“How could it ever come to pass?”
Photo by Elizabeth Shaw
Match Haiku
The wins on the spin.
Could Racing make a late push?
Fischer again shines.
“How could it ever come to pass?”
“She Bangs the Drums” - The Stone Roses 1989
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Racing had never won three league matches in a row. They have now. They have never had a run as good as 12 points from 15. They have now. They become the first NWSL team ever (trusting Brendan Devine’s research here) to have six different players score a brace in a single season. Those are all great things.
I think the most important thing is that the level of play has been so much better than it was even one month ago. Racing played two dreadful matches on July 5th and July 10th. Since then, the level of play has been excellent, if you exclude the obvious write-off match in KC, which hopefully you have by this point. The first 20 minutes of the second half by Racing were excellent on Saturday evening. The quality of play and finishing was top-level. I think that it is very encouraging to see a team be able to summon that level of quality in short bursts because no team can sustain it over an entire match.
The first half started slowly, and the heat surely contributed to that. I thought that Sears and Fischer had a few chances to connect in the first half but just weren’t on the same page. As the match wore on, that connection improved and Racing played the middle 30 minutes of the match at peak form.
I think all of the outfield players had moments of excellence. Racing may have found the hybrid approach for the rest of the season: give more minutes to the new players but keep them surrounded with the right veterans. There are players in the squad now that know they have to fight for every minute. I think every starter is probably being pushed in practice to the appropriate level.
This is what I wanted to see at the beginning of the season. However, the roster construction likely dictated that Racing was always going to have to take a step backwards before they could take a leap forward. The club will likely have to do this again next season, to a degree, unless ownership wants to bite the bullet and spend (not holding my breath there).
Again, I preach caution. Racing has been beating bottom-half teams. When you’re a bottom half team yourself, that is encouraging. A continued run of confidence may see Racing able to battle more resolutely against the top of the league. That chance is coming, but there are two more chances in short succesion against teams that are not in the upper echelon of the league, so they need to take hold of those opportunities.
On the day, we saw an excellent performance, and that should be cherished and remembered.
Post Match Moment of the Match
It was a crowded media gathering after the match. Winning, and winning consistently, does that. It was a bit of a shame that local TV wasn’t on hand, but as we creep closer to college football season, that may just be the reality. In the pre-match media, Makenna Morris predicted (when prompted by Brendan) who she thought the next brace might come from. She predicted Kayla, and then Kayla and Katie O’Kane spoke after the match. Katie thought the team came out with energy and Kayla said that she thought the performance was good from front to back. On Makenna predicting the brace, Kayla said, “she put the pressure on” but then “she helped,” in that she provided a nice assist for the first goal.
Bev was proud of the group and called them “clicked in” since the formation change. Bev made it a point to say she didn’t think anyone could question their identity now. I guess I agree with that assessment with one caveat. I likely called this team stubborn at some point, but I think they have adapted to become more flexible in their play if not their philosophy. Bev made an interesting comment that she thought this match had more in match adjustments than any recent match. Whatever adjustments Boston was trying to make, they obviously didn’t work.
Thing I bought at ear X-tacy back in the day
Artist: Oasis
Album: Definitely Maybe
Year: 1994
Format: CD
Store Location: 1534 Bardstown Road
Before Oasis became the most annoyingly overrated band of the 90s, they made some really good music. Most of it is here on this album. Most people will point to the follow up, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? as the classic. They are wrong. At the time, their second album broke Oasis to some degree in America and turned them into heroes in England. In retrospect, it sucks. “Wonderwall” is sung all over the place. It’s garbage. The other singles range from utter garbage to “decent if you don’t overplay it.”
If Man City are ever held accountable for the 115 charges they face from the Premier league, I hope one of the punishments is that they take Liam Gallagher (a very vocal fan) and launch him into the center of the sun. He is an absolute wanker.
But holy crap, was their first album great. If Morning Glory had been their debut, it might have been great too. Everything they tried on this album worked and was a better version of what came on the next one. The songs have infinite swagger, but not too much arrogance. It is still listenable today.
I guess my point it to not get too full of yourself, too complacent, and let people tell you how great you are when you’re actually pretty crap. There was a quote from Liam Gallagher saying that Teenage Fanclub (who I have highlighted here) were “the second best band in the world.” That was true at the time. He was just too stupid to realize that the number one spot had been taken over by Radiohead and not Oasis. Self-awareness is always key.
Racing may be ready to make a playoff push…definitely…maybe.
The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match
Since there were amazingly no yellow cards in this match despite Boston leading the league in this category let’s talk about a couple other things.
First, I get why there were seven minutes of stoppage time in the second half, and that probably was the right number, but come on…I have seen plenty of blowouts with one or two minutes added. There had to be three for the hydration break, but do you think either coach or the fans would have complained about three minutes of stoppage instead of seven? Of course, this meant that hilariously, Racing gave up a stoppage time goal and still don’t have a clean sheet this season.
Second, Boston was pretty poor. They completed 395 passes for 86% accuracy and had the ball 61% of the time. They did absolutely nothing with those numbers. They definitely looked like an expansion team on this evening.
The 2026 UFL Champion Louisville (Draft?) Kings Sports Betting Corner
NWSL Labs has Racing’s probability to make the playoff at 0.1%. That probably gives you a moneyline of something like +99,000. If you can find someone willing to take that bet, do it. However, you likely won’t so a more logical moneyline is probably closer to something like +3000 or +4000. I don’t know if I would take that moneyline, but it might be fun to drop a tenner on it.
Gotham looks like a solid bet for the Shield.
Chicago looks like an ever more solid bet for 16th.
“Have you seen her? Have you heard?”
Racing’s push for attendance yielded 7,000 fans on a night that was miserably hot. It will be interesting to see what Wednesday brings. For all of the talk about Louisville being a sports town, people in this city will look for any excuse not to go to things. A weeknight game on a school night is probably at the top of most parents list. That’s why I always find it baffling that the league is marketed so heavily to families. Racing needs more adults without school-aged children at these matches. That is their demographic especially for weeknight matches.
The upcoming match against Seattle is probably the most important one of the season now. If Racing can pull to within 4 points of them, then there are enough matches remaining to dream bigger. Racing did a good job of clawing back to a respectable goal difference in these last few matches. That might be important, but what is actually important is points.
In Boston’s match preview there was a note that stated that “Racing Louisville lost each of the last four times it faced an NWSL newcomer, with each match ending in 1-0 defeats.” What that meant is that Racing lost twice in 2024 to Bay, the away match against Utah in 2024, and the first match against Denver. I remember all four of those performances, and Racing has to avoid any performance like those for the rest of the season. They will likely lose a few matches, but they have to keep the energy up. I hope the city does its best to contribute to the home energy along the way.
