Another One…or Two

Racing filled out its roster today by signing two Arkansas Razorback products in Parker Goins and Taylor Malham. Malham is listed as a midfielder on Racing’s roster and Goins is listed at forward. I am issuing a slightly different take on the roster. This view is based on my tendency to separate positions groups into sub-categories. I may be off base on some of these classifications based on the fact that we haven’t seen them all play in a Racing uniform yet.

#1 Keeper: Lund

Backup Keepers: Beall, Bloomer

Central Defenders: Bonner

Wing Defenders: Fox, Simon

Flex Defenders: Martin, Merrick

Holding Midfielders: Howell, Otto

Box-to-Box Midfielders: DeMelo, Malham, Olofsson

Central Attackers: Kizer, Nadim, McDonald

Attacking Wingers: Davis, Ekic, Gordon, Salmon, Milliet, Goins,

You could quibble over whether Salmon and Milliet are central or wing attackers, but that’s how the roster stacks up in my mind. One sad note is that Emily Smith did not make the roster due to an injury. The frustrating addition to this is that Racing enters the season with one recognized center back. I believe that help is coming in that regard, but unless that player was playing in Russia, help isn’t coming for a while. Martin and Merrick are fully capable of covering at center back, but I think both may be more suited to the outer defense in the long team.

This means that Charmé Morgan (Racing’s natural 2nd round pick) and Sydney Cummings (Racing’s fourth round pick) are not part of the roster.

To me Goins sounds like a real talent, but maybe a bit of a development project. She put up gaudy numbers for the Razorbacks as a midfielder and you can never have too many midfielders that can score, but Racing is likely to play her out wide on the wing. Malham has to be the surprise of the roster this year, but Racing’s release made it sound like she worked really hard to make the team. Racing still have open spots that will surely be used via their international allocations. I would be completely shocked if the rest of the spots aren’t filled with defenders.