Louisville 3 Orlando 2 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy David Mucker
It still might be too little, too late but Louisville has given themselves a fighting chance to make the playoffs for the first time, if things break their way next Sunday. The overall performance was marginally better than the previous few, but the spirit of the team was noticeably improved from the last few matches.
Let’s get the officials out of the way first. As previously mentioned, I believe that most officials employed by this league are cowardly by nature and avoid making tough and unpopular calls when they can avoid it. Here is where I believe that VAR actually helps. The penalty awarded to Orlando was 100% a foul in the box (just like last week's VAR overturn was on DeMelo). Since it was a challenge by Aylmer on Marta with the Orlando player moving away from the goal and with her back to it, it almost went unnoticed. Either the on-field official didn’t see it (shame on him) or he did and was too cowardly to blow his whistle (double-shame on him). VAR got it right and Louisville went down 0-1. After the stoppage in play when Madril was down and with Louisville already trailing 0-2, Louisville’s captain (Erceg) gave the linesman an earful in full view of the crowd and at a volume loud enough that several sections of the stadium had to hear it. I thought to myself, “well, that’s a yellow card” but nothing came of it other than a few calls started to go Louisville’s way afterwards. This league needs more competent officials and officials that can manage a match effectively. The officiating has been a “side-show” in the last few matches when the goal should be to be invisible.
On to the main show…on the whole, it was a match dictated by mistakes with Orlando making one more gross error than Louisville. The penalties ended up cancelling each other out, and both teams had singular moments of brilliance. Abello’s goal for Orlando was terrific, but maybe Lester and Lund both could have done a little better. That might be a little unfair to Kaite based on the ferocity of the shot, but she did seem to react to it late. Conversely, Louisville finally got a decent team goal from open play. Pickett started the move with a beautiful pass into Kgatlana who in turn relayed another good ball into Davis for the goal. The key in transition is to be accurate and quick, and it paid off here. Kgatlana’s final balls into her teammates hadn’t been great up to this point in the match, but she got this one 100% right. Davis still had to more to do on the finish, and the slide likely helped her keep the ball down and on target. My favorite part of the goal was that none of the passes were over-thought, but incredibly precise. Finally, Orlando’s keeper Moorhouse, let in a howler and further embarrassed herself by complaining to the officials. VAR took a brief look and very quickly deemed Moorhouse to be a cry-baby. Aylmer was closest to her but did absolutely nothing to interfere with the keeper who frankly initiated the contact on Aylmer. It was a poor look and outcome for Orlando’s keeper, but she has nobody to blame but herself.
Now, I am sure you recall that Louisville won its last two matches last season and all that did was prevent them from taking Emily Madril in the draft. There is an unnecessary stigma to finishing in last place (when there is no relegation). Louisville has probably secured not finishing in last place. After the rest of the weekend’s matches, we will have a better picture of what Louisville has to do to either make the playoffs or get a decent draft pick. A win is necessary to make the playoffs, and Louisville has tended to play well against San Diego. They have faced San Diego 3 times, and the Wave has never scored against Louisville (with Louisville only scoring a single goal). The Wave could have several things to play for, so the match will likely be a good one with both teams looking to get on the front foot early.
