Notes from the Intrasquad Scrimmage
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
Racing held their first intrasquad scrimmage of the 2022 season today at Lynn Family Sports Vision and Training Center. The scrimmage was open to the media, so here are a few things that I noticed.
Emily Fox and recently called-up Jae Howell were obviously absent due to their inclusion in the USWNT’s roster for the She Believes Cup. It’s a little tough to get a read on the team with out them there, but the 70 minute scrimmage as a whole was definitely offensively oriented.
Salmon and McDonald look especially effective playing together. Salmon had two goals to my recollection (the teams had the nasty habit of scoring when I was engaged in conversation with Bekki Morgan or Jeff Greer), and McDonald had 1. Racing are deep at forward, and I would go so far as to say that they might even be “deeply talented”. Kirsten Davis and Parker Goins both looked fast and physical going forward. Emina Ekic looked like a player who spent the off-season getting better and should be ready to compete for more minutes.
The appearance of Addisyn Merrick on the field was a sight for sore eyes. When asked about her position after the scrimmage, Coach Björkegren said that he wasn’t sure yet where she would play. In the scrimmage she played at CB, but Coach Kim said that right back was another opportunity for her. If Racing are to make a playoff push this year, Merrick will have to stay fit and in the lineup in my opinion.
On the injury front, Charmé Morgan missed the scrimmage. However, she was in attendance and is scheduled to see the doctor today. Björkegren said that Nadia Nadin is scheduled back in a couple of weeks. June is the normal timetable for an injury like the one Nadia suffered, but Coach Kim suggested that an earlier return wasn’t out of the question because Nadim “is not the normal player”.
The other absence was Cheyna Matthews who recently announced that she is pregnant with her third child, so congratulations to Jordan and Cheyna.
Sav DeMelo was interviewed after the scrimmage, and you can watch it here. She was impressive in a central midfield role. She said that she is adjusting to the speed of play and the speed of thought (knowing what your next move is prior to receiving a pass vs. waiting to decide after you have received it) as a professional. Ebony Salmon also answered questions after the scrimmage and talked about her preparations for the season, the team starting to gel, and getting minutes in their legs. For Salmon, this will be the first chance to experience a full NSWL season and preparations for that season. She took a few weeks off over the break, which was a luxury she wasn’t afforded last year. Along with scoring twice, Salmon hit the woodwork a couple of times with the first one leading to McDonald’s goal.
Whether or not Jess McDonald is nominally the captain of this team, she is the leader. It was crystal clear that she was the leader of her side today. During the halftime break, she was using practice cones to show her teammates something she noticed from a tactical perspective in the first half. On the field, she is vocal and encouraging to her teammates. I have the feeling that this is becoming her team and it is only a week or so into practice. I think this is a good thing. I don’t want to say that the team didn’t have a true leader last year, but this year I think it will be obvious that the team is hers.
I believe that some of the players that will ultimately not be on Racing’s squad this year might find a way into the USL W team. There were a few Academy players in the scrimmage today, and none of them looked overmatched. There were some non-roster invitees as well and they held their own too.
It was interesting to me to here Coach Kim talk about how he is communicating his philosophy to the team. He sees the preseason as a modular learning exercise. So far, he has focused on the buildup play from the back, which is the core of possession-oriented football. From a sequential perspective, it sounds like the plan is to move on to the midfield, and then to forwards and wingers in terms of what the focus will be in the next practices. He did mention that he planned to work with the starting XI next week. I took that to mean that he has his starting XI, at least preliminarily, already identified. The work with the team will also include “finding lines” (in my parlance keeping your shape in your formation) and working on a high press. In a nutshell, he is taking a building block approach to getting the team to play in his preferred high-pressing style.
