"That all there is to it?"

Courtesy Elizabeth Shaw

Elizabeth’s photo gallery from the match

Visit the photo gallery here.

Stolen The Wire Epigraph

“That all there is to it?”

For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is a light-hearted drama where Idris Elba encourages inner city youth to chase the West Baltimore dream (selling dope and coke on the corner and dying before reaching 21).

The answer to the question listed above is “yup, pretty much.”

Get to halftime in decent shape. Throw on a couple of game-changing subs. Hold on in the final minutes.

That was the recipe for success for the Spirit. Unlike Mitch’s Hedberg’s recipe for homemade Sprite, I am sure there was more stuff in the recipe, but you get the point.

Post Match Moment of the Match

I asked Kanu how many minutes she was ready for, and the gist of her answer was “as many as the coaches will give me”. Personally, I was disappointed that she only got 10-ish and that those minutes were when the Spirit had abandoned any attacking pretense. Kanu is best in transition and on the counter. I would have liked to see her in the 60th minute when match was theoretically still in doubt. However, she is coming off of an injury, so maybe there was a restriction. I find it hard to believe that the restriction was “10 minutes only”, but who knows. I asked Bev if she thought that Racing has game changers to bring in like Spirit. I think she said that answer was yes, but Bev went on one of her rhetorical detours before getting back around to any semblance of an answer.

However, THE Post Match Moment of the Match was when Joe Havelda asked Bev point blank: Where are the goals going to come from? It is an excellent question, and I was so pleasantly surprised that anyone was bold enough to ask it that I kind of forgot to listen for an answer. I went back and listened and was not shocked to find that Bev didn’t really answer that question anyway. I don’t know what I would have said, and I wouldn’t hold up Marlo Stanfield as a role model, but his position on when the numbers were down in his shop, is that he for damn sure went out and did something about it.

Stink-O-Meter

Blissfully 0 out of 5. Smellier days are coming, so enjoy these while they last.

0 for 2 home matches with offensive odors…

Let’s keep the streak alive, but maybe without the preceding flood next time.

What did I miss?

I must have missed something because this banner seems delightfully out of left field. I feel like we might collectively be missing some context here, but I know for sure that I am. Bekki Morgan and I discussed the banner (which I have to say that I enjoy immensely) and her thoughts were that since Racing is going with a green theme this season and that California (Sav’s home state) produces its fair share of avocados that those two factoids provide some context. Maybe so, but it still seems quite bizarre. You also have to make the extra mental leap from avocado to guacamole for the chip thing to make sense (unless you know someone who dips their chips into a halved avocado with the pit still inside). So weird…I love it!

If anybody has any extra context, please DO NOT tell me. I enjoy it much more without it.

GREATEST BANNER EVER!!!

More non sequitur food-based player banners, please. Especially those where the pun only makes sense if you mispronounce the fruit.

Baby, baby…where did our Purp go?

If you stumbled across my preview for All for XI you might have come across my complaint about “Go Big Purp” already, but now I feel like I need to expand. For the second home match in a row, Racing has decided to go with its green kits at home. I hate this. I am not a superstitious person in the least, nor do I believe that “karma” is tied to such things, but I think at a minimum, consistently refusing to wear your primary colors at home is bad form. Lou City do this too when they decide to wear their usually god-awful 3rd kits at home near the end of the season.

Honestly, only the houndstooth kit has really felt like a true home kit for Racing in my opinion. The first couple of seasons established white at the away color for Racing and the first ever kit was more black (midnight violet if you’re nasty) than purple. The only season with any decent amount of “purp” was Paige Monaghan’s only season here in which she coined the phrase.

I have been indifferent to the slogan (it’s better than “Run with Us”) since its inception. Elizabeth has hated it from the get-go. I don’t have any evidence that Paige Monaghan put a curse on the motto when she was left unprotected by Racing in the 2024 expansion draft. I also don’t have any evidence that she didn’t put a curse on the motto, either. That last sentence is pretty ridiculous, but you’ve seen the state of logical thinking in this country so that sentence might make actual sense to half of the populace.

Ultimatum: Wear the purpliest kit at home or ditch the slogan! Failure to comply will lead to further and more intense mocking!

Did the club/stadium have good food?

Yes!

The Tandoori Chicken Salad Wraps were good, especially in the cucumber yogurt dipping sauce. They were a hit with all of us. Pertinent to this time of the year, the Derby pie was good too (solid B, not as good as homemade, but good for a mass-produced version). The club has also moved to canned soft drinks over fountain drink offerings from the previous years. On a chilly day, like yesterday, one’s hands might get a little cold carrying drinks back to your seats, but those cold aluminum cans might be useful on a really hot day.

“But there it is, and there we are.”

Desire As/Steve McQueen/1985

I think the level has been set now. We have four results to judge and at least for me, Racing is who I thought they were. The team is still missing a few players that when 100% available, can change games, but none that can change fortunes. We are already starting to see the rookies take minutes from veteran players, and we have to infer from that reality that those minutes have been given to the players who are performing better in Bev’s system. The other side of that coin is that we can also pretty much infer that the roster at the end of last season was in miserable shape in the eyes of the club/staff.

I said in my preview that any point for Racing would have been good here. Based on the first 45 minutes, I thought it could still be in their reach, but Santos’ stunning free kick in the 58th minute put any hopes to rest. The Spirit can be prone to scoring early in matches and not closing them out, but the 58th minute isn’t early, and Racing never posed much of a threat until Washington went into cruise control after their second. It was not a point I expected Racing to get, so the loss shouldn’t impact their quest for the playoffs. They will need to turn some draws into wins against mediocre competition to achieve that feat. They aren’t going to threaten a really good team unless they have a fantastic match and yesterday wasn’t one of those times.

The lack of goal scoring is a concern, which is bad, but I will say the back line is in better shape than I thought it would be. I really like Hase in the minutes I have seen from her. Flint was okay in front of them, but she has to offer more going forward if Borges is going to play like she did yesterday. I will give Bekki credit for this insight, but Borges plays much better when she shares the pitch with DeMelo. I think she might need to play further up the pitch, but at the moment she isn’t playing well enough to displace anyone up there (although I do think Weber may be better as a substitute at this point). Goals need to come from somewhere and Fischer has been given 4 matches to show what she can do. For all of her good qualities, I don’t think she is a natural goal scorer.

Racing needs natural goal scorers because they look nowhere near manufacturing a goal from open play with sustained possession. Set pieces and counters still look like the most likely routes to a goal for this team. I think Fischer got really close to snatching possession away in a dangerous spot a couple of times, but the fact is that she ultimately didn’t do it.

The good news is that Racing won’t face another juggernaut (in my opinion) until June 14th when they face Kansas City and then Orlando right after that on the 20th. They have time to get things sorted out and hopefully can get heathier, especially up front.

Did you know?

Since I seemed to have a “there” theme in my head, did you know that the Gorillaz song “Dare” is called that because Happy Mondays’ front man Shuan Ryder can’t pronounce “there” due to his heavy Mancunian accent?

Racing 0 Spirit 2 Player Ratings

Santos scored on an excellent free kick and Hatch scored her club leading 50th goal for the Spirit and that was all she wrote. It wasn't an unexpected result, but that doesn't make it any easier to digest.

Lund-5: No idea what she was thinking on her 17th minute adventure up the pitch which led to a cheap giveaway.

Hase-6: Had a very good first half, but the entire back line suffered in the second

Petersen-5: The counter on the second Spirit goal was down her side and she has to do better.

Wright-5: Conceded too much ground after the second half Spirit subs.

Milliet-6: Her energy after going down by 2 was too little too late.

Flint-5: The stats will show her having a better match than she did.

Borges-5: I don't think she works as a midfielder in this particular set up.

O'Kane-6: Was a decent replacement for DeMelo.

Weber-6: Less impressive than her previous efforts.

Sears-5: Keeps alternating between good and bad performances.

Fischer-6: Probably Racing’s best player on the afternoon.

RLFC v Washington -1

Unless something changes last minute, it looks like it is full steam ahead on Saturday's Not Thunder game. I believe that the decision to cancel Thunder Over Louisville was almost universally seen as the correct if disappointing decision. One of these matchdays will line up better for Racing, but they will be 0 for 2 starting off the year on the “nice day for it” front. It appears that Racing has been using U of L facilities to prepare this week since access to Lynn Family Sports Vision & Training Center would have been by aquatic vessel only. It's been a week full of varying levels of challenges for everyone.

Speaking of challenges, Washington will present several of them for Racing on Saturday. An air show might have inspired a larger crowd and thus a more energetic effort from Racing on Saturday, but they will just have to work with whatever kind of crowd shows up on Saturday. There will likey be a fair amount of no-shows due to the cancelation of Thunder and/or parking issues. Racing will have to shake off those minor nuisances and focus on the pitch.

Any points against Washington will be good ones. The Spirit is clearly the more talented team. However, more than any other club in the league, Washington does tend to find ways to drop points in matches where they have no business doing so. If Racing can keep things close, they can steal a result.

“Crawl, walk, and then run”

Courtesy NWSL/Harry Figiel

Stolen The Wire Epigraph

“Crawl, walk, and then run”

For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is a British game show starring 5 comedians who complete a series of pointless tasks to please a tyrannical host. Tasks include “disappear the greatest number of dead bodies in abandoned row houses without getting caught”, “set up a warrantless wiretap” and “have the longest phone conversation about selling drugs without saying the words ‘sell’, ‘buy’, ‘drugs’, ‘money’, or ‘pepperoni’”.

