“Isn’t it funny how you shine?”
Courtesy of the NWSL
Match Haiku
Orlando lacks pride,
Capitulates to Racing,
Emma: the clear star.
“Isn’t it funny how you shine?”
“Don’t Stop” - The Stone Roses, 1989
You never apologize for the schedule.
Some teams were going to catch Orlando in the stretch where Barbara Banda was at AFCON. Racing just happened to be one of them. Unfortunately for the Pride, they were missing other key players too. You don’t apologize for that either. You go out and do a job.
Racing did that on Friday evening. They had their own stuff to deal with, missing Flint and having travel issues (more in the section below). The level of performances from Racing recently has been good enough to beat lower to mid-table teams rather decisively. Racing has a stretch of three more of those before they will be tested by the league’s best again.
On the night, Racing looked more assured in their transition moments and got the right player on the ball in those moments. It’s always nice to score from a set piece and the O’Kane to McKeen connection on the first half goal was really well executed by both players. Of course, it still is Racing so they are never allowed a clean sheet, but they tightened up in the last minutes of stoppage time to make sure the end wasn’t too nervy.
I think we’re seeing the younger players start to gain the confidence that they will need to see out the rest of the season. Racing still has several teams to jump if they want to get into playoff position, but it is nice to see that there is still fight left in the team.
Post Match Moment of the Match
Audrey and Emma talked about their special goals. McKeen became the youngest goal scorer for Racing and Emma became the all-time leading goal scorer. Those are records that the most cynical of us would say have a really good chance of standing forever. Emma handled a question about her professionalism professionally. More on her later.
According to Bev, the team had a nightmare travel day that included circling the Orlando Airport for 90 minutes and then having to refuel in Jacksonville before returning to Orlando. They arrived so late that their meal on Thursday happened after 11PM. Hear her recount it fully here. It reminded me of some of the Racing Year One travel nightmares. Take it away Yuki…
So…maybe the trip to Orlando wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
I asked Bev about how much time the team had to get prepared for Flint’s absence, and she said that it was something that the team started to plan for early in the week. This meant that the formation was adjusted to drop Milliet a little deeper and slot McKeen into more of a number 10 role. Racing started the second half really going after from a pressing perspective. I asked Bev what she saw, which was the quick restarts from Moorhouse (which I noticed too) but it never occurred to me to use that to force the press (which is why Bev is a good coach, and I just write about soccer),
The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match
Katie O’Kane had the only yellow card of the match.
45th Minute + 1: Katie O’Kane - Foul - Tactical Foul
It was your classic hold of a player breaking away for a potential advantage. Katie kept grabbing until the center referee finally blew his whistle.
In my never-ending quest to harp on inconsistency, there was a much more egregious time-wasting kicking away of the ball by a Pride player in this match than the instance that Lardner got carded for in the Angel City match. No card here. In addition, Lianne (Sanderson) lamented that the penalty that VAR helped overturn in this match was eerily similar to one that was upheld in a match she called just a few days ago. Rules and interpretations are so selectively enforced in this league that sometimes you just have to shake your head.
Madchester Song to Celebrate with
It’s a bit more jangly than you associate with Baggy, but it’s a nice little number.
FREE EMMA SEARS?
Emma was so close to a hat trick last night. Her offside call was probably decided by mere inches (the views that NWSL referees get in these moments leaves much to be desired, but I still think Emma was just offside). It was the type of performance we had been hoping we would be getting from Emma all season. Might it have been an in-person audition for a desperate Orlando? Who knows.
I pushed one key bit of information to the back of my mind when I started this whole “FREE EMMA SEARS” thing. I knew I was already expecting more than I should when I thought the ownership group would do the smart thing. This week I was once again reminded that this ownership group doesn’t make football decisions. They make business decisions. One could argue that even the good “business decision” would be to sell Emma for maximum profit. The real downer is that I remembered that any money received from the transfer of Sears isn’t going to be reinvested in the footballing side, it would just be used to buy down the losses. With that being the case, I guess I kind of want Emma to stay the rest of the season…as long as Racing is winning. The real shocking thing to me now is that she hasn’t been transferred already. This group of penny pinchers seems like the type to cash in at any chance, so I guess I am giving them mild kudos for not doing that.
There has been much discussion about John Neace’s comments. He has his, if not quite staunch defenders, apologists for his comments. I get where those people are coming from. It is a difference of opinion on who holds the responsibility for making the team better. I believe that we all do, but it isn’t an equal burden. I know I have said it dozens of times, but it bears repeating this week: Sports Ownership comes with the expectation that you will lose vast amounts of money in the short term. The fact that Soccer Holdings wasn’t prepared for the vastness of these losses is on them, but it is also on the league. This league should have never set a buy-in price for a franchise as low as $1 million, but the league was a little desperate. That price attracted amateurs and, oh boy, is that showing its ugly head now. I am not going to write the things that those previous few sentences imply but I think we all know they are true.
“Don’t stop”
On that gloomy note, are you ready for some winning football? The good thing is that we have seen some lately and the matches have been fun again. I was really pleased that when forced to plug a Flint-sized hole in the starting lineup, Bev didn’t repeat a mistake from earlier in the season (putting Fischer back in the midfield). She slotted McKeen into the midfield and readjusted. Because of the penny-pinching ownership, Bev often has to put square pegs into round holes and disguise it by lauding players’ “flexibility”. A little bit of flexibility is a good thing, but the team is just worse when Kayla isn’t playing up front. You could debate Kayla’s effectiveness in the midfield (everyone has the right to their incorrect opinion) but she is simply a better player as a forward. The team is vastly better with her in the most attacking, highest-pressing role as possible.
Racing can do nothing but go for it now. It may be difficult to define exactly what “it” is, but they look like a team reenergized. They at least have the opportunity to put last place squarely behind them in these next few matches. I personally think it would be really interesting to see Racing go to a back four again in a match, when the opponent dictates, just to keep everyone on their toes. I think the three center back system is working well and should maybe be the default, but you have to remember that the roster wasn’t constructed with that in mind (or at least I don’t believe it was) and Racing has another stretch where rotation is going to be required. Playing your three starting center backs three times in nine days probably won’t work, but you could minimize some of that fatigue through formation change (possibly Seattle on Wednesday).
I was in Michigan this week and saw this sign.
It made me think of Pokémon and I pictured Bev as leveling up her coaching even more for these next few matches. She has been excellent these last few weeks (and I promise this is the last time I am going to mention it, but also in her decision for heavy rotation against KC under the circumstances) and has shown her best. It’s funny to me that a little doubt crept in on her. All of us are grossly unqualified to judge. She has things back on track now and if Racing does decide to overspend on anything in 2027, it should definitely be on her.
