Wave 0 Racing 0 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy USA Today Sports Images
Racing continued its run of good performances paired with less than optimal results. Heading into a week off, I feel like the team is close to getting over the hump, but it may just be too late for a playoff push this year. Here are some items from the match that caught my attention
Starting big picture first…I believe in Björkegren. It has to be really frustrating for him to not see the results match the performances, and sometimes you can definitely read that on his face in post match press conferences. I am sure that he is used to winning much more than he has here. The results aren't showing it, but this team is vastly improved over last year. I believe rational people can disagree with his player selection and formation choices, but if you think a coach's job is to get the best out of his players I believe he has done well in that area. After the match, I asked him about waiting until very late before making any substitutes. He said that he didn't want to disrupt the team’s collective performance which up until the point of his first sub had been really good. I totally agreed with this decision. Sometimes coaches feel like they have to make changes around the 60th minute just to feel like they have “coached” a match. Racing had San Diego on the ropes in the 2nd half, so why change things just to change them. One change that the team made was to move DeMelo around in the second half. I get the feeling that these type of shifts in matches are more of a conversation between player and coach vs. an outright tactical change for Björkegren. While I like stability on the back line, I like a bit of unpredictability in the attack. One day very soon I expect the results to come for this team and he will deserve a good amount of credit for that. Now the history of coaches in this league is frankly appalling, so I am sticking my neck out some in giving him this praise. Some fans are never going to trust a coach in this league and I get that, but I still believe that there are good coaches out there and if I am proven wrong I will gladly take my lumps. For me, he has earned a second season coaching this team. Check back in about 12 months to see if I still believe that.
I started off this season thinking about tactics, style, and formations. The more I watch this league, I have thought less and less about those. I am not saying that they don’t matter. What I am saying is that in every league, it's the talent that usually decides things. Don't get me wrong. A team's style and tactics matter, but I don’t think there is any style that can't work given time. Racing dominated the second half by simply not giving up the ball for large sections. At the end of the day, that is the best defense of all. I think the more reps this team puts in having large chunks of possession, the more likely they are to turn those chunks into goals. This team might have more points playing a different style, but they wouldn't be as far along in their collective development. If the team can put in 3 performances in the next 3 matches like they did in San Diego, they will surely have more than 3 points to show for it.
My optimistic view may seem like a complete 180 from even a week ago, but there was something about the second half last night that made me think that the team has figured something out. Maybe it is just an aberration, but I think it could be more that that. Racing felt comfortable enough in possession to crowd the box more than I was accustomed to seeing. Long periods of possession tend to create this, but there seemed to be just a little more desire to win the ball back high up the pitch last night. This was coupled with a stiffer back line especially in the second half. This could just be San Diego playing without some of its stars, but you never just shrug off a good performance.
Racing had a goal ruled out and a penalty miss or they could have come away with all 3 points. I never check Twitter or Slack during a match. I can't concentrate on the match and interact on social media at the same time. I don't know what the reaction was to the foul called on Howell that caused the goal to be disallowed, but I can guess. In my opinion, it was a foul that gets called pretty frequently. I don't like that goalkeepers are treated like they are made of glass and gossamer, but they are given an extra level of protection and Howell did bump her. If the ball doesn't end up in the net, does the official give the call? I say “yes”, so I can live with it. Chidiac then earned a clear penalty that was taken by DeMelo and saved by Telford (who was the player of the match by any rational thinker’s assessment). I asked Björkegren about having DeMelo take the penalty. He said that it was based on her form, which I think we all can agree has been great. Players will miss penalties from time to time. Savannah seemed to shake off the miss pretty well. I asked Bonner if she felt that DeMelo recovered quickly from the miss and she said the team was totally behind her and that it didn't seem to weigh on her. In my opinion, penalty taking is a specific skill. Nadim should be the normal penalty taker when she is on the pitch so it isn't a huge deal to find a deputy, but I would have thought McDonald would have been the natural choice. I’m not saying the moment was too big for DeMelo, but she didn't seem like the obvious choice in my book.