Racing took home all three points in a rather dull and uninteresting match on Sunday evening in Chicago. It was a “grind it out” type match where Racing is usually on the opposite side. Elements and a rain delay will be in Chicago’s boatload of excuses, but the truth is that they are barely an NWSL team without Mal Swanson. You play the hand you are dealt however if you are Racing, you move on to the international break with a decent number of points though 3 matches.

Let’s talk about points for a minute. I think Racing will need around 33-35 points to make the playoffs. The easiest way to get there is to win all of their remaining home matches, but that isn’t going to happen. Let’s take Orlando, Kansas City, and Washington off the table. That leaves 27 points at home in the “available” category. Racing won’t win all of those, but let’s say they get 21 at home, then that would be one more point than they won at home last season. That leaves12-14 points that they’ll need to scrape on the road. Chicago is a good start, but (you guessed it) Chicago was their only road win last season so winning this one didn’t position them any better than last season. It wasn’t a “must-win” in the usual sense, but it was a “hold serve” win in my opinion.

Even though Clay Davis is a deplorable con artist/politician (not sure the distinction between those two things needed a /) he does give good advice here. Racing crawled to a victory. A point against Washington at the Thunder match would be a nice “walk”. Then maybe they can run.

Post-Match Moment of Match

Bev commented during the post-match media availability that she and other members of the staff played UNO to pass the time during the weather delay. She also stated that she wasn’t very good. I suggest that she step up her UNO game before her kids get much older. You don’t want to start off on the wrong foot in the board/card game battle with your children. Being better at something than your parent in a rite of passage, so I never let my kids (or any kids) win at anything unless they earn it fair and square.

I did lose a Connect Four match to a 5-year-old recently. SHUT UP AND STOP LAUGHING! I won like 30 before he beat me. He somehow cheated, but I can’t figure out how. Anyway, do you think he remembers that? No, but I do. Bev, work on your UNO skills and keep those kids in their rightful place as long as you can.

Were the Announcers Good?

Aly Trost Martin was on the play-by-play and Lori Lindsey was on color. Interesting matches are easy to call, so the real trick is to be good on dull ones. Martin was solid. Lindsey was not my cup of tea.

Subsection: How was their “Louisville”?

Louisvillians are persnickety on the pronunciation of their beloved hometown. I will be monitoring the broadcaster’s commitment to getting it right.

Martin: Smooth…Lou-uh-vul…I am a two-syllable guy, but I mumble and talk fast. Standard ‘correct’ announcer pronunciation.

Lindey: Slightly labored…Lou-wuh-vul…This is the danger of the three-syllable variant. You let that slight French-ness come in on the middle syllable. Still only noticeable to the connoisseur.

My bigger beef with Lindsey was that her analysis was all over the place. 90 minutes is a long time to say interesting things and not repeat yourself. Lori did seem obsessed about the conditions and the delay. She kept mentioning it. Plus, she wasn’t consistent. Sometimes all long balls should be “verboten” in the wind, and then when they would come off, they were necessary. She kept talking about playing the ball on the ground. Really? On a wet and thick pitch? I think we can come up with better advise than “play it on the ground”. What she should have said is something like “tighten up your passing triangles when it is windy and the pitch is a slog. Work the ball by closing down the spaces between your teammates and get the ball to your best dribblers.” I am not auditioning. As I said above: talk too fast/mumbler.

What drove me a little more nuts, however, is that like quite a few former players who are broadcasters, she is a handwringer. I like Lianne Sanderson for Arsenal reasons, but she is also a good broadcaster. Maybe it is the British “stiff upper lip” thing, but she can describe what a player might be feeling without getting overly sympathetic. Lori Lindsey described a 2-hour rain delay as “emotionally and mentally taxing” which is something that I think serves nobody. The players in this league have real historical and present challenges. Don’t turn them into overly delicate flowers that can’t handle something any normal adult should be able to handle. I would classify a 2-hour delay as an irritating inconvenience, but definitely not “taxing”.

By all accounts, Bev instructed the players to relax during the delay and was prepared for the chance that they could have one. Lori also questioned Bev by suggesting that Racing might not have been prepared for a windy game in The Windy City. Racing and Chicago could have helped Lori out some by staging a more interesting match, but I might just mute it the next time Lori is on the broadcast.

What Chicago Fans Should Have Watched Instead

Even if you aren’t watching Daredevil: Born Again, you could watch this bottle episode (Episode 5: “With Interest”). I imagine that it will be the one that people watch again without rewatching the entire series. The series itself has some interesting themes, but mine is probably “It is a bad idea to let our monsters out of prison, (or never put them there in the first place).” I hope none of you are “Pro-Monster”, but I suspect you know plenty of people who are!

Better Match You Could Have Watched

I thought this match was an interesting one from start to finish even if it was 0-0 at half. Sanderson was on the ESPN call (always a plus) but there was a real chess match going on at times in this match. Jonas Eidevall wasn’t a rousing success at Arsenal nor was he an abject failure. I think he will do good things with the Wave this season, especially based on the cameos from the Wave’s teenagers. We already know Seb Hines is a good coach and Orlando carries the aura of a defending champion in that they never seemed to be too bothered by not being in control of the match at times because they know they will have the last laugh. Like I said, there are all types of interesting things going on here so give the 10-minute highlights a watch. This section might not feature often as I don’t actively seek out other NWSL matches to watch but this was a “goodun”.

TV Kit Rating

Kits look one way up close and another way on the screen. I reassess the opposition kit each away match.

Still pretty bad on the screen. Elizabeth and I had it ranked next to last. No need to reassess more. 3/10

Series to Binge Instead of Watching Pointless International Friendlies

I hate international breaks because I don’t like international football or any flag-based competitions for that matter. You could spend your leisure time watching something much more entertaining.

I feel like this is one that most people will get around to seeing at some point based on word of mouth. If you like what the English call “light entertainment,” this whodunnit should be right up your alley. The journey is better than the destination in my opinion, but don’t let that stop you and isn’t that the point of a streaming series anyway?

Isiah Whitlock, Jr. is in this too (Clay Davis from The Wire). You’ll have to watch to see if he repeats his signature one-word catch phrase.

Lightning in a Bottle-O-Meter

Whenever Racing wins a match, I will rate how much of it was down to catching lightning in a bottle versus Racing just doing the things they do well.

By getting a relatively early lead, Racing cruised to a pretty uneventful win. The Stars are a shell of themselves without Mal Swanson. They should probably try to do something about that. Racing played within themselves once they got the lead and were much closer to increasing their lead versus Chicago pulling back one. Even though there was actual lightning in the area Racing didn’t have to catch any to win. 1/5

“Don’t you know who owns the weather, rain or shine?”

“Looking for Atlantis”/Jordan: The Comeback/1990

Talking and complaining about the weather is something we all do, but we obliviously can do nothing about it. We just have to deal with the consequences. Weather is a great tester of our preparedness and adaptability. Racing showed a good deal of both in the match on Sunday. I haven’t changed my forecast on them because I didn’t expect all of the days to be cloudy. However, I do expect more of them to be, so we should enjoy the metaphorically sunny ones.

• “Lesson One: Child don’t waste it”: While it was a match that nobody should punish themselves by rewatching, there are some really good takeaways. The rookies put in some good shifts, especially Hase. I really don’t mind the Hase-Petersen-Wright-Milliet lineup. They all had rounded FotMob player ratings of 8. Petersen needs to play often because she is good at ball placement on in-swinging corners. As long as Petersen remains effective at center back, Hase may have left back locked down. O’Kane was an effective dribbler without getting herself into the tight spots that Fischer and DeMelo often find themselves in without an exit strategy. Swebs will score at some point, but I think she showed more of her “fox in the box” type skills in this match. I can’t wait for the first one to go in to see if it opens the floodgates. The rookies didn’t waste their opportunities. The kids are alright.

• “Lesson Two: The world’s your cherry. But tomorrow? Maybe not.”: Nothing in the performance would make me rethink anything I said on All for XI. I learned zilch on Racing’s style and tactics in this match. The elements and the opponent mean that this a game film only good for individual players sessions. I don’t think Racing will kid themselves about the performance. They will never say is publicly, but their opponent was weak and ripe for the picking.

• “Lesson Three: Come on and taste it.” That doesn’t mean that we (players and fans) shouldn’t enjoy it. If wins are as rare a fruit as I expect them to be this season, then every bite should be savored. There were some really fine individual efforts in the match and every player has a moment to be proud of. One of my favorite moments was seeing Sonis, who is usually a starter and has little that she needs to prove, hustle to win a late corner on a ball that I see way too many players in this league treat as a lost cause. Hase made two notebook worthy defensive plays. Sears took a chance in the wind and while it was the deflection that caused Naeher the problem, it is the confidence you like to see. Flint again was marvelous, but that has become the norm.

  Elizabeth’s Thoughts

  I’ll say the obvious - this line-up was a different team. Even the veterans played differently. Maybe it was the wind, or maybe it was the physicality of the match. Lo’s bloody nose! Flint’s steal to Sears for a Ramen-noodle-instant goal! Even the sides of the goals saw some action between Sears’ goal attempt and players piling up to get the ball. Weber has found her role on the team and knows how to keep up with the speed of the NWSL.

  This team is alive! (“…like toys, when your back is turned.” Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock)

Stars 0 Racing 1 Player Ratings

Racing got its first 3 points of the season and will gladly take them. Chicago was pretty toothless, and Racing still has things to improve upon, but will go into the first international break of the season in decent shape.

Lund-6: Was beaten on a header early in the match, but it hit the crossbar. She played Wright into trouble to make stoppage time nervier than it needed to be.

