Louisville 2 Gotham 0 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy David Mucker
Louisville continued its run of impressive play on Sunday afternoon at home vs. Gotham. The win allowed them to jump up a spot on the table, and to close the gap to 6th place to 3 points with a superior goal difference compared to the two teams directly above them. The next two macthes are on the road versus two teams currently in playoff position in the North Carolina Courage and the OL Reign. It will be key to tranlate the form facilitated by the comforts of home to making those opponents as uncomfortable as possible.
Louisville has conceded only one goal in the last 5 macthes across all competitions. This defensive performance, while definitely helped by Louisville's press wasn't completely reliant on it, which is a good sign. Gotham ended up with close to 60% of the possession by the end of the match, but it was virtually even at half and tilted in Louisville's favor prior to the first goal. Gotham is a much better attacking team than Louisville's previous opponent Houston, and while Louisville wasn't able to keep Gotham pinned in, the team was able to defend well in front of goal. Gotham's best chance came when a free header hit the post and O'Hara probably should have scored. Other than that, none of Gotham’s attacks should have troubled Lund. However, Lund didn't have the best handle on the ball in the first half and made a couple of chances more dangerous than they should have been. Ultimately it didn't matter because with a 2 goal lead Louisville was able to sit back smartly and the match was never in doubt after Kgatlana's early second half goal.
Kgatlana is clearly going to be the fastest player on the pitch the overwhelming majority of the time that she's on it. She had 4 shots in the match and it would be pretty easy picturing any of them going in. It's still too small of a sample size to put too much stock in, but you have to feel like that she could have 2 or 3 goals by now. On one hand the xG model from American Soccer Analysis says she's probably right where she needs to be with 1 goal on 1.13 xG. On the other hand, she's only put 2 of 12 shots on target. If she can put more of her shots on goal, she could become even scarier for opponents than she already is.
DeMelo has all but officially played her way into a spot on the US's World Cup roster. I'll miss watching her for the weeks she's gone. Right now the ball just seems to find her in dangerous positions. Kgatlana talked at length about the depth of the squad during her post match press conference, and I feel better about DeMelo's absence than I would have felt a month ago. I would feel infinitely better if Nadim was back in time to replace her scoring. That remains to be seen, but Ekic, Goins, and Fischer seem like they have goals in them. Monaghan and Davis can score too, but you would have liked to see a little more consistency given the minutes they've logged.
I now believe that the three players that have become irreplaceable are Pickett, Erceg and Milliet. Unless something truly unexpected happens, all 3 will be with Louisville during the World Cup. The season flashed before my eyes when Erceg went down late. I’ve already seen one dream evaporate this year with an irreplaceable CB going down injured (IYKYK) and don't think my heart could take another.
Things are starting to click into place for Coach Björkegren and the club may ultimately benefit from the patience it has shown with him. While he never looks to up or too down, you could tell that he was worried after the loss to Orlando. Since then he has seemed to be more comfortable in his status at the club. Regardless of how hot the hot seat really was, it has cooled tremendously. I always thought he was getting his message across to his players, so it's good to see that the players have stepped up their performance, but more importantly their focus and intensity in order to start to translate their talent and skills into results. I think how he manages the World Cup matches will ultimately define the season, so look for him to really push for results while some of his key players are gone. The Challenge Cup group could be locked up early, but Louisville will want a home semifinal so I think they will continue to try to win every match in that competition.
