Racing v Spirit Pre Match Thoughts
Photo Courtesy of David Mucker
The Washington Spirit (donning their stupid and pointless kits) return to Lynn Family stadium to face Racing on Friday evening. The Spirit are almost always good value for the money and play in entertaining football matches. After beating Racing 3 out of 4 times in Louisville’s first season (with a memorable win from Racing on Ekic's super strike thrown in) there has been nothing to separate the teams. The script has typically been the Spirit starting strong and Racing fighting back to equalize (with the sole exception of a Nadim opener canceled out by a Hatch equalizer). The moral of the story is that you are never really out of match when facing Washington.
The Spirit this season are kind of the anti-Racing. They have zero draws and score more and concede more than Racing. I like their attitude of “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”. This philosophy has put Washington in the top 4 so far. Racing, to me at least, tend to go with a “safety first” approach, especially when they get a lead. Both teams are coming off of a loss, so both will be looking to avoid a second straight one. It will be interesting to see how each team approaches the first 10 to 15 minutes in this match.
Howell and DeMelo could be available, but we likely won't know for sure until the lineups are announced. Borges seems further away from returning. For the first time in a while, I find myself struggling to pick out Racing’s best XI, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, some of that is down to not being able to evaluate players and connections due to injuries. I have a hunch that it is going to be “one of those years” where each match will have a key player or two who are unavailable (this is above and beyond Elli P's SEI). Racing's depth has held up so far, but I don't think anyone wants to see it stretched further.
In her media availability on Wednesday, Bev talked about not dwelling on the loss or going down “a very dark rabbit hole” to analyze what exactly went wrong. In my opinion, one of Bev's key strengths is maintaining a positive attitude. Let's hope that translates to the players. Historically, Racing is prone to long bouts of malaise when the results start to not go their way. Friday will be a good test for her and the team.
