Racing 2 Courage 1 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
Racing fought hard and came away with all 3 points on a humid night at Lynn. By keeping their composure and maintaining their belief, they took full advantage of some costly errors by the Courage.
The outcome dictates the narrative. It is pure and simple. What in the moment might look like a lack of urgency, with a favorable outcome can be later explained as level-headed composure. Conversely, constant pressing may look like brave ambition in real time but turn out to be foolish risk-taking when you end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard. With Racing on the right side of the scoreline on Saturday, I will take my analysis where the outcome dictates. However, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t at least point out that this match could very easily have yielded no points but for a couple of Courage errors.
Last’s night’s match was a reminder that the aggressors don’t always win. In fact, I personally found it deeply, deeply rewarding to find that Racing’s composure is what won them the match especially when it had failed them so many times before. As I said with last week performance, I don’t think this is Racing’s magic recipe for 3 points, but in reality, there is no magic recipe. What is apparent is that the experience that Racing added recently has had a calming effect on some of their nervier moments. Two short matches ago against Bay, Racing seemed unable to stem the momentum of an opponent in the ascendancy. Last night, Racing held the Courage at bay for just about the entire match. One of the biggest differences in this Racing performance against Courage is that while Racing conceded possession they didn’t concede control. Several times in the match Racing won possession in their own half, but calmly strung some passes together instead of just kicking it away. This is what I refer to as counter possession, and that aspect of the match was really good for Racing. Racing outshot the Courage, and the Courage only had 2 shots on target. It was the quintessential example of possessing the ball without doing much with it for the Courage. Racing was able to stay in the match because while they defended for large parts of it, only the last few minutes of stoppage had anything remotely close to the kind of energy-draining “desperate defending” that had plagued them in matches earlier in the season. This may be the best game management result of the season.
There will be errors in every match, so the best thing that Racing did last night was to make sure that they capitalized on them. The terrible back pass by Rauch would have been egregious enough for me to give her a 4 rating if I rated the opposition players in my player ratings posts. Weatherholt probably gets away with a handball offense if it hits her right arm and not her left. However, Racing still had to finish off both errors. With Sears on the right side, she had the composure to take the ball past the keeper with her right foot and finish with her left into an empty net. It’s maybe not the same level of composure if it happens with her on the left. Strikers should be your penalty takers and now that Racing has a pure and experienced striker, Balcer confidently finished off the penalty. I think Racing was somewhat fortunate to have a player that wasn’t carrying the burden of Racing’s history with North Carolina take the penalty. Nadia Nadim has been on the only other penalty taker for Racing that made me feel as confident when she stepped up to the spot.
For the first-time in Racing’s history, I feel like I would define them as a “well coached” team. It took time for this coaching staff to gel completely with the players, but I feel like plans are being executed better than they ever have before. I may not always agree with them, but that isn’t important. Give me a well-executed plan I don’t fully believe in over a poorly executed one I agree with any day. Bev admitted that there are still some things that aren’t being fully executed, but I think that is more of a when vs. if scenario now. Execution is a shared burden, so all sides deserve the credit. The team needs to finish the job, so my opinion could shift again with more evidence, but as of now this looks like a playoff team.
