Gotham 1 Racing 1 Post Game Thoughts
Courtesy ISI Photos
Racing earned a well deserved point in yesterday's match vs. Gotham. It's always a little disappointing to drop points in a match that you once led, but a draw against one of the better teams in the league is a good result regardless. Gotham dominated possession once Louisville took the lead and won the overall possession battle 57% to 43%. Gotham also completed more passes and had a much higher passing accuracy (81% to 74%). Racing however did win one key stat: shots on target which was a 4 to 2 advantage for Racing. For all of Gotham's possession and accurate passing, they only really looked close to scoring on their 2 shots on target. Onumonu's fantastic effort was the only thing preventing Racing from taking all 3 points.
Could Racing has done better on the goal? I think the answer is like the answer to many questions: “it depends “. With the players that Racing had on the field, I don’t think an equalizer was particularly unexpected. In this particular instance, Racing allowed Gotham to have too much space to get the ball into the box. A team a little more experienced or constructed a bit differently might know how to see out a late one goal lead, but this team will almost always need a 2 goal lead to feel comfortable. That isn't necessarily down to the players on the field or the coaching, but more down to how the team is set up. Sometimes it's hard to get attack minded players to do the little things on defense. Racing is definitely set up as an attacking side. Many of their players in the middle of the pitch are really forwards and not traditional midfielders. I think more defensive minded players know how to close down space in the final third. Freja Olofsson tried to close down the pass into Onumonu's feet, but was a little too late getting there. Freja is really the only natural midfielder in the starting XI, so many times she has to cover a lot of ground on defense. In the final third, players have to understand that the risk comes from giving your opponents too much space. Further up the pitch, the risk is having someone beat you for pace or get in behind you. The defensive strategy of how to close down passing lanes changes in the final third, and sometimes it hard to get your attacking players to work as hard to close down space.
With a more balanced team, Racing will learn how to close out matches like this. That isn't to say their weren't chances to grab those 3 points at the end. Racing has a couple of decent chances inside the box, but over passing made them fizzle out. Getting that goal so early was key to earning the draw. Gotham appeared to be disinterested until Racing scored. It's always good to catch a team napping early. Incisive passing from Kizer and Salmon made that goal. Unfortunately they were both on the bench when Racing needed a late score.
One thing to keep an eye on for the rest of the season will be Racing's commitment to keeping a clean sheet. Now, I don't know if this is unique to the NWSL or even unique to this season, but keeping a clean sheet is a pretty good indicator of success. This may seem clearly obvious because a clean sheet guarantees you at least a point. However, based on all of games played so farz this year, keeping a clean sheet merits a team on average 2.5 points. Giving up at least 1 goal drops that number to .83. I know where my priority would lie. Fans love attacking football, but just because you are attack oriented doesn't mean you shouldn't strive for the clean sheet. By the way, the four worst teams at collecting points when allowing a goal are KC (2) Racing (5) and maybe surprisingly NCC (4) and Portland (5). The keys is that Portland has nine clean sheets and NCC has eight. I believe Racing’s success for the end of the season will follow this pattern. Be committed on defense and success will follow.
