“Now so much waste”
Photo by Elizabeth Shaw
Match Haiku
Wright’s goal is too late.
Another flat performance.
Another match lost.
“Now so much waste”
“Don’t Stop” - The Stone Roses, 1989
Where’s the fire?
My patience is running thin for hearing about the fine margins. Guess what: the fine margins matter. At the top level, they matter more than anything because every team is talented to some league-minimum level. Every coach is capable. I get that some teams are naturally better than others, but right now Racing looks like a team that is okay with the current level of effort going into these matches. Therefore, they are going to have to figure out how to get the finer details better. I don’t know if this is changing the focus in practice (nobody seems to think this because I asked both Wright and Milliet point blank about it) or having the players working more on their own, but Racing is doomed to their current status in the table unless someone, somewhere does something different.
The truth of the matter is that this team is sloppy. They are sloppy in their passing, and sloppy in their effort at the moment. Maybe that is unfair, but does this team look to you like a team that believes they are giving their best? This is starting to look like the team that I assumed we were going to get last season. Janine Sonis was one of their better players last year, but doesn’t she look even better this year on a team that is full of hope and expectations? Racing is currently carrying the air of a team with low expectations. We are definitely getting those types of results.
Personally, I think any kind of turnaround has to start with this team being more precise all across the pitch. Their passing accuracy was better in this match statistically, but the NSWL ought to track a new stat call a “groaner”. I would define a “groaner” as any pass that makes a fan groan out loud at the degree of inaccuracy. Several times Racing makes passes so inaccurate that they should count in the passing accuracy denominator twice. Frequently these woefully inaccurate passes kill counterattacks or lead directly to opponent’s goals as they have in the last two matches. The Courage’s first goal was a first cousin to the first goal Racing allowed in Utah. The second goal was similar in that lost possession led to Feli Rauch being so hilariously open that no Racing player got to within 10 yards of her until she made an easy pass to Sanchez, who ultimately scored. Both of these goals greatly penalized Racing’s attacking formation where their wing backs press forward. A defense as statistically bad as Racing cannot afford to lose possession with their wing backs consistently 20 yards behind the counter.
I think the biggest concern is that Racing’s opponents no longer look at Racing as a difficult match anymore. In the middle to latter part of last season Racing was a real annoyance to teams. This season, I think most teams wait for Racing’s inevitable self-inflicted wound, which has consistently come. The biggest shock for me is that Portland didn’t have this figured out and let Racing back into the match that Racing won against them.
Thing I bought at ear X-tacy back in the day
(I would have loved to have been a music journalist in the 90s in England, but unfortunately, I lived here. Therefore, I will do a little retrospective music journalism to amuse myself. I will even try to tie it to Racing or soccer in general.)
Artist: XTC
Album: Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977-1992
Year: 1996
Format: CD
Store Location: 1534 Bardstown Road
This one’s a bit on the nose and that is exactly the point.
I had this stubborn resistance to buying an XTC album at a store named in their honor. The German language often has words for things that cannot be expressed in English, so I looked for a word that explained this feeling of resistance I had. I will describe it the best I can. I guess I would label it as shyness/nervousness at the possibility of having John Timmons at the counter when I bought it and having to make small talk, combined with having to admit that I knew nothing about XTC. By this point, he had to recognize me as the guy who always came in on Thursdays, bought import music magazines or newspapers or an import CD. I was predictable, like clockwork. I hated the idea of being so predictable as a 21-year-old.
Now, I wish I would have just done what I would do today: walk up and just ask him the best place to start if I was interested in XTC. I am sure he would have gladly told me. However, I was stubborn for no good reason. When this CD came out it seemed like a good place to start. Even then, I am sure that I was too embarrassed to buy an XTC CD in front of him and probably waited until he was busy with something else, so someone else would check me out at the register.
All this resistance did was just delay the joy that XTC ultimately brought me. “Generals and Majors” is still one of the only things I can play on guitar.
Sometimes we end up being stubborn for no reason or a worse reason: admitting that we don’t know where to start.
Post Match Moment of the Match
I don’t mind asking tough questions. This match was one of those times when I think I asked a few. As I alluded to earlier, I asked both Milliet and Wright if they thought the team was spending its limited practice time on the right things. They both answered in the affirmative which I obviously expected, but that question was really meant to gauge their reactions as much as the words themselves. I believed both of their answers, and I think they did too. It was just a quick pulse check to make sure the captain and vice-captain still seemed bought in, which they did.
Unfortunately, the field microphone didn’t really pick up the second question I asked Bev, to which she responded, “did you think we had the ball today?” I think I answered her “some of the time”. I phrased my question around possession, but my real question was about the level of precision when they do have it. She didn’t really answer that question other than to give some vague response that they needed to be better. My last question was if having two goalkeepers on the bench was because Bloomer was carrying some sort of known issue. The reason I asked that is that when Bloomer exited, her foot was pretty heavily taped, but that is not unusual. The answer was that they had two keepers on the bench to fill out the squad. We won’t adjudicate that again because you already know my feelings on that issue.
The Taylor Flint Honorary Yellow Card of the Match
Quincy McMahon got the only yellow card for Racing:
8th Minute: Q. McMahon, Foul - Tactical Foul
It was pretty cut and dry and she did a decent job of managing the rest of the match especially because she was nowhere near the ball on the two counters from which North Carolina scored. On the first goal was she was guilty of the bad pass that led to the break, so there was no chance of her being involved in the defending effort on that one.
The Louisville (Draft?) Kings Sports Betting Corner
We’ll keep it straightforward on this one.
Racing accumulated points going in the June break: Over/Under 9.5
I say take the under.
“How we’ll be teased”
Racing is another bad result away from me starting to openly advocate to see the younger talent start to get some real minutes. I don’t think we yet know how good players like McKeen, Lardner, White, et al. actually are. I would like to find out. I know the strength and limitations of the current starters. It’s too early to throw the towel in, but it’s also not too early to see if some infusion of youth here and there might inject some much-needed energy. The club likes Gacioch as an on-ball defender, so she needs minutes. The concern for me is that the new players aren’t forcing themself into the squad. Some of that could be Bev trusting her starters. Some of that could be that they simply aren’t ready. Either way, it doesn’t seem like there is much competition for spots and there have been enough injuries for a player like Morris to impose herself into the Starting XI, but she has not done it.
Racing seemed tantalizingly close to something last season. This season? Not so much. They like to pretend that they are the victim of fine margins. I think they are just getting outplayed and possibly outmaneuvered. I am also sure that no real help is coming in terms of a mid-season talent infusion, so Racing is going to have to figure it out with this group.
