“Down, down, you bring me down”
Courtesy of Soccer Holdings, LLC
Match Haiku
Although goals abound,
Racing’s defense is leaky.
Bev says, “don’t panic.”
“Down, down, you bring me down”
“I am the Resurrection” - The Stone Roses, 1989
The match on Friday evening between Racing and Houston was one of the sloppiest matches I have watched in recent memory. Neither team could really defend effectively, and both played right into each other’s strengths and exploited their opponent’s weaknesses. Many matches with seven goals turn out to be “classics” and are utterly rewatchable. The video of this match needs to be buried 20 feet underground.
The good news is that Racing seems to be able to score enough goals to win matches. The bad news is that their defensive organization is expansion-franchise level. It reminds me of Year 1 Racing. Too many times, Flint was caught out of position by playing too high up the pitch, which left a) Hodge in a position where she was the makeshift center back and b) Jean without a partner and unsure of how to position herself relative to the assisting defenders. This was Jean’s poorest match in quite some time. Not being able to trust where your teammates are going to be defensively means that you sometimes have to overcompensate. Other times it makes you tentative, which is what I think happened with Jean in this match. On both open play goals and the action that lead to the Houston winner, Jean was scrambling, with Flint out of position, and having to make last ditch efforts without anyone that she trusted around to help.
If that seems like I am putting too much burden on Jean, I don’t mean to do so. It really was poor all around defensively. She just happened to be Racing’s last hope in several cases. I am not convinced that Hodge can play as the deepest central midfielder without help, which is what she did here. If that was the plan, it was a bad plan. More likely, her midfield partner O’Kane was higher up the pitch when Hodge became exposed. That is as much on O’Kane as it is Hodge, especially since O’Kane isn’t a tremendous attacking threat.
Therefore, Racing enters the first international break of the season in a mess. How did we get here?
Player availability is the obvious culprit. There have been so many players dealing with various levels of injuries that it is difficult to know what Racing can be. However, it is apparent that what they are at the moment is an inherently flawed enterprise on the pitch. The roster seems unbalanced at the moment and woefully lacking in natural central defenders. Central defenders are a prized commodity in the NWSL and there really aren’t enough to go around. All of Racing’s options at the moment to cover at the back are better placed elsewhere. Like I said in my Player Ratings post, if Flint is at the back in the next match, you know that Bev doesn’t have any other options.
More than most teams, Racing needs to be relatively healthy to be at their best. The strategy for roster building this offseason was to get players who fit the system and try to develop young talent. I don’t think that I wrote about this in the offseason, but I did think about what the limited resources available to Racing do from a roster building perspective. If money were no object, how would you build a roster? I know how I would do it. Other than Sears and Flint and possibly Bloomer (who’s form is slightly concerning) I would have built the roster so that every player that was a regular starter last season was fighting to keep their spot this year. That means bringing in players ready to play or rookies that are polished. Circumstances dictate that Racing can’t really do that, and very few teams can. I have accepted that Racing is mid table quality at best. That means that when times are challenging, the team is going to look like a bottom-third of the table team, which is what they are right now.
Post Match Moment of the Match
If there ever was a time to score two goals and not really want to talk to the media after the match, I am sure that Taylor Flint experienced it last night. When asked how it felt to score two penalties, Flint says “It feels great personally,” but that was either sarcasm or an obvious lie based on the rest of her comments. She also mentioned being “new to the role” a few times when talking about playing in her new position, which I took as an explanation rather than an excuse. Weber added that the defensive effort could have been better all around by Racing retaining possession better in transition.
Bev said that it isn’t time to press the panic button. I guess I agree, but I would be checking to see if the panic button is connected to something at this point. She could press it, but what changes or reinforcements would come. I think she is right in staying positive for now. There really isn’t another option. Changing the formation defensively is just going to put more square pegs into round holes. I did try to elicit from Bev the plan to monitor Emma Sears’ usage during this international break, but she just talked about how excited she was for her to get called up again. I know everyone gets tired of me saying how much I hate these international breaks, so let me say it another way. I don’t like the national teams using players at the expense of the player’s health and utility to their club teams. I saw posted somewhere that every player’s primary duty was to their national teams. That makes me incredibly sad if that is how most players feel.
Why can’t we have nice things?
By the NWSL’s very low standards, I thought the broadcast last night was decent. For once, my feed on NWSL+ was crisp enough. It isn’t the best HD you will ever see, but it was good enough. Jacqui Oakley and Merrit Mathias were presented with a match full of things to discuss and did a fine job covering those things. I blame the league itself for the things I didn’t like about the broadcast.
The length of time that it took to determine that there was a handball in the box on Racing’s first penalty was way too long. I did like that the central referee stopped play eventually when a Racing attack wasn’t imminent. I didn’t like that the VAR review took longer than 20 seconds. It was a clear, stone-cold penalty. The central referee’s audio was too low volume on the explanation. We also got to see the irrelevant action after the handball in reverse, for some reason. I like the transparency of the system, and not much else about it.
