Racing v OL Reign Preview
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
It’s tough to know who exactly will be on the pitch when Racing face the OL Reign on Tuesday night at 8 PM at Lynn Family Stadium. It could be Racing’s last chance to make a push for the playoffs, however unlikely that seems. In addition, the OL Reign will be flying in from a match in LA on Saturday, and back home for another match next Saturday so some players may not make the trip. Unlike Racing, the Reign have a rather large squad and are fully capable or rotating without losing too much quality. I am looking forward to (finally) seeing Megan Rapinoe and Kim Little, so that pretty much guarantees their absences. Little will be returning to Arsenal prior to August 15th, and she will definitely not want to return overworked. Rapinoe served a red card suspension against Angel City, so she might be slightly more likely to appear. Heath could get a start, but hasn’t played 90 minutes since the Olympics and hasn’t played 90 minutes for her club since December 2020. Tziarra King king was the only Reign started subbed off early against Angel City, so there is the possibility that players like Quinn, Fishlock, Lavelle, Hiatt, Cook, Barnes, or Huerta could stay back in Washington.
As for Racing, it would seem prudent to rotate Ekic and Davis into the squad, and Martin and Lester seem likely but beyond those 4 it’s tough to imagine Coach Björkegren trusting any other player for such an “important” match. If we see Racing get anything other than an full 3 points, last place seems like their final destination. Personally, I think you get pretty reliable quality from the first 4 or 5 picks in the NWSL College Draft and more of a mixed bag past that point, so ending up with the 1st or 2nd pick in next year’s draft is more desirable in my opinion than finishing in 7th place. I don’t think Racing will “tank”. I don’t think they have to. Looking up at the table it’s hard to imagine Racing overtaking any teams other than Orlando and/or Gotham based on their current form. North Carolina has 3 matches in hand on Racing and they seem capable of getting 3 points from those matches which would see them jump Racing. Racing’s best ever run of form in 3 matches is 7 points out of 9, and that wouldn’t take them into 6th place even if no other matches were played. It’s time to start thinking about next year. My thought would be to get your younger players that aren’t seeing much time some minutes. Racing chose not to do this last year and ran out the season with many players who are no longer here. Racing needs to figure out which of their younger squad players are going to be here next year (Davis/Ekic/Malham/Goins) and get those players NWSL minutes now. Maybe their current best XI is the lineup that they are counting on for next year. Not to be too harsh but that lineup, while playing well in stretches, hasn’t exactly set the league on fire. The issue is that I think the area in most need of an upgrade (defense) doesn’t exactly have a ton of young talent waiting on the bench. I am almost certain that Racing’s back line will look different next year, but that will take free agency and a draft class to solve. McDonald and especially Nadim will want to play as many minutes as possible, but that may not be what is best for the team at this point. I think a nice compromise would be to spend the rest of the season rotating the group of McDonald/Nadim/Ekic/Davis/Goins by giving each player 60 minutes on and 30 minutes off in each match. There is also no reason for DeMelo, Howell, and Milliet to continue to start every single match. Now is the time to experiment a bit and see how different midfield combinations play together. In defense, you may be stuck a bit, but Holloway should be given at least one more look and a Murray/Lester CB combo should be given at least one run out. This would be my pragmatic approach, but then again is there anything in the Soccer Holdings’ philosophy that screams “pragmatism” to you? Frankly that would be a terrible club motto anyway. It seems like Racing’s management is in love with “tweaking” the roster, so why not “tweak” the lineups with the players who are still here? The only thing you have to lose is matches, and Racing have done plenty of that in their short lifetime.
