Gotham 3 Racing 1 Post Match Thoughts
Racing put in a fairly lackluster performance after getting a goal in the first 10 minutes against Gotham on Friday evening in Columbia in The Women's Cup Final. It’s not time to panic, put it’s fairly evident that a new coach and some new players haven’t been an immediate panacea for Louisville’s traditional ails.
Reilyn Turner found the back of the net, and probably should have scored prior to it as well. If she keeps finding herself in the right positions, it could be a good rookie campaign for her. The other potential (although still unsigned) ROY candidate Sears had another solid match, and her strength and pace could cause real problems for teams. I am not sure she was offside in her breakaway attempt, and it sure would have been nice to see if she could have buried it. She did put the ball in the net from a clearly offside position earlier in the match.
The defensive communication isn’t up to par yet. Several times the defenders didn’t seem to be on the same page as each other or Lund. That will take time, but with the number of veterans on the back line, I hoped that it would be further along than it is. Racing will miss Howell every time she isn’t on the pitch. I think her absence exposed this team’s weakness. Flint might be fine with Jae next to her, but so far she doesn’t look comfortable enough on the ball to dictate the match in the style that Racing wants to play. That will obviously take time too, but a few questionable touches from her last night made me want to scrutinize her play a bit more, and don’t think opposing coaches didn’t see the same thing.
Racing had fits with Gotham’s press. To start the second half, Louisville could barely maintain any possession at all, let alone any meaningful piece in Gotham’s half. Once they showed that they were having trouble with the press, Gotham was relentless, and forced Lund to start the possession deeper and wider in Racing’s territory than was comfortable. Racing seemed to burn off too much energy in the opening 10 minutes because they never reached that intensity level again. Frankly, Louisville was fortunate to be up a goal at the break.
Once Racing did manage to get the ball into Gotham’s half early in the second half, they immediately tried to get a chance to attack on the counter. All of those chances sputtered due to a rushed or forced pass. Obviously once Gotham equalized, Racing thought they needed another goal. What they actually needed was some possession. There is value in just keeping the ball out of your own half for a while even if you aren’t creating any chances. This is especially true when the other team has all of the momentum. Racing has traditionally liked to press and move quickly in attack. They obviously still need to learn the value of ball retention and dictating play. Gotham dictated the lion’s share of the match after the first 10 minutes and were happy to drop and defend in the last 10 to 15 minutes with a 2-goal lead.
On a lighter note, I can’t remember a match with so many foul throws. I used to referee matches for preschoolers, and they struggled with the rules of a throw from time-to-time, but no professional footballer should even have a foul throw. I think maybe the referee started specifically looking for foul throws after a while, but it started with Fischer having her second in two matches. That is something that needs to be cleaned up.