Hase-7: Much better in her second start. She made a couple of good standout defensive plays.

Petersen-8: I am starting to like her at center back. I think she is steadier than Jean and Hase makes her not as necessary at left back. Her corner takes are good especially the inswingers.

Wright-8: Had a headed shot on goal to go along with a good defensive effort.

Milliet-7: Gritty as usual. I still feel like she has more to contribute offensively but it wasn’t needed in this match.

Flint-8: Her interception was as key to the goal as was Sears’ finish. It was another in a long line of good performances against the also rans of the league.

O'Kane-7: I thought it was a nice full debut. She offers some different things to Racing’s other midfielders and will be good for a change of page either by starting or as a sub.

DiGrande-7: Racing is calmer when DiGrande is on the pitch. Sometimes the chaotic nature of DeMelo is better for the situation but today was a good day for her to be the 10.

Weber-7: You have to feel like her goal is coming, but she will need to be just a little quicker to the ball in this league compared to what she is used to.

Fischer-7: If she ever gets her decision making to match her effort, she can move up a level. I thought she picked out the wrong pass a few times (or dribbled or shot instead of passing) but her effort causes problems for the other team.

Sears-8: She got a fortunate deflection, but was aware enough of the conditions to challenge the keeper, something you always want to do in the wind.

Chicago Not Red, Just Normal Stars v Racing -2

Look at that dumb logo. I mean, just look at the thing. Can you believe somebody paid money for that. There wasn’t anything wrong with the old name and the logo.

I searched “why did the Red Stars change their name,” and this is what came up. It sounds to me like the new ownership just wanted to change something for change’s sake. Sports owners are often just giant toddlers disguised as successful businesspeople.

Anyway, Racing’s best chance to secure 3 points on the road this season comes at an opportune time. The team needs a win badly and is likely going to catch the Stars again without Mal Swanson in the squad. All signs point to Racing being cautious with Sav’s return, but Racing has more cover for her than Chicago does for Swanson. Not counting Sav’s absence, Racing is starting to get healthier. Kanu might be close to being available for selection, but Bev is never too forthcoming with injury news.

Racing has 6 wins, 3 draws, and 3 losses against “the Stars”, which means that Chicago is the club which Racing has had the most success (Racing has an almost identical record against KC with KC winning 4 to Chicago’s 3). All for XI’s Phuoc Nguyen kindly asked for my help for a piece he is writing on Racing, a decision I am sure he now regrets. He asked me who I thought Racing’s chief rival was and instead of just saying “Chicago” like a good sport, I used the opportunity to be contrarian and serve my own agenda which should come as a shock to absolutely no one.

Look for my uber-positive outlook on Racing’s 2025 season coming to All for XI soon!!!

In other news that I thought about addressing in my post-match thoughts but will go ahead and put in here, there was announcement on everyone’s favorite topic…high-end real estate development. From the club…

“Butchertown Apartments residents will enjoy premium amenities such as a clubhouse, convenient on-site parking and dedicated retail spaces on the first floor. With a focus on comfort and convenience, Butchertown Apartments will provide a vibrant urban lifestyle in a prime location, and only smell like an abattoir on days ending in ‘y’. 

Alright, I might have added in that last bit.

“The gods will not save you”

Stolen The Wire Epigraph

“The gods will not save you”

For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is a dating show where young singles look for their soulmates and often find them, if their soulmate happens to be a crippling heroin addiction.

I will admit it. I hate going to press conferences after Racing loses a match on the road. I especially hate it when it is after midnight, so I just decided to skip it and go to bed after writing my player ratings post. I listened to Bev, Wright, and Petersen this morning and it is safe to say that I didn’t miss anything. The players almost always sound appropriately disappointed, and Bev tries not to be too downbeat. I have heard the same thing several times. You rarely get anything deep or insightful, but I am not really expecting it.

For those of you that like to let the stats lie to you, you can look at the numbers and say “hey, Racing was in this match and won some of the statistical categories.” You do you! I, on the other hand, trust what I saw based on a long history of watching this team. There are simply going to be times where Racing is going to be outclassed by their opponent and last night was disappointingly one of them. I was expecting it against the league powerhouses but was also prepared for it to start to happen against teams in the second tier. It is too early to know which of those Bay FC will fall into this season, but Racing was never in it in the first half.

How many times did we hear it last year? Racing puts together a good half, but either doesn’t capitalize or it’s the wrong half after being outplayed in the first. Bev has talked about the “1 to 2%” that decide matches. In another parlance that can be put down to “luck” or “the gods”. That might be true some of the time, but not this time. “It’s Baltimore gentlemen. The gods will not save you” means that you have to find creative solutions to fight a sober reality. Maybe don’t try the football equivalent of Bunny Colvin’s solution in this case, but either do something drastic or stop kidding yourselves.

Post-Match Moment of Match

I am glad that I watched the post-match interviews because Arin Wright was a little spicy on getting “pushed in the back” on Bay’s first goal. She actually got bumped into and went down way too easily. Again, “the gods will not save you”. This time, said “gods” are the officials or VAR. There were several times in the match where Racing simply wasn’t strong enough physically. If you are going to be playing against teams that are more talented, you are going to have to win the physical and mental battles. Racing wasn’t close to winning either in San Jose.

Were the Announcers Good?

I thought so. Jordan Angeli was on the call and Maura Sheridan was on the color. For the most part I thought they did a good job of keeping me engaged in the match.

Subsection: How was their “Louisville”?

Louisvillians are persnickety on the pronunciation of their beloved hometown. I will be monitoring the broadcaster’s commitment to getting it right.

Jordan: Not bad, although she let a few “French” ones slip in early. It was almost always 3 syllables, which is not the preferred style.

Maura: Pretty good, actually. I didn’t notice any “French” ones. She got a few 2-syllable versions in as well.

I thought they spent enough time on both teams, and I appreciated the concern for DeMelo and the update on her condition late in the second half. I like it when announcers are excited, but not over the top excited for goals. They hit a good balance.

The Kayla Fischer Honorary Yellow Card of the Match

Goes to…Kayla Fischer! Hooray! It was a tremendously unnecessary card in the extra bit or extra time after being let off the hook generously by Danielle Chesky just a few moments earlier. I was starting to rethink this whole bit. A million thanks for coming through in the dying seconds, Kayla!

Bonus Opposition Card Winner: Kiki Pickett was so confident last night that she argued herself into the dumbest second-minute yellow card you will see this year, just to make the game a little more challenging for herself. Congratulations! Your Quills gift card is “in the mail” as they say.

Dumb Fotmob Rating

Katie Lund-5.8

This is why I do player ratings. The number tells you that Katie was slightly sub-par. I thought she was brutal at times. When I question Katie, it is never on her ability but almost always on her decision making. It is fine to get beat near post on a banger, but she made her jump way to early. I think she was taken off guard by quickness of Lema’s shot. Another time she incorrectly made the decision to come for a ball that she was nowhere near getting. This was definitely a performance in the 4 or 5 range.

TV Kit Rating

Kits look one way up close and another way on the screen. I reassess the opposition kit each away match.

I think I was pretty astute in my initial reaction to Bay’s new kit this season. Elizabeth went to Trader Joe’s this week and was very pleasantly surprised by the prices and selection of fresh flowers. It was nice to see them as a back-of-the-jersey sponsor for Bay. Are the kits black or blue? I though they read black most of the time, but either Jordan or Maura referenced them as being blue before the start of the match. It was probably the power of suggestions, but I could see them as midnight blue in certain lights. Anyway, it’s a nice kit for what looks to be a pretty solid team. 7/10

“I buried something I should know”

“Technique”/Swoon/1984

What an idiot I was just a week ago. That may be a bit harsh, and honestly whatever rosiness appeared in my post-match piece last Sunday was really a guarded put-on. However, you weren’t to know that (or maybe you did). I honestly don’t expect this team to be “good” or even” competitive” some of the time. Any moments of joy with this team this season (possible forever) will be fleeting, so enjoy them while you can. This is the Racing that I was expecting: naive in their ability to control the important parts of a match and overly prideful in the moments where the opposition shifts down a gear because they see the match as being under control.

• “Verse and chapter they unfurl”: I think it is going to be a long season, and I have thought so from the beginning. This chapter is likely to be one of many in which Racing will have to be “special” to win. Last night’s effort while not poor was “pedestrian” and that won’t get it done. If there is one thing that I am sure I have written it is some variation on the following theme: Racing as currently constructed is not good enough to get consistent results through common cause variation. It will take special cause variation for them to be successful. Only high effort/coldly efficient performances can yield results for this team. They are never going to accidently win a league match by just showing up and being who they consistently are.

• “It helps the hurting soften”: For those silly enough to have high hopes, I think last night should prepare you better for what to expect going forward. I don’t think this version of Racing is in any danger of being embarrassed on the pitch. The approach is too professional, and the players care about each other enough (the broadcast mentioned the togetherness mantra a few times) to not let that happen (fingers crossed). However, that isn’t going to be enough to bridge the talent/expertise gulf that the team is going to often face. Bay looked like a proper team on the pitch in a way that Racing rarely does and has done it early in their second year. It makes you think a) that they do actually have the pieces figured out or b) most teams look like they have things figured out when they face Racing. If you are looking for Racing to break the 30-point barrier this season let me tell you that it isn’t happening, and I hope it helps the hurting soften.

  Elizabeth’s Commentary

  Every so often, Elizabeth will have comments about the match. Find them here:

  “The team was just so young”

  That kind of sums up things. Racing has too few players in the prime of their career.

