Louisville 3 Houston 0 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Tommy Quarles/NWSL
Louisville continues to show that it takes the Challenge Cup seriously and strolled to a comfortable win after a frustrating first 45 minutes. Houston rotated fairly heavily, going with a complete change in the backline and rotating half of their front 6. Louisville will make no apologies for this and will look to keep their upward momentum swing going into the league.
With 3 matches in the book, Louisville is in control of their group. However, they must keep an eye on Kansas City who sit on 6 points and if they are being realistic, will see the Challege Cup as their best chance at avoiding a disastrous season. This is also the last match week where Louisville or its opponent will have to worry about rotation, other than the forced rotation that will be caused by player absences during the World Cup. I have been enjoying the Challenge Cup. I am sure that much of that is down to the fact that Racing is undefeated, but I like the new format. It was changed out of necessity, but I think it works. It will be interesting to see how the league handles it next season, but with a sponsor willing to put money into it you have to think it is here to stay. I believe that 12 points will be good enough to win the group, and more than that would probably guarantee it. I couldn’t find this stated anywhere so if someone can confirm or deny please let me know, but you would have to assume that the teams that accumulate the most points will host the semifinal matches. Lou City doesn’t not have a match on September 6th, so there are no conflicting schedule difficulties to deal with. Therefore, Louisville will still be incented to win its remaining matches.
Houston managed only a single shot on target last night, and while they got into some dangerous positions, Louisville defense in the first half did just enough to make sure nothing got close to Lund. In the second half, Louisville continued the trend, in the Challenge Cup at least, of placing most of its defensive effort into keeping the ball in its attacking half. After the match, Björkegren talked about the team’s belief when contrasting their performances earlier in the season in the matches where they squandered 2 goal leads. That may have something to do with it, but I think the team’s commitment to pressing with the lead has been the biggest change. Without making a value judgement, you would have to say that it is working against their opponents in the Challenge Cup. Louisville ended up with close to 60% of the possession, which isn’t too common in this league when you go into halftime up to goals. In the second half, it seemed like 75% of the match was played in the Estopinal End. If the defensive philosophy that works is keeping the ball out of your own half, then I have to say that you really can’t argue with that. Houston’s rare counters fizzled out fairly quickly in this match. I thought Erceg might get a rest on the evening, but she was needed and vital. A loose touch in the first half by one of her teammates was almost a disaster, but she calmly recovered and shepherded the ball back to Lund for a clearance. I think that we could see her play every minute of every match in every competition this season because she never looks tired, while also always looking in control. In case you missed it, Pickett finished out the last ten or so minutes as her center back partner. It was a small sample size, but Pickett looked good in that role and would be a good emergency center back if needed at some point.
Louisville broke its stretch of no goals from open play in the previous two matches to put in two goals from open play and one set piece goal. Fischer’s goal seemed as much as a relief as opposed to a breakthrough due to Kanu’s early goal being ruled offside and the earlier missed chances. Since it was such a relief, I had forgotten what a nice team goal that it was. It started from a goal kick with Lund getting a second touch before she switched play to the left to Pickett, who fed Howell in the middle, who switched it out to the right to Borges, who once again switched play to the left with a fantastic pass for Fischer to get her goal. The second goal was simply Louisville making Houston pay for being sloppy. Mentally, the Dash seemed to already be at halftime and Louisville was only really applying cursory pressure until Pickett forced a terrible pass from Salmon which led to the goal. On the third goal, I could almost read Pickett’s and Erceg’s mind as Erceg made a late back post run. I contend that Carson was aiming for Abby at the back post, but Houston defended the corner so poorly that they committed the cardinal sin of letting the center forward get a clean header right at the penalty spot. Al it took from there was a simple header straight down from Goins. Parker is turning into instant offense as a sub, with Björkegren comparing her favorably to former Manchester United coach and super sub as a player, Ole Gunnar Solskjær after the match.
Now Louisville has to try to keep its momentum and get 3 points vs. Gotham on Sunday. A five-point gap isn’t insurmountable, but having two other teams above you in the table that are also looking to get into 6th is an additional hurdle.
