Racing 2 Reign 3 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy NWSL LLC
Racing wasted too many good chances to put the match away and ultimately paid for it on Saturday evening against the Reign. Several old issues popped up, but it is hard to say that Racing did not have some good moments.
Let’s get the officiating out of the way first. I thought it was terrible, but not always one-sided. In real time, I thought the decisions leading to the free kick on the Reign’s second and the corner on the Reign’s third were incorrect. Since a full match replay isn’t available yet, I can’t go back and reassess. I will say that I don’t recall a Racing crowd ever being more upset with the calls during a match. There have been other matches where it was probably equal or close to it, but this was a very poor officiating performance. I think the thing that bothers me most is that there never seems to be any real consequences for poor officiating performances, or if there are the transparency is lacking. In every sport, I just want to know that there are consequences when the officials have a poor match. It wasn’t completely one-sided. Personally, I am not sure Jae Howell’s goal should have been ruled out. You have to think that VAR took a look and there was some contact, but I don’t think it was enough to rule the goal out. Again, since the full match is not available yet, I can’t challenge my initial view.
In full context of what was said above, Racing’s players still have got to stop putting themselves in situations where officiating becomes part of the narrative. Jean gave up a stone-cold penalty. Ji’s free kick goal was a stunner, but Racing had done such a good job in the first half keeping the Reign from getting into decent spots that letting the Reign get back into the match was an unforced error. I am not sure what Beckie is doing on the near post on the Reign’s third. Her presence ultimately meant that Lund had no time to react to the ball. It is difficult to say that any of the Reign’s goal were unfair in their execution, so the play leading up to them must shoulder the blame. All 5 goals in this match started from a dead ball. When you don’t score from open play, you really are stuck with the result.
The good news which may seem counterintuitive is that Racing has experienced so many painful losses, that they should be pretty good at shaking them off by now. The bad news is that I cannot remember a home match where the players looked so defeated afterwards. Many of them sat wordlessly on the pitch while the fireworks when off. I believe that they will recover to fight another day, but if they do start to slide out of playoff contention you would have to identify this match as the starting point.
I may come back to this match at some point once the full replay is available. For now, I think it is best to be brief and move on.
