Reign v RLFC -1
I will start off with one bit of excellent news and that is that Lauren Milliet is back to “full participation” in training. Note that this is different than “full fitness” although with Lo, that seems to not take very long. She had been practicing in drills for some time and was working on her fitness on the side pretty much since she sustained her injury, so I figure it is just a matter of time before she is fully available. Nobody works harder than she does. I had heard some buzz that she was pushing herself to be ready for the “end of the season” which I took to mean the last match or two. It appears that she could be ready much sooner. One potential wrench in those plans is that Racing will be staying on the west coast after the Seattle match since there is a short window between Sunday’s 8pm EDT kickoff in Seattle and the Friday 10pm EDT kickoff in Utah. If Milliet isn’t ready for Seattle, I see no need for her to make the trip.
Racing has only ever beaten Seattle once (Semi-final of the 2023 Challenge Cup) but has drawn them 6 times. This feels like a chance to get all three points. Seattle’s form has been rather unimpressive, but they do tend like to “win ugly” from time to time (see the win in Louisville earlier this season). That match was a clinic in not finishing their chances by Racing. Finishing is the next stage for this team (matches and chances).
There are a couple of things that I think could be logical contributors to Racing’s lack of finishing matches. First, is that recently they have been short on match-killing subs. Balcer keeps getting used, but she is not a possession-oriented striker and is consistently put into situations where she is not asked to play to her strengths. Another available midfielder or defender would be better. However, Racing is starting to get some options healthy. Maddie Pokorny would be fantastic in a 60/70th minute sub role and she is practicing but hasn’t made a squad yet. The second and more subtle factor is that I think pressing teams fade past the 80th minute. Racing keeps giving up last minute goals and in the match they didn’t (San Diego) they did give the Wave a few corners and they couldn’t convert.
That is what make finishing chances so vital. Listening to BTRD this week, Kaitlyn Whiteside echoed a point that I have made plenty of times. Your best striker can’t be so one-dimensionally one-footed. At least not when your other attackers don’t score all that much. Set pieces and corners are great weapons, but sometimes they disguise the fact that a team can’t really score as often as they need to during open play. One of the things I track is goals scored from what I classify as “sustained possession”. What I mean by that is the team has the ball and has passed the transition phase of play and the goal is scored from open play. It is the “breaking down your opponent” portion of goals. Last season Racing scored 37% of their 43 goals this way. This season they have scored 19% of their 27 goals this way. What is better for Racing this season is their dead ball goals (41% of all goals in 2025 and 26% of all goals in 2024). One concerning thing about that fact is that Carm Moscato was the architect of Racing’s set piece success and she isn’t around any longer. The point is that the finishing of chances has to be better than it has been.
