Louisville v Orlando Pre Match Thoughts

I am somewhat of two minds going into Friday's last match at home versus Orlando. I remain convinced that in the long run, the club would be better off with the 3rd or 4th draft pick in next year's draft versus finishing 7th or 8th place, but I am never going to actively root for this team to lose. Knowing that my cheering them on has virtually no effect on the outcome of a match means that I can do as a normally do and also expect what we as a fanbase have typically gotten recently.

To me (and as always possibly only me) the players have played their most recent matches like they are each carrying a 10-pound weight around their necks. It is always a fine line between playing with a fire in your belly versus a weight around your neck. The lack of goals recently has to be weighing on the players and I personally think it shows in their shot selection. In his media availability today, Coach Björkegren lamented the squandered opportunities and stated that he felt that all of the breaks seemed to be going against Louisville recently. That's difficult to argue. However, it can also be argued that Louisville simply hasn't created enough good chances to score, especially in the box. You can argue a crossbar here and a post there, but the fact remains that this team has been creatively stagnant for a while now, with no signs of improvement.

The good news is that creativity isn't the only way to score goals and I would say that Louisville desperately needs to see one go in regardless of its nature… if I thought it mattered. The bigger issues with this team will take an offseason to try to fix, so for now any kind of result would be good for morale (if not for their draft position), but morale will probably be fine anyway when they start the season fresh next year. I think a 2-2 draw would do wonders for this team’s confidence, but then it would likely be another 5 months before they played another meaningful match, so frankly it doesn't really matter other than some sort of temporary relief. Like I said, I am of two minds.

This team desperately needs a consistent goal scorer AND/OR to be able to slice through teams with ball movement. A good draft pick could facilitate the former, but the latter will likely require a coaching shake-up. I think you are kidding yourself if you think we are getting the same set up next year as we have seen this season.

I don't have much to say about Orlando other than to wonder how Messiah Bright was available at 21 for them to select this year. Louisville wishes they had Orlando's draft from last year, which once again makes my point about winning meaningless games. Louisville's games are not technically meaningless yet, but they haven't looked like a playoff team recently, so any last second change in form would be completely against the trend.