Racing v Angel City -1
Hot off of being named to the NWSL Best XI for August, Sears and Milliet face an Angel City side finally getting healthy and coming off of a five-goal performance against Boston. While Boston is Boston, a healthy Angel City is always a daunting challenge. In particular, Angel City’s wing defenders will be different for the rematch against Racing, if they stick with the same eleven as they did against Boston.
For Racing, the focus could go one of two ways: try scoring four goals or try to keep a clean sheet. Both seem improbable although Racing has scored four goals in a match this season. Obviously “score four goals” isn’t a plan, but all indications are that Racing is going to have to get points via shootouts. The best plan for Racing will be to try to take the air out of the ball in the first half and win a 45-minute match. If the first half is exciting, that is likely bad news for Racing regardless of the scoreline.
Historically, it could be argued that Angel City is Racing’s favorite opponent. They hold a 5-2-2 record against them (it doesn’t matter here, but the middle 2 is the number of draws and I list things win-draw-loss and not win-loss-draw like some psychopath). There have been some classics. This one feels like Angel City, once again, has more to play for and therefore, once again, Racing might like to play spoiler. My favorite match in this series is probably still the one in the video below, especially because Angel City scored first and the crowd went nuts.
There’s nothing quite like the sound of the air being sucked out of the stadium in an important match like that one. The names Davis, Chidiac, and Ekic were on the scoresheet for Racing. The assists came from Howell and Fox. Milliet won the penalty. You’re welcome for the trip down memory lane and the reminder that there has been some really good talent on Racing at times, but there has never been enough of it at once. What hasn’t changed unfortunately is that the back line that Racing put out for that match (excluding Fox) was extremely pedestrian. I would definitely take Racing’s current back line and isn’t that a sad indictment on how bad things have always been.
The central defense has always been Racing’s biggest issue, and the main problem is that Racing has never had a really good player in that position in their prime. Bonner was 30 when she signed for Racing, Erceg was 33 and Wright 31. It’s the danger of signing “names” past their prime. As a policy for Racing moving forward, I wouldn’t sign any expected starter that was older than 27, especially in defense. There are plenty of good defenders in the league over 27, but they are expensive and not likely to sign more than one contract for Racing.
