October Players of the Month

Courtesy ISI Photos

Courtesy EM Dash Photography

Each month I will conduct a Twitter poll to let people vote on the Player of the Month. I will pretend to consider input from this poll then award the honor precisely to who I think deserves it.

This month, I couldn't decide if I wanted to reward a fantastic single game display or consistently great play over the Month (and frankly the season). Ebony Salmon's performance in the 3-1 victory against Orlando was the offensive performance of the year in my opinion, with Ebony scoring a fantastic equalizer and assisting on the other two goals. I do want to point out the other goal contribution that she made which you can see in the video below.

Watch her run drag one defender away from the middle and temporarily wrong-foot the other just long enough for McClure to easily play the ball to Kizer who then slots in home. This kind of thing never shows up on the stat sheet, but for that specific goal increased the probability that it would be scored. Sometimes strikers are just as effective as decoys.

As for Kizer, she secured draws in both matches versus Gotham. You saw the first goal above and the other was an excellent and probably unsavable penalty. CeCe has been the most consistent offensive force all season in a multitude of roles. It's kind of fitting that she scored Racing’s first and last goals in competitive matches this season.

Coincidentally, Ebony was the leading scorer for the season in league matches with 6 and Kizer was the leader in all competitions with 7. Congratulations to both Ebony and CeCe for great seasons.