Racing 1 Spirit 2 Post Match Thoughts
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While Racing fought hard in the second half to try to find an equalizer, the early mistakes doomed them and now there should be a real urgency to turn things around. The overall health of the team is concerning to me, but the players who are fit should be doing more to get results.
For the first time this season, I think Bev got things wrong. Coach Björkegren was constantly criticized (although not necessarily by me) for sticking too long with his starters. I think at least one of the following things are true: 1) while Racing are putting 9 players on the bench, not all of them are actually ready to go into a match, 2) Bev got caught up in the momentum of Racing’s first 15 of the second half and couldn't bring herself to pull some of the starters for subs, and/or 3) she made the correct decision to leave on the players she did, but it wasn't enough. I would have wagered heavily that there was no way that Howell or Clegg were getting on the pitch on Friday. After the match when she was asked about Kanu, she deflected the question to basically say that she was happy with the players on the pitch. I believe Pickett and Sears were gassed by the 85th minute and subbing in either Kanu or Goins for Sears and Pokorny for Pickett would have been prudent. Let's just say that in my opinion transparency with the media isn't one of Bev's top concerns, so oftentimes we are left to speculate on things. Personally, I think she got too caught up in the match and missed her window for subs. After the 80th minute passes, you start to worry if the subs you make can get up to match speed quickly enough to make a difference. I am starting to get a rather unpleasant feeling of déjà vu in that while there are nominally 20 players on the matchday squad, the number who are healthy AND trusted is much lower. Björkegren ran last year’s team into the ground by August because he didn’t trust his squad. At this rate, I think we could see a repeat if some players don't get back to full fitness soon.
Missed penalty aside, this was DeMelo’s most complete game in a long while. She was everywhere on the pitch, especially in the 2nd half. We all know that she is an excellent free kick taker, so seeing one go close and another go in shouldn't have surprised anyone. For me it was her on the ball movement that seemed to be back to her early season form from last season. She looked confident and controlled. Now, she is never going to be my top choice to take penalties. Her penalty in this match was pretty poor and it isn't the first time she has taken a bad one. Unfortunately, I don't have a suggestion for who should take over, and that is the real problem. If I am being honest, I thought the penalty was soft, so I won't dwell on the miss too much.
Lund has had some nervy moments and questionable decisions this year. Additionally, she has gone down for treatment at least of couple of times in matches. Whether it is a physical or mental issue with her, she definitely hasn’t been at the top of her game. She wasn’t at fault for the first goal and made a fine save just before the second one, but could have done better on the ball that Milliet inadvertently put in. She had a bizarre miskick in the first half that she just got away with, and she made a frankly terrible pass to Erceg in 2nd half stoppage time that I am still not sure why Ratcliffe didn’t at least attempt to put the ball into the empty net. Lund’s reputation is that she is supposed to be good with her feet, but this season she has over relied on them, and they have oftentimes let her down. Racing’s margin of error for victory isn’t big enough to overcome too many goalkeeping mistakes.
Speaking of mistakes, this match reminded me of error-prone days that I had hoped had passed. Off the top of my head, you had 2 bad touches from Lund, an own goal from Milliet, a missed penalty for DeMelo, but maybe the most egregious one was not marking Bethune on the corner from which she scored. DeMelo tried to close he down, but there is no way she should have been given that much space to begin with. DeMelo did better marking her on the next corner, but it makes me wonder if it was a missed assignment on the first one.
