Thoughts on Racing's first road win
Courtesy ISI Photos
Congratulations to the team on their first road victory! With 3 games in seven days, I think only the very most optimist of Racing fans would have predicting taking six points out of nine. In consider myself fairly optimistic and I predicted 4 points, but I thought that might be a stretch. I think Coach Holly did a masterful job managing the rotation during this busy stretch. Giving Nagasato and McCaskill a bit of a break on Wednesday so they were rested for Chicago on Saturday turned out to be a masterstroke. I believe that that the Courage is the best team that Racing has faced so far, and Louisville doesn't seem to match up well against North Carolina. Although I'm sure Coach Holly wasn't conceding defeat, it was a chance to rest some players for a more winnable game on Saturday.
The game on Saturday started out similar to Racing’s two previous road losses. In the first half, Racing lost the possession battle 60% to 40%. The key difference was the number of shots on goal. There were only 3 shots that made it past a block, and only one of them was on goal. However one of those clearly had Betos beaten and hit the frame. Racing managed 5 shots that weren't blocked, scoring on one of those. Most people love a screamer belted from outside the box, and those goals are typically the ones that made it onto Twitter or onto a highlight video. Give me a goal that is created by effective ball movement above all else.
I loved the final two touches on that goal. Milliet places is perfectly to Kizer who can use her first touch to find Salmon, who uses her first touch to simply pass the ball inro the back corner of the net. No player in the history of football (soccer) is faster than the ball when it is played effectely. In fact, ball movement is my favorite thing when watching football. It's “proper football” played as a team endeavor.
The victory on Saturday truly was a team effort. For once, Betos didn't have to do more than her fair share, although she was great as usual. I write my player ratings before taking a look at the stat sheet, because I want the ratings not to be too influenced by statistics. I actually almost always trust numbers over what I see, but in a football match I find that they truly can be deceiving. The stats say that McCaskill only completed 59% of her passes. I have to believe that is correct, bit would never have guessed it being that low. What I do know is that I don't remember very many of them being a “bad” pass. Gemma Bonner registered a 57% successful pass rate, but many of her “unsuccessful” passes had to be clearances. Regardless, for me Yuki and Savannah were the clear players of the match. Yuki's positioning on the counter attack in the 56th minute was the key moment for me. It shows up in the stats as one of three fouls won by Yuki, but it was a massive moment in the game. Yuki positioned herself perfectly to receive a pass in stride and take off toward goal. Colaprico lost her head for a split second and grabbed Nagasato's jersey, earning a second yellow card. Shortly after, McCaskill whipped a nice ball into the box, which after a deflection or two found Yuki's feet for the second goal. Game over. The third goal was icing on the cake and a great finish from McCaskill, but the game was clearly over by then. Racing had a 58% to 48% possession advantage in the second half to bring the match total to almost an even split. After Ebony's miss in the 66th minute, Racing took the air out of the ball and professionally managed the remainder of the match.
I thought the entire team played well on Saturday. One minor nitpicky thing is that I thought Salmon was a bit too isolated at some points in the first half, so that's something to watch for in the future. Racing is back in action on Saturday for what I am sure will be a tough rematch against the Thorns.
