Louisville v North Carolina Pre Match Thoughts
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
The North Carolina Courage return to Louisville on May 27th scheduled to wear even more boing kits than last season. And that is all that needs to be said about the Courage.
I know that I keep promising to not bring up that 2-0 loss in Portland over and over again, but I just can’t help myself. The reason that I am bringing it up again is because at least from a fan’s perspective, they showed that team too much reverence. I believe in giving your opponent their due respect, but never reverence. I don’t want to project something on the players that isn’t there, but the majority of Louisville fans still seem a bit in awe of Portland. That needs to stop. I fear that you might repeatedly hear about Louisville’s record against their upcoming opponent, but I am here to tell you that it is now irrelevant. The only thing that Louisville needs to see on Saturday is an opponent that sits one spot above them in the table and nothing else. Erceg and Pickett could be forgiven for having a little bit of extra motivation going up against their old team, but every other player needs to forget about the crest of upcoming foe.
In my opinion, we have now entered the phase of Louisville’s growth trajectory where at least for the forseeable future, each successive league match could be labeled “the most important match in their history”. This Saturday surely is, and if they win it, the following one in Washington might not be as important, but if they lose it, it surely will be. On Saturday, Louisville’s opponent currently holds what they want: a top six spot in the standings. All other prior history is irrelevant. I think that’s what bothered me most about the Portland match and why I can’t let it go. I really didn’t care if it was their best ever performance in Portland because it obviously wasn’t good enough. If Louisville comes into the match on Saturday worrying about their prior results against North Carolina then they’ve already lost. Their previous performances are irrelevant and can be finally put deep into the ground with a victory. What I don’t want to see, is a draw treated as a victory no matter how it comes. That being said I also want to share the reality of what is happening in the league from a form perspective. There has been only one run of form that yielded 9 points from 3 matches in the league this season and that was the week 2 to week 4 run of the OL Reign. There have been many more runs of 7 points from 3 matches, so while I don’t want to see a draw celebrated, neither should it be mourned.
If Louisville is on the way to true success, this match will be the measure. We have seen how they handle defeat, but handling victories can be just as tricky. The key is how you handle a victory on the road to success. Do you treat is as a destination, a rest stop, or a mile marker. In the past, each Louisville victory seemed like a destination, in that most of the time it was ending a long winless streak. It relieved the tension, but they tended to stay at that level of performance deeming it good enough. The danger now is to not treat a winning streak as a rest stop: a place to relax for a bit, but also a place that ultimately delays your arrival at your destination. Nobody could fault the players and fans for relishing in their victories, but you have to be careful not to dwell because they will have to be even better to keep winning. I believe that great teams treat every match as a mile marker regardless of outcome, and keep on the road to success. You are going to hit some bumps along the way, so the key is to always strive for continuous improvement win, lose, or draw. None of this is revolutionary thinking, but it is really quite difficult to put into practice.
The next thing that I want to see from Louisville is how they do when Savannah DeMelo doesn’t put in a player of the match level performance. It is a joy to watch, but not sustainable across the entire season. They can’t rely on her putting in an 8 or 9 out of 10 performances every match. They also need one more reliable goal scorer or goal creator. Thembi Kgatlana looks like she could be that player, but she has played exactly zero minutes for Louisville with the score level, so we’ve really only seen her prepped to counter or in the case of her first match pressing for an equalizer. Kanu needs to score soon too for her confidence.
I was really hard on this team after the loss in Orlando because I believed they were better than what they were showing, but I also unapologetically believe that you are what your record says you are. The record now shows that Louisville is a mid-table team. By the end of the season that might be the truth or it might not. I don’t think this team has peaked, but I do believe that we might have seen the bottom, so I will set this bar: it’s playoffs or bust from now on.
