is the team has the ball and has passed the transition phase of play and the goal is scored from open play. It is the “breaking down your opponent” portion of goals. Last season Racing scored 37% of their 43 goals this way. This season they have scored 19% of their 27 goals this way. What is better for Racing this season is their dead ball goals (41% of all goals in 2025 and 26% of all goals in 2024). One concerning thing about that fact is that Carm Moscato was the architect of Racing’s set piece success and she isn’t around any longer. The point is that the finishing of chances has to be better than it has been.

Michael Shaw 9/6/25 Michael Shaw 9/6/25

"If you with us, you with us."

Link to Elizabeth’s gallery of the match

Every thorn has its rose Racing 1- Portland Thorns 2 — Fleur-de-lis FC

**Stolen The Wire Epigraph**

“If you with us, you with us.”

For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is a supernatural mystery comedy…no it isn’t. I just wanted an excuse to post this picture to commemorate the release of new Episodes of Wednesday.

*Arin didn’t wear this for the match, but did rock a black full-leg band.*

The result of last’s night’s match wasn’t very fun if you were a Racing fan, but I will try not to be too much of a downer today. All in all, the performance was good. A draw was probably a “fairer” result, but soccer is a cruel, cruel mistress and if you get deeply involved sometimes you get hurt with results like this one.

I always go back and forth on things that get said on the pitch that aren’t strictly on the record. However, in this case I don’t have any qualms. After Bev’s press interview after the match, she pleaded with those of us there, something along the lines of “stay with us”. Honestly, it hadn’t even occurred to me to give up on this team after a few disappointing results where they dropped points from a winning position. We are with you, Bev. All of us. Now we may turn out to regret it like Michael Lee definitely did about 15 episodes on from Chris Partlow uttering the epigraph above to him (the epigraph for that episode show up frequently here, so I am loathe to use it yet) but for now we are all bought in. We are part of the crew, regardless of how much we eventually may end up getting hurt.

Post Match Moment of the Match

Nobody really wants to do press after a disappointing loss, but Katie O’Kane obliged us since she scored her first career NWSL goal. It must absolutely suck to score a memorable goal in a loss. Maybe it’s just bittersweet. Anyway, nobody we talked to really has any answers as to why Racing keeps conceding late goals. My opinion: there really isn’t one. The match is 90 minutes for a reason. Late goals are memorable, but they are not particularly unique. In the little bit of data that I have, it doesn’t point to more goals happening after the 75th minute than during the span from the 16th to the 30th minute. Things have a way of balancing themselves out, so I expect the trend to stop soon, and it probably won’t be due to anything in particular that the players or staff end up doing.

Bev, prior to the video recording her reaction, was commenting on how cruel the result was, but not in a downbeat way. She was proud of how the team played (they were hilariously short-handed for this match in that they only sat 8 players on the bench including 2 keepers) despite the result. Racing’s history is full of “moral victory” post-match press interviews, but this wasn’t one of them. The result was accepted, not mourned, which is a huge difference. You can do that when you believe in yourself. There is still plenty of time to right things, just don’t leave it too late.

Did the Stadium Have Good Food?

The premium club had pretty standard fare, but I would like to air a general complaint.

I hope the first person who decided to put dried fruit in salads is burning in hell!

I hate dried fruit. I have always detested raisins. I find that food preparers these days will sneak craisins into spots where we used to get raisins. Nice try, Satan! I scooped a decent-sized helping of “broccoli salad” onto my plate. Said Broccoli salad was really more of a slaw, of which I am fond. I did however suspect that any kind of more exotic slaw is the opportunity to poison me with shriveled grapes or cranberries. My cursory inspection (an ocular pat down if you will, for IASIP fans) assessed the purplish part of the salad to be cabbage. There definitely was cabbage, but it only served as a trojan horse for those stupid craisins. Slaw/salad preparers be warned. I will be lobbying whoever I can lobby to create rules that prevent you from having two ingredients of virtually the same color in slaw-like dishes. I scooped all of the craisins out of my salad, performed an exorcism and set them on fire.