Bay 2 Racing 0 Player Ratings

Bay outclassed Racing for big portions on the match and after Bay took a 2-goal lead, Racing barely threatened. It’s hard to see where the goals are going to come from at this point.

Lund-5: Went to early on her attempt to block the second goal and also was lucky not to concede before that by going too early on a set piece. Not her best night.

Hase-6: Played herself into the match but won’t move any regular starter out of the starting XI.

Petersen-5: OK at center back, but not a natural. None of her corner deliveries caused Bay much concern.

Wright-6: Easily the best defender for Racing on the evening, but that is faint praise.

Milliet-5: Should have been closer to Lema on her goal or at least close enough to take a tactical yellow.

Flint-6: Had a few good moments and was Racing’s best player on the night.

Borges-6: She played better than she did in the first match, and I am not sure why she was subbed off so early.

DeMelo-Get Well Soon: The broadcast mentioned that she was going to be treated at a local hospital for “lightheadedness” and let’s hope it is nothing more serious than that.

Sonis-5: Subbed off and didn’t create much.

Fischer-6: Much more active and had Racing’s best chances, but never got a shot on frame.

Sears-6: Pretty pedestrian stuff from her on the evening. Needed to do better on the initial headed clearance on Bay’s opener.

DiGrande-5: Had to come in for DeMelo and looked off the pace early as she wasn’t strong enough retain possession on Racing’s doomed set piece which led to the second Bay goal.

Bay FC v RLFC -1

Photo by Elizabeth Shaw

It will be a late one

Ha ha…couldn’t help myself on this Kentucky specific pun

in the bay area (San Jose technically) on Saturday. Racing found road points difficult to come by in 2024, so this will be an opportunity to grab some early. Racing is the not-so-proud owner of two losses against Bay. The home loss was particularly dreadful match all around with only one shot on target for each team. Racing only managed one shot on target in the return match in San Jose compared to Bay’s six. I feel pretty good in saying that the key to winning this match will be to have more than one shot on target. Racing managed seven against the Courage, which is pretty encouraging and more than they had in any match against the Current last season.

With Bethany Balcer out for an indeterminant amount of time, Racing will need more firepower up front. Kayla Fischer had a grand total of zero touches in the 18-yard box last Saturday against the Courage, so she has to do better if she is going to be the nominal 9. Her heat map surely wasn’t very indicative of one (attacking on right half).

It is more indicative of a central midfielder who likes to be on the left. Compare to DeMelo’s.

When Fischer is a sub, she brings energy and something different for the defense to think about. As a 9, well I think there might be better options if the cameo we got from Weber is any indication. Here is her touch map (the heat map lacks intensity due to limited minutes.)

She had 3 touches in the box in much less time than Fischer. I am not calling for Swebs to start (yet), but Fischer will need to earn her place from week to week if she is going to stay in the Starting XI.

Lo and Bev were made available for the media today. I asked Lo about the back line’s performance last week at home. She said that she was pleased at how well the line was shifting together and that she felt as if the line mitigated many potentially good chances for North Carolina. She was also pleased with how other players were stepping in to cover defensively. Bev said that Racing will be looking to nullify Bay’s wingback threats during the match on Saturday but was also pleased at the performance of the back line. I asked about keeping calm on the road and Bev stated that the key to being calm is to focus on staying composed during the shifts in momentum, especially focusing on remaining composed during possession changes. If I had one nit to pick for Racing’s performance on Saturday against North Carolina it is that several times when they won the ball back, they gave it right back to the Courage by trying to play too fast. Racing had pretty even possession battles last season against Bay, so they shouldn’t necessarily see a quick counter as their most viable option on Saturday. I would like to see them concentrate on connecting a few more basic passes after winning possession, especially early in the match.

I Love the First Day

Elizabeth’s Gallery

Feel free to reuse pictures. The images have been auto sized, so right click and open in a new tab to see the full image.

Stolen The Wire Epigraph

“I love the first day, man. Everybody all friendly an' #$%@”

For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is your standard crime procedural where the police are devoted public servants and solve a juicy case each week.

What a gorgeous day for a match! Racing played to a standing room only crowd (well everyone in my section was standing) and came away with a point against the North Carolina Courage. Despite the result and “dropped points”, it was hard to have too many complaints about the match.

First matches are tough, but they can be an indicator of how the season might go. In this case, I think it is pretty safe to be encouraged. There will be plenty of time for discouragement later and I quite often lead the charge on that front, but all-in-all…not a bad start.

Instant “Un”alysis

At some point in the second half Emma Sears was flagged for being offside as the play was allowed to develop to its conclusion. Somebody in the Estopinal End yelled at the side official to complain. When I say the Estopinal End, I do in fact mean the area of the stadium when you have a view that is not conducive to making any kind of judgement call on offside offenses. The person was a) clearly wrong because Sears was at least a yard offside and b) very loud due to the lack of people in the crowd.

Please do not yell at the officials when you are wrong. It cheapens when I yell at the officials, and I only yell when I am right.

Post Match Moment of Match

Taylor Flint gave one of the best 1-1 draw press interviews in my memory. Watch it here. I think maybe she was happy not to give it in the rain. Regardless, when I asked her about hitting the post she gave a terrific answer filled with honesty and joy at what might have been saying, “I would have retired if I made that.” She felt in her gut that it was going to go in. For anyone who has ever played, you know that you remember the near misses much longer than the ones that go in.

Did the club/stadium have good food?

It was your standard club fare in the premium club this week. The chimichurri ribs were a nice touch and there was hot chocolate available! The line was self-service which was a bit of a change. We will see how that goes. For busier matches they might have servers dishing out food as in the past, but the rain may have thrown off the staff bookings. Also, an unnamed 5-year-old kept drinking water from the ledge in our loge box and held her mouth open to catch what I hope were raindrops and not runoff from the overhead sections.

Stink-O-Meter

Mercifully, a zero on the Odor Awareness Scale that runs 0-6. For those of you who never go to matches, Butchertown is known for its colorful smells. All you have to do to imagine it is read the name of the neighborhood again. If there was a positive to the rain, it is that it kept the odor in the stadium to a minimum.

A few days earlier when Elizabeth and I visited the stadium for the food sampling, I think I would give is a 5. Having not been in Butchertown since last November, the odor hit me like a sock of nickels that had also been sitting in a rendering plant floor for two weeks. Elizabeth and I carry essential oil nasal inhalers with us when we go to the stadium. They aren’t a bad investment but only really provide brief relief on a bad night. Anyway…

0 for 1 home matches with offensive odors…

Let’s keep the streak alive, but maybe without the rain next time.

The Kayla Fischer Honorary Yellow Card of the Match

Goes to…NOBODY!

Bev was frankly stunned when I told her that Racing played a match without picking up a yellow card. The unit played cohesively, and the players didn’t put their teammates into positions that usually produce yellow cards, so I think that is a win. I fully expect this to not be the case for the entire season. I like a good strategic yellow card.

Elizabeth’s Commentary

Every so often, Elizabeth will have comments about the match. Find them here:

“I forgot just how much I missed the Racing games. Except for the weather. I always forget that there’s weather to deal with.”

“It sounds like a pocketful of rain”

“Green Isaac”/Swoon/1984

Yeah, I don’t really know what that means either, but I liked the sound of it. I am going to interpret it as experiencing something purely. That’s probably not quite it, but for our purposes it will work.

Racing looks to be a much more polished team and has smoothed out some of their rougher edges. Taken with or without its previous baggage, the performance was assured and disciplined. Here are some thoughts:

• “Forget the style and chose from 12 notes”: Racing’s tactics and approach wasn’t anything too fancy, and it was similar to everything we had seen before, just done better and more assuredly. One thing that certainly stood out was the set pieces and especially the set piece delivery. Petersen put in a terrific ball on the corner from which Sears ultimately scored. Her other deliveries and the ones of her teammates were also good. Racing is going to have to “steal” points to make the playoffs and set piece proficiency is about the best way to do it in my opinion based on this team’s current setup and composition.

• “I hear you ‘re still wet behind the ears”: The young players will be a deciding factor in how far Racing goes this season. There were good signs from Sears (still young if not a rookie), O’Kane, and “Sweb/Swebs" (Weber). Swebs (I think I like the “ending in s version”) does that thing where you are on the right attacking side and cut inside and shoot with your left foot. That is one of my favorite “things”. I will be looking forward to getting looks at some of the other younger players.

• “The most eloquent way to speak or to pray is straight from the heart”: Look, I am still “me” and realism is surely coming right around the corner, but I don’t have anything bad to say about last night’s performance. I think the goal Racing conceded is just one of those goals that you end up giving up to good teams when you are trying to build on a lead. It’s too early to talk or think about “dropped points”. In this league, it’s hard to consider a 1-goal lead as anything approaching a guarantee especially one taken so early. The signs of a decent team are there. Racing just has to keep building.

Racing 1 NCC 1 Player Ratings

Photo by Elizabeth Shaw

It was a familiar pattern but with encouraging signs. The first 30 minutes were really good for Racing, so that is something to build on.

Lund-6: Solid as usual. Not at fault for the goal.

Petersen-7: I think this was one of her better performances in a Racing kit.

Wright-7: It will be interesting to see how the defense does with her leading the line, but it was an encouraging start.

Jean-6: Had her usual nervy moment, but played well otherwise.

Milliet-7: Typical good performance.

Flint-8: Unlucky not to score on a thunder strike. Still Racing’s best midfielder at the moment.

Borges-7: Got knocked down a few times but kept getting back up.

