Red Stars 2 - Racing 1 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy USA Today Sports Images
Racings suffered a tough season opening loss on Saturday evening/night in Chicago (well not IN Chicago, near Chicago). The Red Stars were down several key players, although they still have plenty of talent (maybe personal favorite Arin Wright will don a Racing Kit one day), so you would have liked to see Racing seize the opportunity to get points on the road. In the end, they couldn’t, mainly down to a couple of glaring lapses in concentration.
Let’s start off with the alarming trend of Racing getting off to a slow start. I hope we never again see a worse minute of football than Racing put together to start the match. An errant pass from Lester to Fox went straight out for a throw. The throw led to the above-mentioned Wright getting into too much open space on the left side and taking a very dangerous shot that required an excellent save from Lund. Then Racing looked asleep on the ensuing corner and were down 1-0 within a minute. If you are a viewer of Premier League football at all, surely you have heard a former defender bemoaning “Zonal Marking” on corners. Hardly any team “man marks” their opponents any more on corners, but Racing’s defense last night was an indictment on zonal marking. Stevens was allowed to move freely in the box and credit to her, scored an excellent header. Bonner let Stevens move in front of her too easily and Racing trailed before a minute has passed. As well as Racing played the remainder of the match, that one minute let down ended up being crucial.
On the second Chicago goal, Racing’s naivety caused them to be in trouble again. Olofsson committed a foul and instead of standing over the ball or kicking it a few yards away (something that I would do even in a meaningless pick-up game) she turned to argue with the official and left the ball unattended for a quick restart. A more veteran player probably would have grabbed the ball off the ground and then went to debate their case with the official. Long story short, if you are going to complain to the official, you better take every opportunity afforded you to stop play. I like to think of myself as a nice guy, but on the pitch I’m a jerk. I knock over anyone smaller than me and I never give the ball directly to an opposing player, frequently kicking it 5 yards away just to prevent them from getting an advantage. In my head it’s Competitiveness 101, but I’ve seen Racing play “nice” over their first couple of seasons and it has cost them goals. Nice is never going to score a goal for you.
In much happier news, Racing dominated the rest of the match. If they continue to play this way, the points will come. In some ways Chicago is the perfect opponent for Racing to show off their high pressing style as the Red Stars want to play out from the back. As many educated pundits (a rare sight on an NWSL broadcast) will say however, “goals change matches”. That isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, but the meaning behind it is that the history of a match prior to each goal often becomes irrelevant as the next goal is scored. Racing was the better team when they were behind, after they tied the score, and after they trailed again. However, in the score line it didn’t matter. It’s sometimes difficult to tell if the possession numbers are more of an indication of when the goals were scored vs. the actual control of the match. The good news is that if Racing controls most of their matches like this, they will win their fair share. They just have to stop falling behind so early. I truly believed that Racing dictated the match, but it’s tough to tell how much Chicago let them do so. Regardless, you would always rather control the match vs. having it dictated to you.
Emily Fox finally scored her first goal, and perhaps most impressive was her selfishness in scoring it. Sometimes Emily looks for the pass over the shot and did so earlier in this match. On her goal she correctly assessed herself as the best option, something I think maybe she hasn’t done in the past. I hope she continues to be selfish and shoot more.
I don’t think Coach Björkegren yet knows his best XI, but if Ekic keeps playing like she did in the 60 or so minutes she got on Saturday night, he will be hard-pressed not to start her more. She probably needs to be a little more clinical in her finishing, but you can see her confidence growing.
Like I said in my Player Rating post, Sav DeMelo is really starting to look like the player Racing assumed they would be getting in a fourth overall pick. Most surprising to me has been her flexibility. She almost opened her account too, but was cruelly denied by the post. For me, she has been the biggest early season positive surprise.
