"Don't blame me for my doubt"
Photo by Elizabeth Shaw
Match Haiku
The heat melts Racing,
And Shores capitalizes.
A clean sheet: wrong side.
“Don’t blame me for my doubt”
“Where Are They Now?” - Drawn to the Deep End, 1997
It was a rather dull and lifeless match for 65 minutes until an unlikely and rather stunning goal from Shores kicked the match up a gear. Lardner came on and briefly injected some life into the Racing attack until Shores finished off her unlikely brace as Racing was pushing to equalize. At least it was overcast and the sun relented for some of the time and switched the environment from unbearable to merely miserable.
One of the things that the league needs to do better is match scheduling. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to start this match at 6:30 instead of 7:30 or 8:00. The broadcast schedule likely was the main factor in the timing of this match. There was only one match on the NWSL slate yesterday, so it could have been planned to start at 8:00 fairly easily by someone setting the schedule back in the winter. I would also like to see the league move to a single broadcaster in the future and stop pretending that anyone other than NWSL addicts are going to watch all of the matches on a weekend. I would love to see Peacock or Apple TV win the next contract exclusively.
Since the heat was a big factor, the play in the first half seemed slow from both teams. Sears appeared to not have enough energy to use her pace in the few attacking opportunities she had. To be fair, she found herself matched against Gorden when in the previous match, Bev made a conscious effort to organize things so that Sears matched up against Sams more frequently. Leif Semrud had Angel City set up in a flat back four when defending and Racing countered by pressing McMahon higher. Ironically, this ended up meaning Shores had more space behind the Racing defense and her average position for the match was in Racing’s attacking half. Due to having McMahon pressing higher, Quincy’s average position ended up being well into Racing’s attacking half. An examination of Fischer’s average position reiterates how little she was involved, with only 18 touches. Sears only had 18 touches as well but found herself in more dangerous positions.
After winning four in a row, Racing has lost three in a row. Maybe it’s just me, but the league seems to be having less draws this season. Racing definitely is less prone to drawing this year with only two compared to the seven they had last season. That has reinforced my perception of a “feast or famine” feeling this season. Racing has no shot at any points if they don’t score and they didn’t this time. Looking at the talent on the Angel City side, it’s not a shock that they won this match and more of a shock that Racing won the one in Los Angeles.
Post Match Moment of the Match
None of the trio of O’Kane, McMahan and Yanez thought Racing played particularly poorly. I guess I have to agree with that, even if the first half performance felt flat. I would counter that Racing didn’t do enough on the evening to distinguish themselves from a quality perspective. Typically, they have a couple of moments of brilliance. On the night, the trio agreed that there wasn’t enough finishing quality in attack to change the result. If this was any other team than Racing, a 0-0 result would have seemed likely and fair. Brendan and I were able to attend our first media availability together in person, so for me that was the best moment of the post-match activities for me. The second best was to see the Yanez children playing in the ice that got dumped out of one of the coolers. It was a hot one.
Thing I bought at ear X-tacy back in the day
Artist: Blur
Album: The Great Escape
Year: 1995
Format: CD
Store Location: 1534 Bardstown Road
Back when this album was released in 1995, I was pretty invested in it being a good album. It definitely needed to be better than the Oasis’ album that was going to be released a month later. There was this whole “Battle of Britpop” thing, in which Blur “won” the opening salvo. In retrospect it was all very stupid and cynical and made the wrong people all kinds of money. At first listen, The Great Escape sounded like a great album. It had scope and grandeur. The performances on the album were really good. You can’t complain about the care and craftmanship.
However, 30 years on, it barely registers. When I tried to listen to it recently, it is borderline unlistenable. The songs are half-baked and it is trying to be a better version of Parklife or at least a noble follow-up. It fails miserably. Parklife and its predecessor Modern Life is Rubbish are infinitely more re-listenable. Blur would learn their lesson and stop fantasizing about a Britain that never really existed. While Oasis “broke into” America with its mediocre album, Blur decided to embrace American rock and ironically its grunge-like “Song 2” has stayed in the American consciousness much more effectively than the insipid “Wonderwall”. Oasis always took themselves way too seriously and remain annoying today. Damon Album turned into the best chameleonic version of himself when he formed Gorillaz.
I guess my ultimate point is that the songs are important. Blur still plays several songs from The Great Escape when they play live, and a couple are beloved (not by me). There never was enough good raw material to create something of sustainable value or an album that was anything more than a record for a specific point in time.
The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match
There was a lone yellow card for Racing in this match:
38th Minute: Macey Hodge - Foul - Tactical Foul
This is Macey’s 6th yellow, which I think means she is suspended for the next match. I am never quite sure. She was offically on the “Caution Accumulation Warning” list heading into the match. Regardless, she might have earned herself a place as the namesake for this section next season.
The 2026 UFL Champion Louisville (Draft?) Kings Sports Betting Corner
The race for the final playoff spot is heating up and Angel City sits in 8th as I write this. The race for finishing 15th is also heating up. It seems like a three-team race now with Racing, Boston and Bay as the front runners. The Pride and Dash are the outsiders. There are some mental benefits to not finishing in last place I suppose. Racing will keep fighting and I think any place between 10th and 15th seems possible.
10th place (+200): I think Racing would have to get into the 35-point range to get here.
11th place (+175): This is looking like a 32-point spot.
12th place (+125): Orlando sits here currently, and I think this seems like the right spot for them.
13th place (+125): In my opinion, this is where Racing will end up if they get points against the teams behind them in the table.
14th place (+125): If Racing ends on 28 points, this feels like the spot.
15th place (+150): The bottom would really have to fall out for them to end up here.
16th place (+500): Chicago has this on lock.
“You said that I should look to the future”
It is time to start thinking about next season. Bev returning is likely a 50/50 proposition, so I won’t get into that here. There is a list of players that Racing absolutely much retain. Assuming Sears is gone, Racing must retain Milliet, McMahon, Gacioch, Fischer, Lardner, McKeen, Morris, O’Kane, and Flint. They can’t lose any of those “must haves” and not replace them with equal or superior talent. They also need to upgrade on every line including goalkeeper. If Racing is going to stick with a three center back system, they need another pacy one at least. I thought it was a good call out on the most recent Butchertown Rundown episode that Racing needs another talented dribbler like DeMelo. I fully believe that O’Kane can be a good in-possession midfielder if she has better ball possessors around her. You make a possession trade off with Flint on the pitch, but you can’t have Flint and Hodge in there together and expect anything other than a scrappy match. You can win scrappy matches if the defense is better, but Racing’s is still below average in this department, to be extremely generous.
In my opinion, it’s borderline criminal to not be getting minutes from Philippus unless she isn’t good enough. Either Racing needs to play her and find out instead of just letting her be in the squad, or they already know she isn’t good enough and just stringing all of us along. Hase has had a tough year, and I could see her moving on (her 2027 option is mutual). I was hoping to see Taylor White get some minutes in this match, but maybe we’ll see her soon. Weber has been sent to some sort of purgatory and looks lost at the moment (she is signed through 2028 and likely going to be around). Looking at the roster, most of the players will still be here next season unless they advocate to leave. Racing’s front office sure isn’t going to kick anyone out and pay for someone better. I wonder what performance triggers are in Arin Wright’s contract. Surely, she has already hit them in order to earn herself a 2027 season in Louisville. It’s not a roster full of talent that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, so unless something changes in the offseason, expect another year of bottom half of the table performances.