DeMelo-7: Won a few important free kicks to help Racing keep possession.

Fischer-6: Not really involved but avoided a yellow card, so that was a positive.

Sonis-7: Racing looked good on set pieces in no small part to her delivery on corners.

Sears-8: Off to a good start to hopefully be Racing’s first ever double digit goal scorer for a season.

RLFC v NCC Matchday -1

Photo by Elizabeth Shaw

Opening matches are always unique. Everyone, including coaches, players and fans never quite know what to expect. Coaches are never going to let you know too much about what they have planned, but it seems to be especially relevant for the first match of the season. Coach Yanez spoke about being prepared to the point of almost being over prepared for the season opener on Saturday, since no team has any game footage on their opponents yet. The change that I really appreciate compared to the first couple of seasons at Racing is that even if we don’t know how the team has performed in the preseason, we know that they have faced NWSL competition in the warmup (in Racing’s case their opponents were Washington, Kansas City and Chicago. Like everyone, I am mostly curious as to how Racing might line up on Saturday. In particular, I am interested in the defense. I hesitate to even say “back 4” because while I assume that to be the case, I simply do not know.

Captain Arin Wright was a little more upfront (without being transparent). I inferred (she didn’t explicitly state but I follow Sutton’s Law for most situations) that the back line will be a back four with experienced personnel. One thing that she did comment on that took me a little off guard in its frankness, was that she discussed with her teammates that they have to be okay with not having the majority of possession on Saturday. I think that is something that anyone who has seen Sean Nahas’ Courage play would rightly assume. One thing that I have been tangentially critical about toward Racing is their sometimes bizarre lack of self-awareness. I think admitting that you don’t expect to win the match by out possessing the Courage is a nice step forward.

I expect teams to key in on Emma Sears. When I asked her about it, she appeared to be expecting it as well. “I do now think people know who I am which definitely presents different challenges,” Sears said but continued on to say that she will continue to play to her strengths, which is all that any of us can do. I expect to pay a little bit of extra attention to Sears in this first match, unless Bev comes up with some completely unexpected formation or lineup. In previous years, the mantra has probably been that Racing will go as far as DeMelo carries them. I think that ended up being true, for better or for worse. Maybe with an additional focal point for opponents (in Sears), DeMelo can recover some of her form from previous seasons.

I want to go to there

By Elizabeth Shaw

I recently completed an imaginary poll* of first-time visitors to Lynn Family stadium for a Racing Louisville or Lou City game.

*Okay, this was actually based on qualitative data from friends and family who visited Lynn Family stadium for a ‘24 Racing or Lou City game. It’s just as accurate as President Trump saying “everything’s computer” about the inside of a Tesla.

Their top reactions were split as such:

• 40% were just wowed by the amazing stadium. It is pretty Wow.

• 30% were excited to see their favorite players in action and maybe get an autograph. Since this is my 5th time being a season ticket holder, Lauren Milliet has signed pretty much everything in my house except my fridge because security wouldn’t let me bring it into the stadium.

• 10% were hoping to run into Jack Harlow (and did!), since the Louisville native is a part-owner and attends games of both teams.

• 5% of you have noticed this doesn’t total 100%…see above for poll accuracy levels.

• 10% were all about the Ehrler’s ice cream.

If I imaginary polled kids everywhere about their favorite part of any sporting event, they would 103% say “THE FOOD” because who under eight doesn’t love popcorn, nachos, ice cream…basically all the non-vegetable food groups that really love to shine at ballparks, arenas and stadiums everywhere?

Consider the Yum! Center, where UofL, the 13th ranked NCAA men’s basketball team, plays, coached by the ACC Coach of the year, Pat Kelsey. (As a Louisville, KY resident and UofL alumni, I am legally obligated to mention this team three times in every media piece and social media post from here to eternity, amen.) Our friends, Susan & Rick, love to host friends and family as they are long-time season ticket holders. Last week, after we watched U of L (that’s 2) pound on Cal for two glorious halves of basketball, I asked Susan how the grandkids were enjoying the games. She said they are all about the food. Her two oldest, Lincoln (4) and Carter (3), have already discovered the ice cream and require it at every game. Well played, young Cardinals.

And travel back in the time with me to the days of the Louisville Redbirds baseball team (before they were the Bats). If this minor league club was playing a home game at Louisville Redbird Stadium circa 1985, you would be sure to see my sister, Emily, and me sitting in the stands, ignoring the game while we devoured ice cream from tiny plastic baseball helmets before moving on to nachos or popcorn.

So, for children and grown men everywhere, the usual ballgame staples at Lynn Family stadium are “chef’s kiss”. There are also specialty concessions if you want tacos, burgers, or alcoholic drinks, but people don’t usually drink at ballgames. (Pause for laughter.) For the fan who prefers something beyond the usual 2000-cal ballpark snack, Lynn Family has introduced and reinvented several items for the 2025 season. Michael and I were super excited to eat some free food (and Michael’s specialty is judging), so here are the rankings of the food we sampled tonight.

The images below align with the rankings, left to right, top to bottom. Bonus photo is Jonathan Lintner, VP of Marketing & Communications for Racing Louisville & Lou City, pictured with Levy Head Chef Mark Heil.

1. The yummiest thing I’ve eaten all week was the Vegan Crunch Wrap. While this has been available previously at Lynn, it was likely just a vegan wrap. This year, it will be served on the concourse, made to order, crunch included at no extra cost. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of soy-rizo - if you can imagine eating a flavorful beef-bean-cheese quesadilla, then you can appreciate the deliciousness of this creation. Oh, and there’s tomatillo dipping sauce on the side that can totally skip if you want. Michael only ranked this at 2, despite giving it a “big thumbs up.”

2. A very close 2nd was the inspired Funky Lou, a brilliant take on the sloppy joe. I don’t know where pimento cheese was hiding all my life, probably somewhere all alone being yucky, but pair it with harissa-seasoned sloppy joe and look out! This was Michael’s fave.

3. Let’s jump to dessert! But I would call the S’mores Nachos an “adults-only” dessert because (a) it would sell better and (b) you really don’t want your kids eating this unless you’re the type of parent who has wet wipes on their person at all times. This was a yummy, sticky mess of cinnamon crisps with chocolate sauce and toasted marshmallows. I ate the marshmallows, then the crisps, and left the chocolate for the racoons who will feast tonight outside the stadium.

4. The Honey Sriracha Chicken Sandwich was a’ight. I hope I spelled that right; I’m trying to sound like someone cool enough to eat sriracha because my vanilla palette is very anti-spice. The honey definitely tamed it, but I’d take a #1 from Chik Fil a everyday and twice on Sunda- never mind.

5. I think it’s hard to dress up a hot dog. (Is that where the saying “put lipstick on a pig” comes from? If not, it should.) I appreciate the idea of adding cream cheese as a condiment for the Derby City Dog, but at the end of the day, I’d rather have a corndog. (Ed. I enjoyed it, but it definitely was due to the “dog” and not necessarily the extras.)

6. Here I’m going to drop in the BBQ Nachos that Michael ranked #4. He said these had a “good kick” and that you could just skip the jalapenos if you want less spicy nachos. I skipped this one altogether because it combines several of my least favorite foods into one messy pile - shredded pork (nope), BBQ sauce (extra no), and house kettle chips (why when we have Lays?).

7. Now for the Drinks! They were definitely higher than #7 but here we are. The Porch Swing by Rivergreen should come with a giant warning label that his innocent looking 12 oz can is 12 percent alocohol and will kick your butt. (Ask Michael.)

   The Racing players help choose the blackberry-blueberry flavor of the Top Bins Hard Seltzer and it was pretty good for a seltzer. Where I will usually try two sips, I managed to get down four of this one.

8. Why did I abandon the seltzer so quickly, you ask? I was excited to try to Capri Sun-looking drink, AmiracleAde. This will be amazing on a hot day if I can remember the name of it, and the label makes it look like it has Vitamin C or D or maybe Z. Sold!

This Saturday, you will find me on the Concourse with the vegan crunch wraps. Remember, all of these items are only available at Lynn Family stadium, right down the road from where the UofL men’s basketball team (that’s 3) just wrapped up their regular season.

People Can't Stop Saying "Everything's Computer" Because Of Donald Trump

2024-25 Men's College Basketball Rankings - ESPN

Louisville Bats - Wikipedia

Michael’s PSA

DO NOT DRINK A PORCH SWING BY RIVERGREEN AT LAST CALL!

I don’t drink a ton, but don’t consider myself a lightweight either. However, I had two Porch Swings and Elizabeth had to drive home and I am still buzzing at almost 10 pm when I finished off my second at 7:30.

Listen up, fives, a ten is speaking

Coach Bev Yanez shares her excitement about the home opener this Saturday at Lynn Family Stadium

By Elizabeth Shaw

It was smiles-all-around at Racing Louisville’s media day, Monday, March 10th, just five days out from the season opener. And Coach Bev has four specific reasons to be excited: Racing picked up four promising players in the off-season/ pre-season and they are already bringing their unique energies to the team. Allie George, Ella Hase, Katie O’Kane, and Sarah Weber are each impressing Coach Bev in different ways, including one who isn’t afraid to charge down the field and shoot with either foot. (I’ll leave it to the fans to discover who I’m speaking about here; we wouldn’t want the NC Courage getting any advance notice of our special talents.)

Self-Reflection & Relationships

Bev shared how she spent a lot of time in self-reflection in the off-season. She’s continued her commitment to building relationships by providing interactive activities for the team. Music to my ears! After observing some player disconnects during the first season, I would regularly comment to Michael that the teams needed some good old-fashioned team building to learn more about each other and thus how to play well together.

