Racing 3 Monterrey 1 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Elizabeth Shaw
In the end Racing fairly easily handled Rayadas after a slow start. The goal in the group stage of this competition is to maximize points and goal difference, so job mostly done.
Stop me if you've heard this one before, but Racing got off to a slow start. When asked about it, Bev who is ever the optimist in her public facing comments about the team, commented that she felt like there were shifts in momentum, not necessarily a slow start. That's definitely one way to look at it. Let's be honest here. The 2nd half showed us that Racing was completely capable of bossing the match. They simply weren't organized enough to do so in the first 30 minutes. Bev also mentioned that the particular focus this week in practice was on counter pressing. You have to say that Racing did look good in their counter press in the 2nd half, but there were moments in the first where they weren't as coordinated in their pressing. I think Racing is still in the phase of their system with Beth where they are thinking too much. Counter pressing hasn't become second nature yet. Bev still has to call out to the players when to press too often. A tweak at half meant that Racing were much more fluid in their style in the 2nd half.
When the match opened, it looked like Rayadas identified Sears and DeMelo as Racing's “danger women” and doubled both frequently. It was slightly ironic that both were involved in all 3 goals, but not in their typical ways. Sears scored from being in the right place at the right time, and DeMelo assisted twice by making the right pass. On Fischer's goal, Rayadas kind of lost track of Sav and to her credit, she took only a single touch to find Kayla. It's not the typical thing we see from Sav and I wish we would see more of it. On Ary's goal, I think the set piece benefited by Wright starting it centrally, then getting it out to DeMelo wide so she could deliver the ball into the box at a better angle. Let me also point out that the defending by Monterrey on both of those goals was atrocious.
Jordyn Bloomer proved herself to be a very capable shot stopper. It is quite a jolt to see someone other than Katie in the goal, and you don't quite appreciate her physical presence in goal until you see someone else out there. I hope that we continue to see Bloomer out there for the next couple of matches. I think she would be better evaluated against an NWSL opponent and I don't think one match is a fair evaluation period. Surely Orlando and North Carolina would put her under much more pressure in the build up which is where we need more match film on her.
