Racing v C. F. Monterrey Pre Match Thoughts
Racing will play it’s first match in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup on Saturday at 8pm against Liga MX team Rayadas de Monterrey. The “Striped Ones” were the champions of the Clausura section of the Liga MX season. Racing's group (E) is rounded out with Orlando and North Carolina, so the club faces a challenging group stage. The rules for the tournament can be found on the “Rules and Policies” section of the official NWSL website if you want to know more. Here are some items of specific interest, followed by my usual thoughts:
There are 5 groups, but only the 4 group winners with most points advance to the knockout stage. The tiebreaker procedure is the usual type of thing (goal difference, goals scored, then discipline).
The unique-ish (but fairly common for summer club tournaments) feature is that draws award each team a point, but there will be a penalty shootout after full time to award one additional point to the shootout winner. The usual 3 points for a win still applies.
Kayla Fischer may want to note that two yellow card offenses during the first two matches will result in a suspension for the last group match, but all cards will be wiped for the knockout stage.
There will still be a limit of 5 subs, with the standard concussion protocols in place. The minimum game day roster size is 18 with a max of 20. I am fairly certain that for NWSL teams, the player must be under an NWSL contract but with some teams sending off 7 players I think they could appeal to add a non-rostered player (it isn’t clear in the stated rules).
It's tough to know how Racing plan to use these 3 games other than what was presented at face value. The general feeling that I got was that the plan was to continue to hone the themes and skills that have been part of the system, but maybe to focus more on the specific execution of the details. Clear as mud? When pressed (by me even though I should know better by now), Bev gave no indication of whether or not we might see some players that we haven't seen much of to date. I remain ambivalent on whether or not it would be good to rotate in some new players. It's not as if the regulars are setting the world afire, so figuring out a better rhythm might be the way to go. Regardless, it feels like previous years in that the back end of the roster is just along for the ride.
