OL Reign v Louisville Challenge Cup Semifinal Pre Match Thoughts
Courtesy USA Today Sports Images
Louisville will play in its first ever NWSL knockout match on Wednesday night at 10 PM Eastern time in Seattle. Knockout matches are different, regardless of any protestations of players and coaches stating that they treat them like any other match. It is virtually impossible to play them in the same manner in which you would play a normal league match. In my opinion, knockout matches tend to be cagier affairs with neither team wanting to make an early mistake. I believe the players and coaches when they say the preparations are mostly the same (both Lund and Björkegren confirmed that penalty taking had taken up some of their preparation time in the last week or so). However, the reality of “win or go home” is something that no human can reasonably ignore.
Still, there is no way that Louisville will come out and play demonstrably different than they have all season. There was every reason to be conservative against Portland and to their tremendous credit they simply didn't and got a fantastic result. DeMelo will be back, but Coach Björkegren made it sound like Howell and Nadim would only be available from the bench and Baggett and Pickett didn't travel. I think Pickett’s absence is the key once again, but I agree with Coach Kim's assessment that Holloway overcame her early error to play a good match against Portland. It was something she didn't do in the brief chance that she got last season.
It will also be 6 midfield combinations in 6 matches for Louisville, but this time I suspect that the only change to the Starting XI will be DeMelo slotting into her normal spot with Wang now absent (maybe permanently?) due to her international obligations to the Chinese national team. I don’t believe that Wang has an option for 2024, so she could be allowed to stay in China to plot her next move. Louisville has plenty of cover at her position. Having Monaghan and Kgatlana on the pitch at the same time worked in the last match, so I think you stick with that.
As previously stated, I hate penalty shootouts even when I have no skin in the game, so I hope this match ends in regulation. There is a certain randomness to the outcome of any NWSL match, so adding that extra bit of randomness from a shootout is a bridge too far for me. Nonetheless, I will watch it if it comes to that, but will be miserable the entire time that I do so