From a Neutral Perspective

Amazon Prime was there for the match, so everyone pretended like this was a big deal. All that it ultimately does is clog up the press box and sideline with extra people and equipment.

Anyway, they picked a fine match so kudos to them, I guess. I am not much of a “neutral” viewer of sports other than the NFL and NBA. I don’t watch much of any soccer where I don’t have a rooting interest. I do feel like, for reasons that I frankly detest (the “I just hope everyone has fun contingent”), that the NWSL has a fair share of this type of fan. For them, the match had to be a very good watch. If I wasn’t invested in the outcome of the match, this one would have been highly entertaining. The first half was free flowing from a footballing perspective. The second half was chock full of drama and late drama won it. Everyone likes a saved penalty other than the fans of the team whose penalty is saved. Sears almost goal was memorable, and I will think about it for quite a while. Own goals are heartbreaking, but again also memorable.

I would rate this match a 9/10 on the watchability scale for general entertainment purposes.

Bonus Kit Rating/Swap

I like jersey swaps, but the picture above is a hilarious fashion nightmare. Love it. I also love it that Turner and Sears seem to be genuine friends. I believe that their families (from what I have observed in the stadium) share in the love fest. The funny thing is that after Sears and Turner swapped jerseys, they swapped them back before heading to the locker room. Players get a limited number of jerseys, so sometimes this is due to a league/club rule that prevents a permanent swap.

I went back and looked at my 2024 ranking of this Portland kit. I had it ranked in the “boring” category. I now think it looks quite striking on the pitch. I love the socks. 7/10

Please, for the love of all things holy, do not let us see Emma Sears in action in an opposition kit any time soon.

The Kayla Fischer Honorary Yellow Card of the Match

Racing almost escaped the match card-free, but a late pull back from DeMelo has her now sitting on 4 cards. She isn’t renowned for consistently behaving herself, so expect number 5 and a one-match suspension very soon. I was so focused on the 5th yellow card from Flint last week, that I missed that Fischer had her 5th in the last match as well. Shame on me, but really, shame on her for her second suspension of the season. I feel like she is really only hurting herself at this point. The fifth card was harsh, but I don’t recall any of the others being that way. Borges covered well for Flint (more on that next) but Fischer’s absences aren’t having the impact that they did early in the season. She has essentially misbehaved herself out of a consistent starting role. It’s a shame.

“Don’t start pretending you’ve feelings of anguish if you’d prefer to dance”

“Here on the Eerie”/Swoon/1984

It’s entirely possible to be disappointed at a result and pleased with a performance. I have tried to avoid that too much this season as it became a played-out trope in previous ones. Like I said above, I am not going to wallow today. In bullet point form, here is what has me feeling mostly good.

Ary Borges: I think Ary’s biggest challenge is that other players are starters in the roles in which she shines the most. She would be good in DeMelo’s role, and she proved herself in Flint’s role on the evening. She played it differently than Flint does but showed that a different type of deep-playing midfielder can work in Bev’s system. She was lively and tidy all night. She is always lively; it’s the tidy that sometimes escapes her. She isn’t going to supplant Flint, but if she can play with the focus that she did on the evening she becomes an asset wherever she plays.
The football in general: Maybe it was the opponent, but Racing worked the ball better than they usually do. They still needed to find the end product, but it is very easy to visualize another of the 37 touches that Racing had in the opposition box finding the back of the net on a different night. If not a season high (too lazy to verify) it is a recent high. Getting into good spots in the box is half the battle. Sears actually attempted a left-footed shot inside the box too. The O’Kane goal was a thing of beauty.
Attitude: The players were disappointed, but not down. They felt like they played well. They did. Sometimes things just don’t go your way. Results need to improve soon, but I truly believe that if Racing plays as they have been, they will.
Jordyn Bloomer: I am running out of superlatives here. Bev called her “a Star.” Everyone will talk about the penalty save, but the one in the 55th minute is the pick of the bunch. All of the Racing players are somewhat approachable, but none are more “approachabler” than Bloomer. Because she is that way, you can just go up and ask her stuff. She’ll give you an honest answer whatever you ask. On that save she did confirm that she was unsighted and had an instinctive reaction. Now, she said it in the hilarious manner in which she says everything, but I’ll be darned if I can remember it well enough to do it justice.

