RLFC v NCC Matchday -1

Photo by Elizabeth Shaw

Opening matches are always unique. Everyone, including coaches, players and fans never quite know what to expect. Coaches are never going to let you know too much about what they have planned, but it seems to be especially relevant for the first match of the season. Coach Yanez spoke about being prepared to the point of almost being over prepared for the season opener on Saturday, since no team has any game footage on their opponents yet. The change that I really appreciate compared to the first couple of seasons at Racing is that even if we don’t know how the team has performed in the preseason, we know that they have faced NWSL competition in the warmup (in Racing’s case their opponents were Washington, Kansas City and Chicago. Like everyone, I am mostly curious as to how Racing might line up on Saturday. In particular, I am interested in the defense. I hesitate to even say “back 4” because while I assume that to be the case, I simply do not know.

Captain Arin Wright was a little more upfront (without being transparent). I inferred (she didn’t explicitly state but I follow Sutton’s Law for most situations) that the back line will be a back four with experienced personnel. One thing that she did comment on that took me a little off guard in its frankness, was that she discussed with her teammates that they have to be okay with not having the majority of possession on Saturday. I think that is something that anyone who has seen Sean Nahas’ Courage play would rightly assume. One thing that I have been tangentially critical about toward Racing is their sometimes bizarre lack of self-awareness. I think admitting that you don’t expect to win the match by out possessing the Courage is a nice step forward.

I expect teams to key in on Emma Sears. When I asked her about it, she appeared to be expecting it as well. “I do now think people know who I am which definitely presents different challenges,” Sears said but continued on to say that she will continue to play to her strengths, which is all that any of us can do. I expect to pay a little bit of extra attention to Sears in this first match, unless Bev comes up with some completely unexpected formation or lineup. In previous years, the mantra has probably been that Racing will go as far as DeMelo carries them. I think that ended up being true, for better or for worse. Maybe with an additional focal point for opponents (in Sears), DeMelo can recover some of her form from previous seasons.