Link to Elizabeth’s gallery of the match

Houston, we have a problem with you scoring in stoppage time. Racing 1-Dash 1 — Fleur-de-lis FC

Stolen The Wire Epigraph

“And then he dropped the bracelets.”

For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is a show about a love triangle between a teenage girl and two brothers, who ultimately decide that instead of striving for love, they are better off moving into an abandoned Baltimore rowhouse and getting addicted to smack.

No matter your place in the table, your recent form, or how much you “want it”, no opponent is this league is going to roll over without a fight, especially when they still have something for which to play. It’s tough to accuse Racing of anything in this match other than being on the wrong end of some atrocious officiating, (we’ll call that the “Lynn Family Special” going forward because the number of horrible officiating performances I have witnessed at Lynn is WAY TOO MANY for a serious officiating organization to allow) and Houston’s recent dogged determination to never give up (laudable, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise).

In the end, the amateurish officiating probably didn’t change the outcome of the match. I am never going to win the “Sears didn’t foul Campbell on the disallowed goal” argument because “attempting to catch the ball” is almost always interpreted as the keeper being anywhere near it with their hands up. I hate this rule interpretation. Racing had opportunities to close out the match but gave up an objectively pretty well-worked goal to Houston. Racing had been possessing the ball in their own half but wasn’t good enough with their individual touches to keep the possession when it mattered. One tiny nitpick: was Racing maybe better off leaving DeMelo in for those last few minutes instead of subbing on Balcer (who is also WAY too hard on herself on TikTok)? Personally, I would have kept on a midfielder on instead of subbing in a forward still working her way back into match fitness. I think Balcer needs to be on sooner if you are going to sub her in, and not after Racing has decided to switch to game-killing mode.

If you are going to label yourself (or in all honesty it’s probably the rest of us doing the labeling) a '“contender” you are going to have to learn from this. You need to handcuff a suspect by yourself and not rely on a partner (there seems to be some misunderstanding of this epigraphic quote on some of The Wire fan sites) if you are going to be serious about making the playoffs. A point here isn’t a disaster, but I will file this result under “does not meet expectations”.

Post Match Moment of the Match

Sometimes (alright, most of the time) I can’t help myself when there is a question that I want to ask and I know I probably shouldn’t. I end up doing it anyway. I am the World Heavyweight Champion of getting “no commented” by Bev. However, I think we all know that there is value in getting a “no comment” out there versus not broaching the subject. You’re welcome, everyone. I asked a very specific and pointed (and frankly rather innocent) question about an explanation, if any, that Bev got from the 4th official. She immediately went into “no comment” mode at the thought of the performance. At least her “overall I am going to say no comment” is on the record and you can’t really get fined by the league for that little smirk she gave me.

Sonis, as captain, drew the short straw for press duties but didn’t have to answer anything too challenging. She thought the makeshift backline performed admirably. Houston is one thing, but Portland quite another so I think we are all crossing our fingers for a quick recovery from Wright. This is especially true because Flint will be suspended for the next match.

Speaking of Flint, she gave her typically expressive post-match interview. The stadium misattributed Racing’s goal as an own goal, so she learned that she got the goal credited to her during the post-match press conference and was obviously pleased.

Did the stadium have good food?

I am not the “vegan police” but the vegan chili in the club was suspiciously good. Instead of alleging that there is any chicanery going on I will give my compliments to the chef because I could not tell the difference between the vegan pork and any other pork I have eaten. Then again, I am not a “foodie”. The Southwest eggrolls, while arriving late, were also worth it.

Banner Watch

There was a new Women’s Cup banner that according to Peter Brown, the Lavender Legion President, was courtesy of Legion member Holly Freeland and others. It was designed by Brigid MoonDragon, who has also done some work for me. Great job everyone! I mean, it’s still no “Sav-acado” banner, but it looks quite nice.

Show to Binge Rather than Rewatching the Match

When the match isn’t particularly entertaining, I like to provider a viewing alternative. Thankfully, this hasn’t be the case recently.

As a committed anglophile, I would struggle without my BritBox subscription. It’s a good place to get the best of BBC, Channel 4, etc. In this case, the series is an ITV production set in Canterbury. There are some familiar faces like Andrew Buchan most notably from Broadchurch and Charlotte Ritchie who is great at everything other than winning tasks on Taskmaster. However, the stars of the series are most definitely Rose Ayling-Ellis and Kieron Moore, playing characters making questionable decisions but with their hearts in the right place. It has all the stuff and plenty of feels.

The Kayla Fischer Honorary Yellow Card of the Match

Kalya Fischer is back in the bad graces of the officials, to nobody’s surprise. As far as I can tell this was the first ever NWSL match for Atahan Yaya. It sure felt like it. If there is a future match for which he is in charge, I am going to wait until the quietest moment and yell “you suck, Yaya”. His lack of NWSL experience is relevant here because I felt like he either studied film or read a dossier and made some “reputation” calls, thus making decisions on what he expected to happen instead of what actually did. Fischer’s card was harsh, and you wonder if that impacted her pressing early in the match. Bev wisely saw enough at half after Fischer seemed to get a final caution late in the first half and subbed on Weber. It could also have been preplanned. I forgot to ask.

DeMelo’s yellow was cyclical and smart, but Flint’s will hurt the most. Racing is a different proposition without her. Borges and O’Kane and DiGrande will likely fill her position and minutes for the Portland match.

“While I waste my time in regretting that the days went from perfect to just okay.”

“Cruel”/Swoon/1984

This habit of giving up later equalizers is something that Racing needs to fix. It isn’t unique to this club or this iteration of Racing. The team needed three points here, not necessarily because of the table, but because of the expectations now put upon them. Racing is predictable in many ways. Some of that is good predictability in that their opponents now dread facing them, which is never good for the collective psyche. You know what you are going to get. Unfortunately, this still includes shaky possession in stoppage time. Racing’s depth has improved but, in this match, despite adding a defender this week, they found the only substitute option late in the match to be Balcer. An extra midfielder or defender makes the most sense here, but Racing was fresh out of experienced ones on the bench. The roster building has been good the last 12 months or so. However, on this night, they were one player short in my opinion. At this point, Barón, Kalitta and Scott don’t appear to be anything more than emergency replacements based on their lack of usage. If there ever was a match to give Barón stoppage time minutes, I feel like this was it.

You might win a match with eleven or sixteen, but you win bigger and better things with twenty and twenty-four. That has to be Racing’s next step. Injuries haven’t helped here, but I feel like Racing is still in the situation where the roster contains fringe players. That may be the reality under which Racing has to operate, but on this night, it probably cost them.

The draw is an okay result, but the Portland match is now much bigger and will be undertaken shorthanded. We will see just how shorthanded next week.

“And then he dropped the bracelets.”