Having spent over twenty years at Fortune 100 companies that live or die by culture, I’ve developed a passion for genuine self-discovery and team bonding. (Alternatively, I have a gag-reflex when a new leader dusts off a Myers-Briggs personality assessment and forces their employees to take the test (again) and share with their colleagues, even if they are an ISTP who clearly hates this type of exercise.) Otherwise said, it has to be done right!

How do you know if you’ve done it right? You issue a survey at the end of the session and ask for feedback. (Kidding, please, for the love of soccer do not do that.) You will just know. Like if teammates start opening up to each other in new ways. Coach Bev wants her players to “go the extra mile” for each other. And if you know someone and care about them (maybe because you realized you’re both Swifties), then you’re more likely to step up for them.

New Captains

This season, Coach asked her players to vote on their captain. I cannot imagine how hard that must’ve been given the candidate pool here. If this had been a popularity vote, I think we would’ve seen Lauren Milliet or Olivia Sekany as winners, which would be a problem since Olivia isn’t the starting keeper. Since this was, however, a captain vote, we’re looking for different qualities (that Lauren Milliet also possesses, but I didn’t get to vote).

Congrats to Arin Wright (captain) and Janine Sonis (nee Beckie) (co-captain)! Look forward to hearing Arin inspire the team in the pre-game huddle on Friday.

Intensity

I loved Coach Bev’s response to the question “what do you want fans to see from the team this year?” Without missing a beat, she said “Intensity.” For a minute I was reminded of the word-of-the-year bracelets that women of a certain age used to create for themselves as part of their New Year’s Resolutions and Related Activities to Quit Mid-January. But if you put that word on a bracelet and wear that bracelet everyday - or until you catch it on your car door and it breaks into a million beads in your garage that you’ll step on the rest of your life - then yeah, it can make a difference. You’re forced to think about that word every day, how you can incorporate that into your personality.

And Coach was not talking about bracelets. She was talking again about culture. They established a good foundation last season and plan to build on that. She smiled as she talked about a recent bus ride with the team where they shared their playlists and song picks for this season. (I think it’s a missed opportunity if we can’t find a way to parody H-O-T-T-O-G-O with “R-A-C-I-N-G-O” or something much better.) Music can be very personal, so I think the bonding activities are working.

Let’s goooo

We’ll find out soon enough how the new players are integrating with the veterans, how Captain Arin embraces her new role, and what songs get the players hyped up on game day. See you all Saturday for the 5pm kick-off against the NC Courage at Lynn Family stadium (or Ynn Family Stadium if that L light is still out on the north side.)

MBTI | The Myers-Briggs Company

30 Rock (TV Series 2006–2013) - IMDb

"It don't matter that some fool say he different

…cuz the only thing that make you different is what you really do.”

If you consider yourself “progressive” and you haven’t seen The Wire I don’t know what I could say to you at this point to convince you to watch it, so I won’t waste my breath. (If you consider yourself “conservative” I assume that if “Bawlmer” didn’t scare you off, the sheer number of black cast members would have.)

I know someone who named their dog “Avon Barksdale”. That is the greatest dog's name in the history of mankind, however the above quote comes from his nephew D’Angelo. It’s essentially his take on The Great Gatsby. Back in the previous century this would have been considered mandatory reading for a high school student, but that concept is a thing of the past.

Any who… D’Angelo’s point (before it is brutally evident to viewers that it serves a dual purpose as jailhouse literary criticism and a clearly foreshadowed last act) is that the narrative isn’t as important as the results.

I really have no idea if Racing is saying that they are different because they really aren’t saying much of anything. In previous years I would have been invited to see some action in the preseason, but that was reduced last season and has basically petered out to nil this season. I won’t project my opinions on why that might be because the reasons are probably numerous, practical, environmental, and necessary.

However, we are only a few weeks out from a first match and them team looks like it is going to be what it is at this point in the preseason. What it is, frankly, is uninspiring.

Tactics

No clue. Zero. Zilch.

I feel like this is probably by design, but the coaching staff kept things close to the vest last season and I wouldn’t say that they surprised anybody or broke new ground from a tactical perspective. Since there are not many new players that will likely break into the starting XI, this may be the place of most interest when the season starts.

The defense is unproven at best, so Racing will likely need to score multiple goals to win. Teams that do this are typically a) better at holding possession and/or b) have a game changing goal-scoring threat. Racing don’t control the possession particularly well nor do they have what I would consider a real top-of-the-line goal scorer (that definition changed for the league last year so leave your “9 goals/season striker” mess at the door). Best of luck outscoring opponents with that setup!

Goalkeeper

Katie Lund.

End of discussion. Jordyn Bloomer will have to prove to me that she can stay fit off the pitch before I would even consider her as an option on it. Racing will live or die in some matches based on Katie’s level of focus. The good news is that the defense might be porous enough that she won’t have the opportunity to lose focus or get distracted.

Defense

I expect a regression back to Racing 1.0 or Racing 2.0 defensively. I am not sure who is going to “lead the line”, but the recent injury to Ángela Barón definitely limits Racing’s already not great options (Update: the injury doesn't look serious). There is a reason why good centerbacks have long careers and that reason is scarcity. While nominally a midfielder, Flint will likely need to double down on her already tremendous effectiveness for Racing to have any defensive success.

Midfield

If Bev Yanez is going to get a third season or full second one, the midfield has to play better. I think the feeling around the club and fans is that this is where Racing is best, at least from a talent perspective. Racing's midfield gets consistently outplayed in matches where their opponents want to control possession. Racing has never had an answer for this. I can’t think of any successful soccer endeavor where the midfield wasn't at least above average.

DeMelo hasn't shown herself to be consistent enough to be “the answer” leading the midfield so maybe Racing should stop putting so much on her shoulders. I do feel like Bev did a decent job at rotation in the midfield last year when most players were available.

Attack

I hinted at this above, but “attack” in 2025 isn't what “attack” was even a few years ago. I'm sorry, but having a leading scorer (or even multiple players) have a goal tally for the season of 5 goals screams “bottom half of the table team” to me. North Carolina kind of got away with that last year, but they were much better defensively and actually had a bad season compared to their high standards.

Once again Racing seems to be going all in on a player that has had one good rookie season. Emma Sears may turn out to be great. She may also turn out to be good, average, or bad.

There is decent talent up front, but not game-changing talent. If the defense is as porous as I expect it to be, I don't think decent will hack it.

“I swear at you 'cause I believe that sweet talk, like candy, rots teeth.”

I have never been accused of being overly optimistic, but the preseason is the most optimistic of times. Then why do I feel so down about Racing’s chances this season?

I guess I just believe in honest assessments. The club could be feeling really good about this season, and I imagine that most clubs do in their own protective bubbles and echo chambers. I just wish I had something to go on other than 4 years of failure. There hasn’t been enough positive change in the offseason to offset even the losses that needed to come. I listened to the BTRD podcast today, and there is something admirable in Tom Benson’s Pollyannaish optimism but that’s not me. Who I am is a realist who hopes for the best. At this point, I think avoiding last place might be a rosy as I can be based on the current evidence. Don’t get your hopes up. It is looking to be a very long season.

Esoterica

Back in the dark ages, or the 1990s as it was also known, my teal Chevy Beretta only had a tape deck. Most of my music was on CD, so you can see how this might have presented a problem for a college student looking to drive back and forth to work 45 minutes each way. I made a lot of mix tapes. We'll, that isn’t quite true. I made a lot of tapes that I recorded from a newly purchased CD (almost always from ear-X-tacy). Honestly, I considered myself more of an “album” guy back then. That is a fairly quaint notion today. The only a actual “mix tape” I remember making was a Prefab Sprout one. That previous sentence may require some googling, but let me stop you before you are tempted. You won’t be into them. I prefer it that way.

I have always preferred discover things on my own. Growing up in the absolute middle of nowhere in Kentucky, that meant discovering something English that was somewhat popular there, but none of my friends had the slightest idea existed. It isn’t lost on me that something needs a certain level of popularity to even be discovered. I am sure that there were undiscovered garage bands within 10 miles of where I grew up, but I am also extremely confident that nobody was missing anything by them not being discovered. There was absolutely nowhere to even play in public other than the annual high school talent show. You could probably guess the kind of music I was into. It was definitively “not what anybody else was listening to”. By anybody, I meant anyone I would meet in a town of 2000 people. Of course, as I moved away to college, I did meet some people who had actually heard of the stuff I was listening to. I even learned to take recommendations from people. The Smiths and the Cure became beloved by proximity to hearing it. I did kind of get into Blur own my own before they had any kind of American audience.

However, Prefab Sprout belong to me and me alone. Well, at least their 1984-1990 catalog that comprised that mix tape does. I hadn't listened to them in a while, but the urge hit me and I basically downloaded and created that mix tape again (although the exact order is lost to time). If you have made it this far, you wouldn't be wrong in asking how any of this is relevant to Racing Louisville.

It isn't, but it will be.

“If you have a problem with this, I understand completely.”

Racing has had what I would consider a pretty boring offseason. Not once have I even felt the slightest urge to write something. The players that left needed to go, and the new ones are speculative signings. Ryan Dell left for a better opportunity, and I think Jeff Greer did too. I will miss Jeff. He cared about his job and did it well in my opinion. Honestly, there hasn't been much to write or talk about.

I go into the 2025 with the absolute lowest of expectations. I can’t envision how this team will be good. They may be competitive. If they do turn out to be decent, it will be counter to most of the previous evidence.

