“Come taste the end. You’re mine.”
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
Match Haiku
A perfect evening
Highlighted by Katie’s brace,
Exposes the Thorns.
“Come taste the end. You’re mine.”
“Bye Bye Badman” - The Stone Roses, 1989
Where has this been from O’Kane? Let’s not beat around the bush and dive right into her performance.
Here is the story in a couple of heatmaps.
The directions of attack on heatmaps go from left to right. The above heatmap was from her rather pedestrian performance at Gotham. That performance also included her going 0 for 9 in her ground duels won and she was dribbled past twice. In my opinion, she doesn’t work well as a deep lying midfielder against teams that like to possess the ball as much as Gotham. You’ll see from above that she spent most of the match defending and the results of her defending performance didn’t yield anything good statistically. Of note, she did get off the two best chances that Racing had in that match.
Now look at this one. She lived in Portland’s half, both in attack and while defending. She was high up in the press. This was maybe a tactical decision or maybe just effort but likely a bit of both. Her defensive numbers don’t give her credit for how much her presence contributed to the press. She was definitely disruptive to the Thorns comfort as they tried to play out from the back. She got off 5 mores shots besides the two that went in. Maybe Portland’s chosen style was the perfect way to opponent to showcase what she can do, but she needs to be deployed forward more frequently to be most effective.
Again, If I ever find out who comprised the 5% of people who didn’t vote for Katie O’Kane as Player of the Match I am going to personally spit in the next concession item that you purchase at Lynn Family Stadium.
There were good performances all over the pitch, but the back-to-basics approach tactically seemed to be the key. The press, after an early glitch where Portland lulled Racing to sleep before sending a long ball into Wilson, made Portland uncomfortable through effort and cohesion. The Racing players pressed together much more in this match than any of the previous ones this season. After Racing got their press right, they were definitely the better attacking side. The possession battle was relatively even all night, and Racing looked the calmest they have looked in possession all season.
In the end, they made Portland play the match the way Racing wanted to play it. I don’t get why Portland seemed to abandon what worked as soon as they got up a goal. Then again, their coach used to lead Tottenham, so there’s that. It was good to see him bring a little Spursy-ness to Portland’s performance, even if it was only for one night. Racing owned the Thorns for the last 80 minutes of the match. It tasted so sweet.
Post Match Moment of the Match
I covered the highlights here. Bev is evidently a rather superstitious person because she told Joe, Cody, Kaitlyn and I that we all had to wear the same things every match going forward to bring Racing luck. I reminded her that she definitely needed to take most of the credit for the win, which made her smile. Once the video was rolling, I asked about how satisfying it must be to have a performance that so perfectly demonstrates what the team was working on all week.
“Incredibly satisfying,” was her initial response but she quickly pivoted to the players having trust in her and believing in what they can do. The main theme from her was just how pleased she was in the response.
Quincy McMahon also said that the response included everything that they worked on all week, highlighting the work rate, mentality and finishing. When I asked her about how they fixed the press so quickly after giving up an early goal she said that recognition and communication were the keys to making sure that they all pressed in unison. Katie O’Kane said that the back-to-basics approach was about “not over complicating anything” but did add that their cohesion was vital because, “we know how to play soccer, we just lost it a little bit,” in reference to Racing’s recent performances.
Thing I bought at ear X-tacy back in the day
(I would have loved to have been a music journalist in the 90s in England, but unfortunately, I lived here. Therefore, I will do a little retrospective music journalism to amuse myself. I will even try to tie it to Racing or soccer in general.)
Artist: Teenage Fanclub
Album: Grand Prix
Year: 1995
Format: CD
Store Location: 1534 Bardstown Road
I think 1995 was probably my highest volume year for purchasing music. The purchases were not all new releases, but this one was. Before you could sample music freely like you can today, you had to make some purchasing decisions based on trust. For me, a big consideration was whether or not I liked the previous album. In the case of this album, the previous album would have been Thirteen, a rather notorious misstep (although retrospective reviews are kinder). Teenage Fanclub’s third album, Bandwagonesque, is a stone-cold classic from 1991 that I owned on cassette tape as a high school student. It was revered enough at the time by music magazine Spin to win “album of the year” over Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Back to Grand Prix…the Fanclub’s fifth. It was an album with something to prove. Instead of doubling down on any trend-chasing that they could have rightly been accused of in the past, Teenage Fanclub became what they ultimately are beloved for on this album. They went simpler, more earnest and focused on what they did best: harmonizing over each other’s songs (the 3 mainstays always shared independent song writing duties). Personally, I liked Thirteen just enough to give them another chance, even though the lead single on this album was the perfectly nice but unassuming “Mellow Doubt”. I wasn’t blown away on the first listen, but it still stayed in heavy rotation for me over the summer.
Their back-to-basics approach showcased their talent. They stopped trying too hard and then the songs on the next few albums sounded effortlessly perfect. Focusing on their best parts, songwriting and vocal harmony, got their career back on track.
I hope I don’t have to draw the parallels for you.
The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match
Kayla Fischer got a very “Kayla Fischer” type card in the 41st minute. Here are the explanations for the cards on the evening:
41st Minute: K. Fischer - Reckless Offence - Foul
73rd Minute: T. Flint - Foul - Tactical Foul
I have a bone to pick on the second one. It didn’t look like there was too much in it and Vignola committed a much more tactical foul on Flint in the 82nd minute that just got awarded as a foul. Other than those two missteps, the officials did a good job in the match and definitely kept a lid on things by calling it consistently close. Good job officiating team!
The Louisville (Draft?) Kings Sports Betting Corner
After the match there were many jokes about who might be in line for the next home brace after back-to-back ones from Milliet and O’Kane. I will do my civic duty and set the moneylines for you for the next home brace this season:
No brace -110
Sears +175
Flint +175
Weber +200
Fischer +250
O’Kane +275
Hase +300
Morris +500
Petersen +550
Milliet +600
Wright +800
Jean +800
McMahon +900
Any other player +1000
“I want you black and blue”
Phuoc Nguyen’s match recap is a good read for the Portland perspective. Racing maybe didn’t beat the Thorns “black and blue” but Phuoc described Racing’s performance as “suffocating” which I guess would leave one blue at least. Since I don’t follow Portland, I haven’t watched many of their matches but this line from Phuoc was telling:
“The metrics and statistics have been unkind to the Portland Thorns throughout the season, but despite that, they have found a way to win those matches.
Tonight, that was not the case. The numbers matched up and gave the three points to the rightful winner.”
For those unfamiliar with my tone from my “As It Happened” pieces for Lou City, I tend to go over-the-top negative on City’s opponent or the city they represent. In last night’s piece, which is likely to be a one-off occurrence although I did enjoy it tremendously, I called the Thorns posers. Based on Phuoc’s assessment above, that may not be far off the truth.
They definitely didn’t seem all that keen on imposing themselves like the Spirit and Gotham do. That probably played a part in how well Racing played, but I also don’t want to be dismissive of Racing’s very good performance. Your opponent is always going to dictate some of how you perform, but they shouldn’t dictate your effort. Last night’s effort from Racing would probably best be described as “all-out”. However, it wasn’t one in which they seemed exhausted in the end. By pressing together, they carried each other through the difficult parts. Now we just need to see if this type of performance can be sustained in the long run.
