Angel City 2 Louisville 2 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy USA Today Sports Images
Last night was a classic instance of a draw feeling like a loss with 3 points looking likely after a good first half. The question now becomes: “Is this team designed to play 90 minutes?”
First and foremost you have to give Louisville a huge amount of credit for taking the game to Angel City in the first half. Angel City looked overmatched and confused in the first 35 minutes for sure. Louisville's pressing, especially from Davis, seemed to overwhelm them at times. DeMelo won and took her penalty well, and Davis's goal was a textbook example of the type of situations you want to create from pressing. The first 40 minutes from Louisville was probably the best ever sustained performance from them over a large section of a match.
However, scorelines dictate play (and officiating). If you are going to press your way into a lead, you have to either press your way into keeping and building on it, or figure out how to let the air out of the ball. Louisville did neither of those. After the match, Björkegren said that pressing for 90 minutes with the player’s he had available last night was pretty much impossible. I would tend to agree with that sentiment, but also wonder if it's even possible with a full and healthy squad. I am big believer in having a plan B. If Louisville had a plan in the second half, it escaped my vision. The team definitely sat back, but you have to have a plan to do so effectively. While it didn't look pretty, Louisville's defensive effort in the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half was effective.
Then Alyssa Thompson came on and changed the match. She attacked almost exclusively from the left and really gave Milliet fits. Lo had an excellent game until Thompson came one, but she couldn't keep up with the speedy substitute. In my mind the key moment of the match occurred when Thompson won the foul which resulted in Angel City's free kick goal. It's an easy thing to say in retrospect, but Milliet probably should have made more of the contact. Footballers are often lamented for acting like the slightest bit of contact is reason to act like you’ve been gravely injured. I blame the officials for this as much as the players. Thompson clearly initiated the contact that led to the foul being called on Milliet, but officials are always likely to let that type of contact go unless you force them to make a call. That's why you see players drop to the ground and immediately handle the ball, thus forcing the official to make the call. A more experienced right back might do so in that situation, but then again they might not. Lo is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and so are her teammates. In this case, a little more cynical player probably wins that foul on Thompson's initial contact.
Savannah McCaskill is a roller coaster ride of a player. In the first half she over dribbled, took wildly speculative shots, and had way too much of the ball making it hard for her teammates to get involved. In the second half she was much better in her vision and distribution. Then she completely wrong footed Monaghan for her excellent goal. At this point in her career, she is who she is. You can win matches with her, but it may be a bumpy ride along the way. She is still one of my favorites regardless.
Winning is something you do collectively, and Louisville still hasn't figured out the formula. It's great to press yourself into a 2 goal lead, but what if the same amount of pressing and effort leaves you on the wrong side of the scoreline? The biggest issue is that the team just never looked composed with the lead. Killing off a match with a lead is a skill and it's one that most teams never learn. I never felt like Louisville was going to score again after half. I don't have the answers and if I did I would be coaching and not writing this. My intuition tells me that you have to keep the opposition pinned to the middle third of the pitch with a lead, but that's easier said than done. What you can't do is let your opponents live in the final third, which is basically what happened here.
