Louisville 2 Reign 2 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Jordan Prather (NWSL Live Content Creator)
I feel like everyone could use a hug after last night’s painful draw. The good outweighed the bad and the Reign have to feel like they escaped with a point rather than earned one. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way and then move to the good as this really was the best performance of the year so far.
I don’t know what Katie Lund was doing on the foul that led to the penalty. Saskia Webber, the former USWNT goalie who was on color commentary last night for the Parmount Plus broadcast beat her up pretty bad in her commentary too. (Quick side note: I didn’t watch the entire replay, and I am glad because I don’t know if I could handle 90 minutes of a keeper’s commentary. It’s a bit like a punter or placekicker calling a NFL game.) It was a completely unnecessary foul as Huitema was moving away from the goal and Erceg was there to cover as well. Lund has very likely saved and thus earned Louisville many points in the table over the last year or so, but last night she was at least 50% responsible for costing them 2 points. The good news is it’s unlikely to be a mistake that she repeats frequently, but I have to wonder if Louisville’s total control of the match made her lose her concentration. I think most keepers will tell you that one of the hardest things to do in a match is to be immediately called into action after being involved in virtually none of it. It was almost like she felt like she had to get involved in order to feel part of the match.
I tweeted that Sav DeMelo told my wife after the match that she is going to appeal that second yellow card. After going back and watching it, I don’t think she will have much luck. It was a judgement call and after about 70 minutes of really fine officiating, lead official Eric Tattersall lost control of the match. For me it turned when he gave Huerta a yellow card. What he should have done was carded her immediately for pulling back Pickett. He didn’t and thus let her show him up by kicking the ball away. At that point, he had to card her. If he cards her for the first infringement, she never kicks that ball away and maybe he decides to let the yellow card on DeMelo go. Then again maybe not, as it really was a very poor look for DeMelo to launch that ball after Howell was whistled for a very soft foul. Things got really chippy after that.
Staying with DeMelo, I think Louisville will lose any appeal on that second card. I don’t think they will have any grounds to appeal on the first one either, so Louisville could be making a trip to Orlando without DeMelo available against the Pride. When she was on the pitch, DeMelo was fantastic again. Her goal was great, and she is clearly one of the best midfielders in the league, but she needs to learn to either control her reactions better or go the other direction and just scare the hell out of all of the officials like the persona Rapinoe has cultivated over the years. Honestly, Sav fouls too much to get away with berating the officials, so she is better off keeping her emotions in check while politely staying in the official’s ear to remind them how much she is getting fouled.
With all of that out of the way, Louisville really did dominate that match. Don’t bother to look at the stats. They won’t provide any illumination in this case. Trust what you saw with your eyes, which if you were like me was Louisville defanging a lion. The OL Reign have been an excellent team for a long time and Louisville made them look ordinary and that’s even being kind. At no point during the first half of the match did the Reign look like they were in the neighborhood of scoring. They stubbornly stuck with playing out from the back and Louisville kept the majority of the Reign’s possession in nonthreatening places. Even after half, while the Reign were a little more threatening, Louisville kept attacking and kept the match from being one way traffic. Even down to 10 players, Louisville had its chances. Louisville was clearly the better team on the night.
Kim Björkegren will have even more of a selection headache going forward as Paige Monaghan won a deserved player of the match award from the fans. She was excellent all over the pitch, and her goal was one of the coolest composed finishes you will ever see. It was a goal that literally every player is physically capable of scoring, but few are mentally capable of keeping their composure to score it. It was a calculated pass into the bottom corner. Later on, she would blast another opportunity where maybe her composure left her or maybe she didn’t have enough space of time for a more precise finish. Regardless, there wasn’t a player that looked like she was having more fun out there than Paige. She showed more in her start than McDonald has lately, so it will be interesting to see what Björkegren does when Jess gets back. Kanu looks ready to be given another start too. I can almost guarantee a different starting XI in Orlando even if DeMelo wins her unlikely appeal.
Orlando won in San Diego last night, but I don’t think they are suddenly a team to be reckoned with. Louisville needs to go to Orlando this year and play on a real pitch and show no mercy by taking three points home. After the match, you could see the pain on Jae Howell’s face knowing her team probably should have taken three points. If she can convince her teammates to shake this result off, I believe this team is capable of starting a really good run of results.
