Dash v Racing Preview
At the Racing season ticket holder Q&A session held at the Fifth Third Club at LFS last evening, one of the questions submitted was basically: Who is Racing’s biggest rival? After some thoughtfulness and thinking out loud, Freja Olofsson blurted out, “I don’t like Houston.” This is a sentiment shared by a large section of the Racing fanbase and broadly across the rest of the NWSL as well. Tom Benson refers to Houston as “The Dive”. The officials seem reluctant to penalize their poor behavior during matches, and Shea Groom was warned and fined after the match for this:
Yeah, Houston is not particularly well-liked or well-run. During his press conference today, Coach Björkegren said that while Houston has good players and a really high ceiling, he basically said that they also can perform very poorly.
Just how did this team get its only win in the Challenge Cup against Racing? Even Coach Kim seemed a little baffled by that when he watched film this week because he said that Racing looks like a different team now. Obviously giving away 3 goals in such a short amount of time isn’t good, but it’s also something unlikely to be repeated. Julia Lester had to sub in a left back for Emily Fox in that match. Now her partnership with Gemma Boner at center back seems fairly solidified and they have only conceded a single goal in 3 matches as a pairing.
Coach Kim also said that there were a few things that he didn’t like in his review of the game film vs. Chicago and that the team is going to review the footage from their 2-3 loss vs Houston earlier in the Challenge Cup. That should put everyone in the mood for revenge for their trip to Houston.
However, in the grand scheme of all things Racing, this match means next to nothing. It is hopefully the last meaningless match that the team will play this season. Having already been eliminated from the Challenge Cup, Racing can rotate some players into the Starting XI and get some rest before the season opener at Chicago and April 30th (who could potentially be looking forward to a semi-final match on May 4th.) Coach Björkegren pretty much confirmed that there would be some rotation, and for the fans in attendance at last night’s Q&A session, starting Jordyn Bloomer in goal would be a popular choice. Expect some changes, but not an “all-change” line up. Not all of the reinforcements have arrived in the form of Rebecca Holloway and Alex Chidiac, so I think it is safe to assume more rotation on the front line vs. midfield and defense, but we will see.
