Louisville v San Diego Pre Match Thoughts
An important player sits in the distance…close enough to see, but still so far away.
San Diego once again comes to Louisville near the top of the league. While the rest of the league hasn’t had as much luck against of the Wave, Louisville definitely isn’t fazed by them. They picked up 4 points against the Wave in their inaugural season and didn’t let them score even once. Alex Morgan looked more like the Orlando Pride vintage of herself in the 45 minutes she played vs. Louisville last year, so it’s probably fair to say that Louisville hasn’t quite had to endure the full Wave experience yet. Louisville has another chance to show what they can do against a top team in the league and will need to put forward another tenacious effort like they had in the second half vs. the Spirit.
The next match will mark the halfway point of the season, and the important thing for Louisville will be to start to gain ground in their hunt for a playoff spot. They currently sit in 8th place and 4 points behind the Dash who are presently in 6th place. Louisville’s current goal differential is +1, which is good enough for 6th in the league, so if they can push that up to +4 or +5 by the end of the season you have to like their chances. However, they are encountering at relatively tough pair of home matches in the league since Gotham follows on June 18th.
Here are some quick tidbits:
Everyone who follows this club knows that they are a center forward away from being a really serious threat for a playoff push. You have to wonder if anyone who signs for the club will be better than Nadim. That probably isn’t a really important issue since Nadim is only signed for the remainder of this season, so Louisville will definitely be looking for her long-term replacement even when she returns to action (now projected to be July).
Ekic is on track to make the squad against Houston in the Challenge Cup on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see where see falls in the pecking order for attackers. I personally don’t think she jumps ahead of Monaghan and Kgatlana on the left. In the middle may be her best shot for minutes.
If all of the other teams ahead of Louisville in the table continue to amass points at the same rate, it will take a rate of 2.3 points/match to catch Houston for the final playoff spot. More likely based on history, 1.8 points/match would get them to 33 points and a decent shot. Their current rate is 1.1 points/match, so that shows the improvement needed to get where they want to be. The easiest way to 22 points is likely victories in 6 of their remaining 7 home matches and 4 points from their remaining 5 road matches.