I don't get paid to write, so it has to be fun for me. I don't see Racing Louisville as a “serious enterprise” in this city for the long term. The owners can't afford to own a sports team that loses money. I feel like there is less enthusiasm than ever because the writing seems to be on the wall with this club.

However, I will forever be grateful for its existence because it has given me an excuse to write. Now, I am going to take the opportunity to take the owners’ and city's general lack of commitment to or interest in the club to change how I write about this club. This isn't a serious club. It's going to get unserious writing.

Not exclusively mind you. I still intend on doing player ratings, which I do with sober analysis. Everything else will be less serious. I am not a silly person by nature, so it won't be goofy. Think esoteric. I fully intend to pepper in Prefab Sprout lyrics that make sense to me (but surely not to you). I will use The Wire epigraphs with abandon. I have a list of ideas of things to sprinkle into my pre and post match pieces like “Kayla Fischer card of the week” and “JOC unaccountable moment of the match”.

Anyway…consider this fair warning. If any of my frequent readers (which don't number many) aren't down with this I will point to the quote above and assure you that, “If you have a problem with this, I understand completely.”

“To shine like Joan of Arc you must be prepared to burn.”

It would be disingenuous to say that this blog hasn’t been mostly about “me” all along. It has always been my take and my opinion. However, what I get out of it is the process of writing it. After that is done, it doesn’t belong to me anymore, at least not completely. I know what I want to say, but that doesn’t mean that it makes it to the reader’s conscious unaltered. That’s impossible anyway and not something that has ever concerned me much, but concerns me even less now. I have never felt the weight of Tom Benson’s description of this site as “the paper of record” for Racing Louisville. That is such an antiquated notion today that it is so hard to even fathom in today’s media climate. I want this to be fun, so I have made changes to make it fun…for me. I realize that these changes may not be “fun” for you. With all due respect, that isn’t my concern. My readership may drop to zero this season. I can live with it. There will be sometimes you may not have a clue what I am on about. I am okay with that too.

Back to my original thought. There is a beauty in the esoteric. Racing Louisville was never intended to appeal or even be understood by all. It does require specialized knowledge. That is part of the fun. As with all esoteric things, you hope it is just popular enough to be sustainable. There are sections of NWSL fandom that want to wallow in its esoterica. I completely understand that, but it puts a time limit on things. Prefab Sprout were just popular enough to be a working enterprise for 8-10 years, although their lifetime went beyond that. I feel like Racing’s time in Louisville may be limited, but I want to deeply enjoy whatever time is left. The football hasn’t been very interesting or much fun to write about recently, so I am going to marry some other bits of esoterica and unseriousness into this space and wrap it up in a Racing Louisville package. I hope you come along for the ride, but if not I understand completely.

2024 Season Wrap-up

Courtesy Connor Cunningham

Sometimes it is hard to remember why you do certain things. Oftentimes, the reason you start something is different from the reason you continue it. I started this blog simply because I thought Racing needed a site specifically dedicated to covering the team. Now, I mostly keep it up to date out of habit, to record my thoughts and get them out of my head, and to give Jeff Greer or Jonathan Lintner an extra chore during the day to make sure that I am behaving myself. The other thing that I can’t quite remember the reasoning behind is the decision to split my coverage into content that I thought was best suited for this site, and content that was suited for a broader audience on The State of Louisville. At first that decision seemed to be crystal clear, and I often saved the pieces of which I was most fond for that site. Now, I really just post my quarterly reviews there. Again, this is simply out of habit, and I don’t have any real intent on changing this unless the guys over there kick me out. This rather long preface is simply here to say that I wrote my 4th quarter piece first, but that it will likely be published after this.

That means that this piece serves as somewhat of a catch-all piece for the thoughts that enter my head during the season, but don’t really have a place in the context of a match or are more appropriate for after the season is complete. I will likely have forgotten some of the things I wanted to talk about, but the important ones have surely made their way here. There are all kinds of ways to handle a wrap-up piece, but I think the following format will prompt me to remember most of the things I want to talk about.

If Racing are serious about winning, there are things that need to be addressed. I wrote this for my forthcoming State of Louisville piece, but I want to dive deeper here: “I believe that Racing's issues are multiple and deep-seated. In simple terms Racing

1. Plays in a small market

2. For an ownership conglomeration without truly deep pockets

3. Who are hesitant to take on a financially disastrous loss that includes

4. Improving the team's staff

5. In order to find and pay the right players

6. To play in a system that is unique enough to cause their opponents problems”

Let’s break down that run-on sentence into each of its parts.

Before I get to that, let me just say that I fully expect to hit some nerves and say things people don’t agree with or flat out hate in this piece. Actually, I will probably write some things that I will ultimately disagree with myself as time passes. Try not to take it personally.

Racing plays in a small market

This is an environmental issue/problem. Unless you want the team to move, this specific challenge has to be dealt with creatively. I always got the sense, and maybe I got it incorrectly due to my own biases, that the organization has always thought that if they could get every USWNT fan in the Louisville area to attend Racing matches, that attendance would be a breeze. Yes, the USWNT “sold out” Lynn Family Stadium, but there is “sold out” and sold out. It sold out without breaking the Lynn attendance record. That’s a neat trick. The attendance is nothing to sneeze at, and Louisville represented itself quite well. I don’t fault the effort or the result of getting a USWNT match here. However, we now kind of know the upper limit on attendance. 13,000 is likely the absolute maximum you can expect if Racing go undefeated for 5 straight years. Here in the real world, the practical limit is about 8,000 (barring an air show or some other event that divides fan attention). My proposal is that the Racing matches at Lynn should be configured to hold 7,000 to 8,000 fans by strategically closing large sections of the stadium. I had this idea before the San Diego match, and now we know it is somewhat feasible. Thing that will make some people mad #1: I think the Estopinal End should be closed for Racing matches as part of a 7,000 to 8,000 seating configuration. The Estopinal End works for Lou City. It doesn’t for Racing. The Lavender Legion (of which I am a paying member and former board member) has been given 4 years to try to create an atmosphere. It has not worked. What has worked in more recent matches are simple chants stared by sections of the crowd with enough people to start them. Five elementary school aged children got a chant started in Section 125 with only 2100 or so people in attendance on Sunday. Their lack of rhythm made me pine for the days of mandatory music education in the public school system, but they got it going. Organic is always going to work better than manufactured. People need to be in close confines to create an environment. Let’s close some sections and get people closer together.

What I hope this will achieve is thing that will make some people mad #2: Make Lynn Family Stadium “Hell on Earth” for Racing’s opponents. The good people of section 107 have been trying very hard (myself included) to make Lynn into Hell on Earth for officials for a few seasons now. I frequently embarrass my wife with some of the things I say to the officials (all of the are well earned and clean by the way). However, opponents continue to come into the stadium way too relaxed. I can’t prevent a section of the fanbase from fawning over the opposition players, especially the international-level ones, nor would I want to. I just want to harden the environment to a degree that the opponents don’t feel like they have just been invited to Sunday tea.

I expect the fans to be polite, to a degree and respectful and I would never want any real abuse hurled at opposing players or coaches, but there is a difference between hospitality and reverence. I would prefer mute disdain with the goal of eventually heading toward open hostility (good natured of course). I believe that people know the difference between booing an opponent and attacking them verbally. I wlll get to the second part of this in section 6.

For an ownership conglomeration without truly deep pockets

Racing is in a financial mismatch against virtually every other team in the league. The valuation of the franchise might be greatly higher than the investment, but that is only beneficially to ownership on the day they sell it. I believe that every team in this league operates at a loss and with the new salary cap developments, Racing’s wage bill is only going to become a larger burden on the ownership. I simultaneously have some degree and very little sympathy for ownership. On the one hand, you can’t be continually dumping stupid money into an investment that is years away from paying off (hopefully) but you are also rather arrogant to think that you get to own a top tier sports franchise without being willing to invest stupid money into it. Thing that will make some people mad #3: The current ownership group can’t be successful other than to cash out. Of course, cashing out puts the team at risk of moving. One of the most irritating things about fans is their bravado when it comes to spending ownership’s money. I don’t think there is a single person in the current ownership group wealthy enough to own an NWSL franchise by themselves. In fact, that person might not exist in the city of Louisville or the state of Kentucky. Fans can come up with all of the lists of potential rich owners they want to, but unless you want to convince some sporting uber conglomerate to purchase the club as is, a single owner is likely to move the team.

Who are hesitant to take on a financially disastrous loss

The team needs monetary infusions that are simply not going to give you a return on investment. I would love to see Racing’s books and the books of other NWSL teams and I am sure that it would be a fascinating insight into their operations. However, I seriously doubt that any team turns a profit. Which leads me to thing that will make some people mad #4: Women’s sports have to become more than just an investment vehicle for rich narcissists at some point, or it risks becoming a charity. This is a tough one. I think that many men’s sports franchises and clubs operate at a loss on paper, and it is extremely unfair to expect women’s sports to be profitable on a short time frame. Then again, if you can’t afford a loss should you be a sports owner? Honestly, the only way most professional sports teams seem to be profitable today is either when they are inherited through generational wealth or sold to the next rich person. There is no real solution to Louisville’s problem here other than a drastic increase in attendance which doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. That doesn’t mean that is still doesn’t affect their day-to-day operations. Long story short: if you want the current ownership to invest more, you are going to have to give them a really good reason. We all need to work together to increase attendance (and/or the value of the tickets) by (almost) any means necessary.