On the more feeling nervous side:

Solidity on the back line: The defense didn’t play poorly. It you disagree I suggest you punish yourself by rewatching some 2021/2022 vintage defensive performances from Racing to reset your expectations. This match, however, did reveal the weak spots. Turner (and most teams don’t have a player quite like her, thank goodness) put Sonis on skates to win a penalty and beat her on the shot that set up Portland’s first goal. There are many things you can cover collectively that you can patch over one-on-one. Sonis is a good right back, but not a great one. Now, I know I am going to sound like a hypocrite here, but the drawback to playing Sears on the left (which I still like on balance) is that when she switched sides late in the match when Morris came on, you put her in a position where she has to defend crosses with her weaker left foot. On the go-ahead goal, Sears gave Mallie McKenzie too much space and her cross created all kinds of trouble and ended up leading to the own goal. Sears isn’t a great defender, but the circumstances meant that she needed to be on at this point in the match. It wasn’t a major mistake, but possibly just a tiny moment of loss of concentration that cost Racing the match.

Michael Shaw 9/5/25 Michael Shaw 9/5/25

Racing 1 Thorns 2 Player Ratings

Racing led again. Gave it up…again. Have to figure out to be more clinical when their chances come.

Bloomer-8: Good save on a pretty pedestrian penalty attempt. Made an even better save in 55th minute.

Petersen-7: Solid. Good on corner delivery.

Wright-6: Involved in attack a little more than usual. Good to see her moving well.

Jean-6: Own goal was rough. Otherwise pretty good.

Sonis-6: Conceded a penalty when Turner put her on skates.

Borges-8: Excellent. Both sides of the game.

O'Kane-8: Wish she had a better outcome to celebrate her goal.

DeMelo-7: One of her better performances in recent memory.

Hase-6: Not as effective on the night.

Weber-7: Fantastic assist on the goal.

Sears-7: The post was cruel to deny her a goal.

Michael Shaw 9/4/25 Michael Shaw 9/4/25

RLFC v Portland -1

Racing has a second opportunity in a week to move up the table with a win. Portland comes to town, once a problem team for Louisville but now more of a team looking to recover some form. There was much discussion of the 3-3 draw in Portland earlier in the season during the media availability on Wednesday. That match doesn't seem as relevant to me as motivating factor as the San Diego away match did. I think both teams know what to expect of each other and I expect this to start Racing’s run into “cagey” match season. Bar a couple of matches, I think every team’s priority from here on out is to start with a clean sheet. Of course all of that goes out the window with an early goal, but at this point in the season I think matches often start with the mentality that it is okay to shorten the match to a half and be level at halftime. Just a theory. I could be way off base.

Racing will have a glaring, Taylor Flint-sized hole in their midfield for this match. The last time that happened San Diego demolished Racing at home. Wright's absence would compound that, so fingers crossed on her availability. Like I said in my wrapup of the Houston match, I think the roster is a little short at the moment. If that doesn't bite you early in a match it can still bite you late. Bev gave a very Bev answer when I asked her about the depth. I think she feels comfortable with the sqaud she has available, but I am not sure I do.

As much as Racing will want a clean sheet here, I don’t see it in the cards. I think multiple goals from Racing are needed here to give them a shot at 3 points. Reilyn Turner is the top scorer for the Thorns. Turner’s goals for Portland have been just as valuable as Sonis’ assists and versatility have been for Racing so that trade, now a year old, can probably be classified in the win-win category.

Michael Shaw 8/30/25 Michael Shaw 8/30/25