Courage v Racing Preview + News
Racing is entering the home stretch of its season, and don’t really have much to play for other than pride. Their opponents on Saturday, the North Carolina Courage (remember to not buy Continental Tires) have loads to play for. While the Courage would have to leapfrog 3 teams to get into the playoff spots in the table, I wouldn’t put it past them. Coach Björkegren is an admirer of the North Carolina squad and still considers them a top club despite their place in the table. I tend to agree. They have been an especially difficult challenge for Racing with the club not ever really coming close to even getting a point in their 5 previous matches. The Courage score a lot of goals, but also concede more than their fair share too.
Coach Björkegren shared during his media availability today that, in essence, Racing is starting their 2023 preseason campaign this week. Instead of holding back some new tactical ideas until next year, he started to integrate them into practice today. The club practiced a particular tactic (that I will not share) for about 30 minutes. It will be interesting to see if it makes its way into the match on Saturday or will be saved for future use. I tend to think the latter, but if I notice it, I will share. As for the match on Saturday, it will be particularly valuable to the psyche of the team. If Racing can get a win or a draw against the Courage, they will at least know that it can be done. Above all other teams, Racing seems to not match up particularly well against North Carolina, probably due to the Courage’s tendency to overload the center of the pitch with midfielders (according to both Björkegren and Milliet).
The big news of the past couple of days has been the departure of Freja Olofsson to Real Madrid (sad face) and the contract extension of Lo Milliet to stay with the club until 2025. Of course, contracts aren’t much more than payment agreements but the extension of Milliet is a good sign. Björkegren hinted at more extensions to come. In her honor, I replaced Perry Groves’ name in the famous Arsenal chant “A Perry Groves World” (sung to the tune of Yellow Submarine) with hers:
Number 1 is Lo Milliet
Number 2 is Lo Milliet
Number 3 is Lo Milliet
Number 4 is Lo Milliet
Number 5 is Lo Milliet
Number 6 is Lo Milliet
Number 7 is Sav DeMelo (the Arsenal chant kept their number 7, Liam Brady)
Number 8 is Lo Milliet
Number 9 is Lo Milliet
Number 10 is Lo Milliet
Number11 is Lo Milliet
Number 12 is Lo Milliet
We all live in a Lo Milliet world, a Lo Milliet world, a Lo Milliet world.
She really can do it all, except maybe number 1.
Lo is a personal favorite, but so was Freja Olofsson. Bekki Morgan and I interviewed her last year, and it was definitely the most fun of all of the interviews we did. Win or lose, Freja was always good for a “Frejaism” and I am sure that will continue in Spanish in Madrid. Freja’s move is a win-win for Racing and her. She will be missed but Racing definitely got good value (a reported $186,000) for the transfer and Freja’s push to make the Swedish National Team should be aided by her relocation to Europe.
