Match Haiku

Keep the wolves at bay?

Nay, Bay are the predators.

Racing: easy prey.

“Does your heart sag?”

“Long Sleeves for the Summer” - Drawn to the Deep End 1997

This is an awful team. Look at this:

That’s pretty pathetic and I am not going to try to excuse it. It was a very poor performance. Maybe an early goal changes things, but while Racing got the ball into dangerous spots in the first 15 minutes, none of that turned into a decent scoring chance. As I have said, any turnaround has to start with the defense. Racing cannot continue to make silly turnovers that lead to goals. I may be naive, but I have to think that teams are just staying in matches until Racing makes a mistake. On Ali Night, Racing was the team getting the rope-a-dope and as soon as Racing expended too much energy in the first 15-20 minutes, Bay started to effectively counterattack. It only took a rather pedestrian sequence to break down Racing’s feeble defenses.

After half, Racing wasn’t exactly dangerous, but Bloomer’s ghastly mistake put the game to bed. Few players had much fight in them. One particular sequence stuck with me and epitomizes the team at the moment. Racing was down 2-0 and Lo Milliet was pressing single-handedly to try to win the ball back. It was a) fruitless and b) put her out of position. This team just doesn’t have any kind of sense of how to play together at the moment and are definitely not talented enough to overcome a lack of cohesion.

Post Match Moment of the Match

Well, at least everyone was in agreement that the first 15 to 20 minutes were pretty good. Taylor Flint seemed a little shellshocked. She focused on talking about doing the basics right. Sarah Weber, who I think is the best player to get a decent quote from at the moment, took the bait from me and agreed that Racing has to start having some possession for possession's sake, if just to prevent the dangerous counters to which Racing is prone. Bev didn’t have any useful answers, so I didn’t press her too hard on anything.

FREE EMMA SEARS!

You have to appreciate Emma’s effort on the night. I do think her performances have improved since everyone knows that she is openly auditioning for her next team. I think she is handling things well. The truth is that she is wasted on Racing as currently constructed. From the club’s perspective, you understand their point which basically boils down to the fact that they renegotiated a contract with her last season to keep her with the club until 2028. She wasn’t out of contract, but the new one likely gave her a raise. It was similar to the one that they negotiated with Savannah Demelo to keep her here long term. The club made all kinds of good deals with important players last season. Unfortunately, the deals that didn’t get done are the ones that make Emma want to leave. The team committed to keeping certain players here but failed to build a decent enough team around them.

I was walking out of the stadium with Alan Spade last evening and chatting about what the problem with Racing is. I truly believe Racing has a talent problem. The players that Racing brought in are not contributing nearly to the level of what the team lost with Sonis and Borges leaving, and Demelo still being unavailable. The team might have been able to survive those loses is they didn’t have to depend so much on having Fischer and Hodge log the minutes in the midfield that they are currently getting.

Back to Emma. Too many times this season, she has been sprinting down the field alone without support. The truth of the matter is that Racing has too few players that can truly run with her. I have nothing against Sarah Weber, but she is the wrong number nine to be playing with Emma. The way that Racing set up to counter can work with players like Hase and Sears, but personally I think Weber would be better suited in a possession style attack. Lardner or Fischer need to be the nine when Emma is playing. Lardner can match her pace, and Fischer presses the best of all of the nines. Almost all players look better when their teammates are better. That is the simple truth. Generational talents can stand out on their own, but most players need the players around them to be of nearly equal talent when they play at the highest level. And their skills need to complement each other. Racing is a team full of square pegs at the moment, and the club has shown itself incapable of anything approaching competent roster-building. That’s 100% ownership’s fault.

The best move for everyone is to let Sears find a team that can showcase her skills best. It seems to be Soccer Holdings stance to make Emma stay until the end of the season. I don’t see how that benefits anyone. Her value will never be higher than it is right now. If Racing continues to play poorly and all signs point to that being the case, Emma’s play is likely to suffer as well. Then, the club won’t get as much for her. The midseason transfer window is almost always a seller’s market. Why not take advantage of that? There have to be NWSL teams in playoff contention that would love to have her. I get that you don’t want to be seen as making a panic sell, but Emma is still going to want to leave after the season, where there will be more buying options for teams.

Until she is transferred, expect me to inject “FREE EMMA SEARS” every time I post.

Thing I bought at ear X-tacy back in the day

Artist: Gene

Album: To See The Lights

Year: 1996

Format: CD (Import)

Store Location: 1534 Bardstown Road

Gene so badly wanted to be The Smiths. They sounded like them to some degree, if you ignored the fact that their guitarist Steve Mason sounded more like David Bowie’s guitarist Mick Ronson than Johnny Marr. For a fleeting moment in 1995 you could almost squint and see the resemblance. In 1996, Gene released its very own “Hatful of Hollow” when they put out a stop-gap collection of singles/B-sides/live tracks/BBC radio sessions that was named To See The Lights, after a rare track that was released on a Volume compilation.

I loved this album and I remember listening to it quite frequently in 1996. I still held out hope that they might actually turn into The Smiths. Their next album Drawn to the Deep End (which likely will supply epigraphs for the rest of the season) went in a different direction. I still love that album too, but for different reasons outlined here.

Suffice it to say, since you definitely haven’t heard of them, they didn’t end up being The Smiths. They didn’t have the talent or the staying power. That isn’t a tragedy, just a reminder that every band doesn’t get to be great. Not every soccer club gets to be great either (or sometimes even competent).

The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match

Hey! Quincy McMahon came in and did two things of note. The first:

70th Minute-Tactical Foul - Quincy McMahon

The second was getting dispossessed while waiting for the ball to reach her, which I also called out in my player ratings. That moment is what you might call a microcosm.

The 2026 UFL Champion Louisville (Draft?) Kings Sports Betting Corner

Another champion calls Lynn Family Stadium home! Mind you it is a lower tier one. Look, can we just be honest with ourselves here and say that Louisville as a city deserves second-tier things and not be ashamed of that? Not enough obscenely wealthy people live here to be a serious sports city anymore. Bar letting some emir in Abu Dhabi purchase the city wholesale (Kim Basinger style) this is the best we can do. Louisville and the USL Super League seem destined to be together at some point in the not-to-distant future. To which city will Racing be relocated?

Cincinnati +125: Who wouldn’t be down for the “Hell is Real Derby” (Women Scorned Edition)? I would make the annual trip to Cincy for that for sure.
Cleveland +130: Boring!
Minneapolis +150: I would be okay with this. I would love an excuse to go back there a few times a year.
St. Louis +180: Almost as boring as Cleveland with the added bonus of a 25% likelihood of failure.
Nashville +200: I could get down with that and maybe go to a few matches except that I am allergic to whatever passes for country music now and I am sure the pre- and post-game music would be mostly Morgan Wallen.

“Fed up with the tag which you’ve been given”

Bev seems resistant to change anything that she can control. I don’t know that I blame her either. She has to look out for her future too. Every coach and player has to be thinking about their job for next season. I think we are to that phase whether anyone wants to admit it or not. It isn’t a good headspace to be in. The ownership has sent the message: they aren’t going to invest. It is coming through loud and clear. Worrying about your job makes it difficult to do your job with any sense of purpose. Soccer Holdings is fully to blame for this environment. Their lack of a viable solution may be an excuse, but this ownership signed up for a league that has now vastly surpassed their financial capabilities. Blame both the league and the owners. The only way this ownership group was ever going to succeed was to catch lightning in a bottle (they didn’t) or for the players to not gain any power (they did, thank goodness).

We are going to see some bad soccer for a while. You might as well get used to it.

"Does your heart sag?"