Racing v Bay -1

Photo by Elzabeth Shaw

The photo above is from a happier time, when Racing clinched a playoff spot against Bay. This time against Bay, it is tough to say what Racing is playing for exactly. What are the stakes? First things first, Racing have to put in a performance that a) the team can be legitimately proud of (regardless of what coach-speak Bev throws at us about that atrocity in Portland) and b) the fans can take solace in to give us some hope. This team isn’t making the playoffs. That much is clear. It will be quite some time before they are mathematically eliminated, but they simply are not a good team at the moment. Therefore, they have to put in a respectable performance in front of whatever fans show up on Friday.

Much of their ability to do that lies with the availability of Flint and Wright. Wright is needed for her leadership at a minimum. When Flint doesn’t start, Racing win probability plummets so low its undetectable. I will reiterate my comments from the recap of the last match: any turn around has to start with the defense. Unlike others, I am not sure that Racing has an effort problem. I am certain they have a talent problem at the moment, but that gap is hopefully less obvious against Bay. I would still like to see the formation change at some point, but that isn’t likely to happen.

When I spoke to Bev today about team selection, she shared that so many things go into selecting the Starting XI, that sometimes it is even hard for players to understand why they are in the squad, starting lineup, or left out completely. It’s hard to pinpoint any single Racing player that should be dropped at the moment, but it is equally as hard to look up and down the lineup and consider anyone undroppable

It is likely to be a long rest of the season, so one may struggle to find much to look forward to. I say the best thing to do is to take things one match at a time, just as the players and technical staff will, and enjoy the moments if not the results.