Racing v Wave Pre Match Thoughts
Have I mentioned before how much I hate international breaks?
Anyway, this time it likely helped Racing out quite a bit. Excluding the announced SEI to Elli Pikkujämsä and the shorter-term injury Kirsten Wright, Racing is getting closer to having a full complement of players available. Against Portland, Racing didn’t even have enough healthy players to fill out a full bench. Without getting into specifics, let’s just say that the availability report should be much rosier for Racing. For the reigning Shield champions the Wave, their availability report could be longer with players returning from international duty or deciding that they have better things to do than be with their teammates in Louisville. The other good news is that we can finally say good riddance to this frankly dreadful week of weather and look forward to a nice evening on Saturday.
On the pitch, Racing simply has to pull out a win or two in the next few matches. The team definitely hasn’t put together a solid 90 minutes yet, and one could argue that they really haven’t put in much more than a solid 45. Carson Pickett, Marisa DiGrande, and Bev Yanez all talked about the competition for minutes on the squad (partly because I asked them directly about it). Actually, Carson brought up that nobody is promised minutes. Personally, I would like to see DiGrande get more minutes, especially if Racing is in the lead again. Holding a lead is a learned skill and other than the back line, Racing still has a lot of players that don’t have whole lot of experience winning in this league. Carson talked about the responsibility of the back line when it comes to protecting a lead, but also said that protecting a lead is difficult when the back line gets pinned in. It’s okay to defend with a lead and its even okay to defend deep with a lead, but you have to be super organized and super composed. I haven’t seen Racing demonstrate much defensive organization outside of the back line and I definitely haven’t seen much composure yet this season. The other school of thought is to try to make it 4-0 once you get up 2-0, but let’s not kid ourselves about that. The margins are too fine in this league for teams to win many matches 4-0 so you are likely going to have to learn to get wins in close matches.
I have to say that watching practice on Friday that Bev is coaching her heart out. I still have full confidence in her abilities. However, I was once in my twenties and let’s just say that I am a better listener now than I was then. I think the message that is being communicated is the right message. Bev told the media on Friday that she spent the long plane ride home from Portland “reframing” the performance. Even with the disappointing result, there were positives in her mind and if you treat learning as a process, then the mistakes that cost them the win are part of that process. The next step will be to learn the same lessons while getting the full 3 points.
One final note: I asked Bev about Millie Clegg since it was my first chance to see her fully participate in practice. One of the things she said was that she was always smiling. That’s a good sign, but I think it might be some time before we get to see her on the pitch. Racing’s attacking depth looks pretty good, so I personally think we could see her during the Olympic break, but that isn’t a given. That could change, but for now I don’t think there is any real need to rush her development.