The excruciating 15 minutes of second half stoppage time seemed utterly ridiculous. The original 10 felt really high. There was guidance a few years ago for officials in all leagues to add on more minutes to compensate for time when the ball wasn’t in play. Every other league seems to have rightfully started to move towards rational levels of stoppage time except the NWSL. This time Racing was helped out by the extra few minutes, in that they got more chances, but 15 minutes was way too much.
I thought the first penalty awarded to the Dash was soft, but I see why it was given. If the penalty had not been given, I don’t think VAR would have overturned it or even looked at Weber’s challenge. Yes, she did make contact, but it wasn’t preventing any action from the Dash player who was already out of the play. Anywhere else on the pitch and this is a “play on” decision. If VAR doesn’t intervene here for the sake of rationality, then it is a broken system, which obviously everyone knows that it is.
One last thing: the central referee Alex Billeter looked mean as hell. I liked that.
TV Kit Rating
Houston wore their “Cosmic Storm” kits. Here is what I said upon their release:
“Elizabeth definitely likes this jersey more than I do. It is very “scrubs-y” but the color isn’t bad. It just doesn’t have anything to do with any of Houston’s previous kits. As a 3rd kit, I might be inclined to rank it higher, and I do like the pink socks. I initially thought is read as purple which seemed confusing, but I am sure that it will read as pink on the pitch. Enough nice things…Houston is an armpit of a city. It’s humid, hot and sweaty. I have only been there once. It is never on my list of potential away games.”
Without any other pink in the kit, the jersey definitely reads as purple to me. I was initially way too critical of this kit as I kind of like it now, but my comments on the city itself hold true. 7/10
The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match
Macey Hodge once again makes the grade. Her nasty challenge around the 69th minute was a classic “orange” card in my opinion. With Billiter going with yellow on the pitch, VAR didn’t deem it worthy of upgrading. However, if red had been awarded, I also don’t think that would have been changed. For me personally, it was red. The last contact by Hodge was high using her forearms and was intentionally above the shoulders. I wouldn’t be surprised if the league has a second look and upgrades it like they did on Boston’s Ella Stevens.
A tactical yellow from Flint in one of the situations where she got beat would have been more than welcome this week.
Madchester Song to Make You Feel Better
Oh Bez, you make me so happy.
“I can’t sleep at night”
I hope nobody has any actual sleepless nights worrying about this team, but the concerns are starting to mount. By my count, we have three, possibly four starters playing out of their most dangerous and helpful positions:
Taylor Flint: She isn’t a central defender. You weaken two lines when you are forced to play her as one. Continuing this is a recipe for disaster. Petersen isn’t a central defender either, but she is much more reliable. Moving her doesn’t solve the long-term problem and if there were better cover for Petersen, I am sure we would see her return there. The bigger issue for Flint is the things that make her a good defensive midfielder are the same things that make her a less-than-ideal central defender. Her aggression and quick decision making are good for disruption, but not as good for discipline, which is what you need in the back line.
Kayla Fischer: Last night was a mixed bag for Kalya. She was in the right spot to win the penalty, which was at the very front of the press, but her passing was lacking and she struggled to create her own shots. She can be creative, but she works better when she isn’t the primary ball handler in attack. Positionally and from an effort perspective, I like what she is doing. She is just better in the center forward role. Weber’s lack of flexibility by comparison means that Fischer will continue to play out of position for the foreseeable future.
Macey Hodge: I don’t really know what her best role is, but it can’t be as a starting central defender without consistent help. Here is where Racing misses Ary Borges. She could play the deepest midfield role or play slightly higher, or next to Flint. A pairing of Hodge and Borges might have been an interesting one. The pairing of O’Kane and Hodge isn’t working, and it is having a more negative effect on Hodge. I don’t think Macey has figured out how to play in the Racing setup at her full potential, so she is learning on the job, which comes with mistakes.
Katie O’Kane: For someone who looked to be a good fit in the system last season, she seems out of place in the current one. She consistently had Borges with her in the midfield and now that Ary is gone, Katie seems a little less reliable as a box-to-box midfielder. In essence, she is a better front-footed defender than a back footed one. She is better suited to prevent an attack rather than stopping one that has already progressed deep into Racing territory. Ideally you want your box-to-box defenders to be able to do both. If Racing can figure out how to play Katie further forward, it will be better for her and the team. She still may not add goals and assists that way, but she can shift momentum.
A few more healthy bodies returning could help with most of these issues, but in retrospect, the roster looks unbalanced. Racing needs another central defender and someone with a skill set that can somewhat replicate was Ary Borges provided. Savanah DeMelo is irreplaceable but Racing needs more creative players in central positions. I consistently criticized a midfield comprised of DeMelo, Borges and Flint for not being able to dictate matches. This setup looks pale by comparison, which isn’t good.
Bev has to figure out something that works during the international break. You can’t change tactics too much, but a defensive wrinkle that makes Racing’s transition defensive more reliable is needed. Whatever it is, is has to be simple so that players can adapt quickly.
