Racing 1 (4) Courage 1 (5) Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
It was a much better performance than Racing has put in recently. Unfortunately, they couldn’t come away with all three points. Spot kick shootouts are just so random that I personally don’t read anything into those, but an extra point would have been handy.
Racing started the match by not allowing the Courage a touch in their attacking half for the first 5 minutes. I made special note of this because I had in my head the way I would set up against them and this matched the strategy that I would employ. I think when you are playing a possession-oriented team that one way to play against them is to keep them in their own half regardless of who has possession. This allowed Racing to get off to a quick start and that momentum carried all the way through the first half and Racing pretty much controlled things. Of course, they have done that before, so the second half was the key. Racing was not a good in the first part of the second half, but they weren’t bad. Pickett scored on a fortunate deflection, but the build-up in attack was good enough that the Courage shouldn’t complain. Racing had a few good chances to put the match away, but they didn’t. The Courage equalized late and that was that.
The issue with Racing for quite a long time has been protecting a lead when they get one. Last night was a case in point of this weakness. Based on the number of chances that Racing got, you would have to say that the counterattack was decent. What Racing has never been good at is '“counter control”. It seemed as if every time that Racing won the ball back from the Courage, they either made a flailing clearance, or immediately tried to start a counterattack. What was needed was a call back to the first five minutes. Possess the ball long enough to settle it in your own half, then try to pen your opponent in. There is obviously a risk to this too, but when Racing has done this in the past, it has worked out better than sitting in deep and getting repeatedly pounded with shots. Racing’s inability to become collectively composed in high stress situations has been their downfall way too often.
Here are a couple of Lauren Milliet related items. First, she conceded that there was no contact on the penalty/simulation decision in the first half. When I asked her about it after the match, she essentially said “what else am I supposed to do when a player sticks a leg out in that situation?” That is a fair point. Counterpoint: just about every other yellow card I have seen giving for simulation/diving looked almost exactly like what I saw Lauren do last night. Only Lo knows if she would have fallen the same way at midfield versus how she did in the box. Ultimately it didn’t matter, so the judgement call can remain just that and everyone can move on. The certain thing is that it absolutely wasn’t a penalty. Second, Lauren Milliet just might be Wolverine in a full adamantium skeleton. It seems like that at least once every other match she takes a brutal hit, pops back up and is never worse for wear. However, last night was the most scared I have ever been that for once she might not just get up. The brutal foul wasn’t a red card, but it was what several people call an orange card. The contact was brutal, but not quite in the red card territory. She was in visible pain for minutes. If soccer is ever to implement a penalty box type system like hockey, this one would have to be in the “5-minute major” category.
