Can we talk? (with Bekki Morgan)

Photo by Connor Cunningham, courtesy Racing Louisville FC

This week I chat with Bekki Morgan, who excellently covers Racing Louisville FC for the beautiful game network (while The Courier Journal slowly abdicates their responsibility to cover professional sports). She is awesome and I am prepared to go into a Twitter war with anyone who disagrees.

What's been your biggest surprise covering the team so far?

Honestly? How easy it’s been. When Benton asked for volunteers I thought I’d be writing in a bubble with no access or contact with the front (back?) office. But they immediately set me up with press access and have gone out of their way to be accessible. It’s really phenomenal and shows the dedication the club has to building dedicated local support.

The team has 4 points from 4 games. Is that a fair representation of how they have performed?

I would say yes and it might even be better than expected. We should have beaten KC, in my opinion, because they aren't that strong a team and we were at home. We were also incredibly lucky to beat the Spirit. Betos put in a master class that night, but the Spirit's number of shots weren't that off from the Thorns and the Courage so it's looking more like luck that we won that one. I honestly think we're performing well for where we are and the league that we're in.

We both saw a rumor on Monday about a potential acquisition...Nadia Nadim (Wednesday update: not a rumor, confirmed loudly and clearly!) How much more roster movement should we expect?

I’ve heard rumors about another possible signing but have seen no indication of it happening so I really don’t know. It’s hard to tell because the club has kept everything very close to the chest. Salmon and Bonner were both surprises right up until the day they were announced, so anything could happen. But Holly has said for a while that the roster won’t be finalized until June and June’s just begun.

Switching topics a bit, I have been transparent about my love of Arsenal, and my relative indifference to international soccer because of that. How did you first fall in love with soccer and do you have a club or international team that impacts how you see soccer?

I fell in love with soccer watching the 1999 Women’s World Cup like many, many people my age. It was the first time I’d seen women play a sport outside the Olympics and get that much attention. My attention waxed and waned, but I was what I described above: a fan of the sport who watched the international game mostly, followed the NWSL a bit when it started but mostly got truly interested around the 2015 women’s WC. I didn’t get deeply involved until the last several years. I’ve never had a club before Racing. I liked almost all the teams and watched all the games I could because I liked the league. I still watch most NWSL games because I’m invested, but I’m absolutely 100% Racing focused as far as club goes. And it’s been a weird transition to throw myself fully into a team for the first time. A great experience, but an adjustment.

Racing has 3 games in pretty quick succession after the break. What is a good amount of points to take from those games?

First let’s look at the teams: Houston, NC, and Chicago. All three teams have been pretty chaotic and inconsistent with their results. Houston and Chicago have been pulling together a bit more though. So a lot of it depends on which team shows up to each game. Our being at home will help us against NCC and Houston, but we travel for Chicago and that might be a tougher trip. The fact we have new personnel and a deeper bench with Salmon and Bonner (and possibly Ashley) is very good timing. But it’s still going to be tough on us to have three in such quick succession. I’d be happy with 3 points from draws, but not 3 points from 1 win and 2 losses. I think I’d be happier with 2 points from 2 draws than 1 win and 2 losses. So I think we should be satisfied with 2 or 3 points. More than that and I’d be ecstatic but I’m trying to be realistic. And honestly, if we do lose 2, but they’re close and competitive and show growth and we manage to score goals, I’ll be content. Not happy but I’ll be fine.

Is sixth place (the last playoff place) possible?

I think we can definitely have a shot at it, but it’ll be very hard. But that is realistically what we should be aiming for as our best outcome for the season, based on how we’ve done thus far. Finishing in 7th or 8th would honestly be pretty good too. However, this question is almost impossible to answer right now because we don’t know how the team will look by the end of the month. Bonner, Salmon, and now possibly Nadim, would drastically alter the starting lineup. We haven’t even gotten a chance to really see Otto, Ashley, or Merrick either. What potential depth could they bring? So 6th is going to be hard, but if things start geling, it’s the most realistic goal we could set for the time being. Whether that’s too pessimistic or optimistic can be adjusted based on how the team performs as time moves on.

What's a good attendance number for the next game now that "The Fam" is at 100 percent capacity?

Well we did sell out the last limited capacities so I’d think sustaining around 6-7k would be great. That would put us in 3rd-5th place in league attendance compared to past years. More than that would be phenomenal but I think the growth will come in time.

Speaking of growth, what are the keys to being ready to win some silverware in a couple of years?

Developing the young players we chose in the drafts. Milliet, Fox, Kizer, and Ekic in particular are playing extremely well and could be built around to create a solid team. We can’t be a team that develops young players then lets them move on. We need to be a destination. The culture also needs to be sustained. Right now everyone says it’s phenomenal but will it hold through a tough season? Probably but we’ll have to see.

Thanks again to Bekki for answering some tough questions. Follow her on Twitter @sukiisacat.