Racing 1 Red Stars 1 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
Racing battled back hard to take a point at home in Louisville last night, but honestly needed all 3 to keep any realistic Challenge Cup hopes alive. They could be eliminated as early as this afternoon depending on results from today’s matches. Regardless, based on the performance through 5 matches, I think we can safely say that this vintage of Racing Louisville will be a better vintage than last year. Last year I found myself applauding effort, if not results. This year the expectations are already starting to be raised and the effort will be understood as a given. Here are some items I noticed last night.
Hopefully the early goal conceded will be a lesson to the team. It wasn’t conceded on a comedy of errors like many of the goals from last year, but if year two and year one under Björkegren is about the details, the details let Racing down on the first goal. For Chicago, the goal really came from nothing. Fox secured an errant pass intended for Wright from Pugh. Emily does this so routinely that she likely didn’t sense any danger. She then put in a slightly errant pass that seemed to catch Howell off guard. The ultimate result of this what that the ball ended up with Mal Pugh out wide with Howell defending her. Thinking that Jae had the situation under control, Fox doesn’t quite know who to cover. This allows Pugh to get off a very speculative cross. The next time Lund sees a cross like this, I am sure she will position herself to tip the cross over the bar, but this time she palms it into play and right to Kawalski who slots it home. There were no glaring errors in the buildup, but just a little more concentration probably means a goal is prevented. It’s a general improvement rule that it is easier to go from bad to good than it is to go from good to great. Expect Racing to not have glaring errors, but to improve the details as they progress.
I really did feel like Racing was going to pull a goal back. I was hoping that they would score early enough to get a second and a win. In the end the draw was a fair result. Last year, Racing would get totally dominated on the stat line and have to hope and pray for a win or a draw most of the time. This match had a rather balanced stat line. As the season approaches, I think that a 40 to 50% points accumulation percentage is likely needed to place in the top 6. In the Challenge Cup as a sample, Racing has accumulated 6 points out of 15 which equates to 40%, which is right at the floor of what will be needed.
Emina’s goal last night was particularly well taken and I think the subs will be more likely to swing the results in the league season. There was a lot of discussion during the post match interviews about the changes that Coach Kim made to try to swing the match, which they ultimately did. I mentioned in my preview post that I don’t think that there will necessarily be a set Starting XI this season. I expect Ekic, Salmon and DeMelo to get their fair share of starts. When Alex Chidiac arrives, I think she moves into the starting rotation pretty quickly. This could ultimately limit some of Olofsson’s minutes, which would be a shame because I think she has played well. It’s a good problem to have, but there is always a tradeoff between accumulating minutes with the same XI vs. making sure every member of the squad is available if the need arises.
Depending on the realities that will be become apparent after today’s matches, Racing could conceivably send out an all-change lineup in Houston next Sunday at 6pm. I for one like to see other players get a chance in a competitive match, so if Racing is eliminated I would like to see as many changes as possible on Sunday.