Improve the team's staff

Racing is lacking in technical staff. I frankly don’t care what other teams have, but Racing needs some real help here. I have always felt that they have cheapened out on hiring staff. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have good coaches, but I do think it means that there is a limit for what the organization is willing to pay for coaching excellence. That mentality has to chance. The head coaches in this league are leaps and bounds above what they were even two seasons ago. The league cleaned house to some degree and replaced the bad actors with at least better coaches and hopefully better people. Thing that will make some people mad #5: I feel like Racing made the wrong head coaching decision at almost every turn. Bev may turn out to be great, but she isn’t there yet. I am unsure of who else was being considered, but Racing ultimately made the safe choice. It cost them a year of progress. They can’t afford another lost year.

Find and pay the right players

On this one Racing has no choice but to change their way of thinking. They won’t have the draft to get players like DeMelo and Sears anymore. This will somewhat force Racing to pick players that fit the system they want to play. Whether that is the right system is up for debate, and I will make my case below. I spend some time in my 4th quarter review for the State of Louisville on this topic, so I won’t rehash things here.

If you don’t want to read that piece, I will give you the brief version. The talent gap in the league is increasing at the top of the table, and what was good enough last season, is not good enough this season and definitely won’t be good enough next season. Racing needs to be very, very careful on the international players that they sign, especially if most of the game film on the player is in a league that is not up to par with the NWSL (or NCAA for rookies). Thing that will make some people mad #6: fans need to stop falling in love with the players. This level of devotion is only going to hurt the fans. Racing has proven itself to be brutally ruthless recently, and I don’t expect that to change. Do a job or find another team. The time for sentiment is over if you want this franchise to survive in this city. The players should be treated respectfully, but nobody gets a free pass.

Play in a system that is unique enough to cause their opponents problems

Where the real “Hell on Earth” needs to take place is on the pitch. Louisville (unless something changes) is always going to have a financial challenge compared to other teams in the league. That is why I believe that thing that will make some people mad #7 has to be a change in style that makes the opponents dread playing Racing. I would like to see a style where every player is Kayla Fischer-level aggressive. That might lead to multiple suspensions, but something has to change. Louisville hasn’t succeeded by attempting to play attractive football, so don’t attempt to play it. Find a style that makes the game an absolute nightmare on the other team. This doesn’t have to be completely ugly or use the “dark arts” 100% of the time, but the dark arts shouldn’t be ignored. Everyone wants to play beautiful football now. Racing needs to find a way to make them pay for it. I refuse to believe that there aren’t some coaches out there plotting against the current wave of play-out-from-the-back, possession football. Find one and bring them to Louisville to help implement something unique. The harsh truth is that Racing Louisville can’t stand against the current cream of the crop in this league playing a similar style with lesser players. They need to win the chess matches.

And alternatively, what if Racing isn’t all that serious about winning?

Be okay with 9th place (or worse). It is sustainable and not the end of the world. I am not a fan with infinite patience, but I can't picture myself ever stopping supporting Racing. There is still a whole bunch of fun to be had at the matches. They could catch lightning in a bottle every once in a while without many changes. Not everyone gets to be a fan of a consistent winner and sometimes you end up supporting a perennial doormat. It's fine. The owners are perfectly within their rights to make the minimum required investment and watch the value of the franchise continue to grow. I just think we need to be honest about what the ambitions of this club are going to be. This offseason will be key. If the club is going to be unserious about winning, I am perfectly happy to cover the club in an (even more) unserious manner. I mean, I let a pirate preview a match this season and Racing are undefeated when that happens. Maybe the pirate should take over. And seriously, what’s the big deal if Racing is never a winner in Louisville. For those of you that follow me closely you know that I love to quote The Wire, especially the line “Deserve got nuttin’ to do with it.” What that essentially means to me in this instance is that nobody is promised anything, and you shouldn't expect any great reward past the agreed upon terms. Racing agrees to play football and we agree to watch it. Past that, you get what you get (and don't throw a fit…couldn't resist).

The Racing players are always able to produce a smile after the match, win, lose or draw and they make the fans proud either way. That might just be enough to sustain things for a few more years.

Racing 1 Wave 3 Post Match Thoughts

Courtesy NWSL LLC

The season is mercifully over and if I am being honest, this season has been the most disappointing (on the pitch) so far in Racing’s brief history. Nothing quite clicked for this group, and the season was poor enough that no single aspect of the team deserves all of the blame.

• More in-depth analysis of the season is coming (if I can stomach writing it) but it's hard to read too much into this match. Racing has been prone to bad starts, especially recently so it wasn't surprising that it happened again. However, it was a bizarre set of circumstances that led to Sunday's match so let's just leave it at that.

• The most interesting moment of the match was the Beckie offside call. It was obviously a ball call. The linesperson should have waited for the phase of play to end before raising her flag, but the center official didn't have to blow the play dead. For once, I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for the official in this situation. I am fairly certain that when you train to be a line judge you get drilled into your head “stay in line with the offside line” or some version of that. Beckie clearly was in an offside position, but since a Wave Player made a deliberate action to play the ball backwards, her offside position should have been irrelevant. I think the official just saw that Beckie was clearly offside and for a split second didn’t consider the other criteria for an offside offense and raised her flag. The offside but not illegally offside condition specifically like this one is somewhat rare, but something I see a few times and season. My guess is that the linesperson simply lost track of the ball in the phase of play and made an incorrect assumption. Honestly, I did as well, as I too was watching Beckie and not the ball. It was such a bone-headed play by the Wave player that I think it took everyone by surprise.

  The officials will surely rewatch the match and kick themselves for missing that call. My hope is that the linesperson carries that mistake with her so that she doesn't make it again. I still remember a bad call that I made in a match refereeing a church league for 7-year-olds. I failed to play an advantage where a player scored, but I had blown the play dead. It was a beginner’s league and technically we didn't even keep score. Neither the players, coaches, nor parents complained. I am probably the only one that even knew that I screwed up. I am definitely the only person that still thinks about it. However, I carried that mistake with me every time I officiated a match after that, and I think it made me a better one in my brief career. I would like to believe that officials hold themselves accountable. Honestly, I think they do. What I wish for is that someday there will be more transparency so that we know what the consequences are when officials make mistakes. Their frequent silence comes off as arrogance and being above the consequences. Kudos to Bekki Morgan for getting us an answer on this one because there are too many times where we get none.

• When Sav McCaskill came into the match I turned to my wife and said, “well, she is definitely scoring.” She isn't as beloved as some ex-Racing players, but I for one hate when Racing plays against her.

• In case I forget to mention it later, one of the most frustrating things to me during this season was the number of times I watched Racing’s opponents play admirable football and the virtually zero times I could say the same about Racing. Sometimes the football was effective, but the success seemed labored. I am all for winning ugly, but the operative word in that phrase is “winning”. I have less tolerance for boring football when the results aren't there. To my eyes, Racing played boring football this season. I will be the first to admit that personal preference will vary and maybe you think differently and enjoyed the football. My least favorite frequent occurrence was to watch Racing try to play out of the back very deliberately. There were too few line-splitting passes during these build-ups. Again, maybe you like that and if you do there is no judgment here. Just because I could never quite figure out what Racing was trying to do doesn't mean it wasn't effective from a coaching point of view. All that I can say is that I didn't find it particularly entertaining. I am perfectly willing to sacrifice some entertainment for results. Maybe year two of BevBall will yield some better ones.

Racing 1 Wave 3 Player Ratings

Courtesy Connor Cunningham

Over 2000 fans showed up to help Racing unexpectedly close out the season at home. Unfortunately, nothing was on the line and the effort and result was all too familiar.

Lund-6: Not to blame on any of the goals and kept it from being any more lopsided.

Petersen-5: Racing signed her to be a semi-replacement for Pickett but in her limited appearances she has been a poor facsimile.

Erceg-5: San Diego found too much joy in Racing’s box for her to rate any higher.

Jean-5: Not the answer at RCB

Milliet-6: As much as I would love her to spend her career here, I would hate to see her never play regularly on a semi-decent team.

Flint-5: Put in a perfunctory 45.

DiGrande-5: If she plays 1700 minutes for Racing next season, something has gone horribly wrong. She just doesn't produce enough to warrant those minutes.

Fischer-6: Decent, but has to figure out a way to cut out the yellow cards.

Beckie-5: Lost every single one of her ground duels.

Sears-6: The attacking answer can't be have Emma run 80 yards and pray.

Balcer-7: Found a way to score, but can’t be the primary option next season.

Racing v Wave Pre Match Thoughts

Courtesy Connor Cunningham

There was no real point of writing anything about this match until we knew if Racing had anything to play for. Now we know that there isn't really anything to play for and that Racing will finish in 9th place for the 4th season in a row.

• It will be interesting to see what kind of crowd turns up for the San Diego match. I don't expect attendance to be announced, but I should be able to track it down afterwards.

• Racing can not really have any complaints about missing out on the playoffs because Bay won 6 points off them. The home match was the killer loss. That occurred in June. I will never accept the mentality of “peaking at the right time” even if I completely understand it. If Orlando doesn't win the Championship this season, people will accuse them of peaking too soon. That is frankly nonsense. The Shield continues to be the real accomplishment in this league because the schedule is balanced (or mostly balanced if you can keep your field in playable condition). You always take your chances with playoffs. Losing in them should never diminish a good season.

• I am ready for this season to be over, but I will try to put a bow on it on this site and on The State of Louisville website. I will go into this in more detail but someone needs to take the blame for a 4th straight 9th place finish. I kind of don't care who it is as long as it's someone.