Spirit 4 Racing 1 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy David Mucker
At this moment Racing just doesn't look like a very good team. Typically when you aren't a good team, your opponent merely has to wait and pounce on your mistakes, which the Spirit did with Ruthless efficiency.
I really did hold out hope that the moves in the summer transfer window were enough to get Racing over the hump. I liked all of the moves, and I still do. It is now apparent that they had too many misses in the winter window and it is just too steep of a hill to climb at this point. Racing doesn't have any real depth, and some of their critical players just are not stepping up when it matters. Let's be honest: DeMelo has been poor and based on her 2nd half performance, you can hardly blame Bev for dropping her. Lund still makes too many mistakes. She can be great one match and then terrible in the next. The drop in Erceg’s play has been noticeable but we know that Yanez doesn't have any better options. Borges hasn't been consistent. Sears can't defend reliably enough to play 90. The real problem is that there are not many other options. I don't know how we end up in this spot every season, but there are only about 16 players on the roster that can be trusted to put in any real minutes.
Yanez is getting consistently outcoached. That isn’t a real dig at her, but more of a statement of quality in the other technical area. I mean look at Jonatan Giráldez's resume. I often get the feeling that Racing are playing checkers and their opponents are playing chess. Racing's terrible decision to hire a sexual predator to lead the club means that they have to err on the side of caution when hiring coaches. It sickens me to even have to write that sentence. It is unfathomable to me that the league/sport let things get so bad for so long. I don't ever want to assume that the problem is “solved”. Any coach could be exposed as a dirtbag at any point. Believe me, I get it. I think Racing feels like they have to make safe hires. However, I still think you can find experienced tacticians that aren't scumbags. At least I hope you can. I am not saying that Racing shouldn't be patient with Coach Yanez, but I do think she needs more help. Her system simply isn't yielding results.
Racing is just so stubborn as an institution. They always have been. Playing out of the back is a luxury, that few teams can really afford. I am sure that they still see it as the way forward. I am convinced that the next evolution will be flexibility. So many youth teams are playing out from the back now that pretty soon nobody will even remember how to defend route one football. I believe that the teams that can adapt to their opponents, and even adapt inside of a match will be the future. If you follow a good team and you watch a team that isn’t very good stubbornly try to play out of the back against them, you start to salivate. It's exactly what the good team wants. I have to think that the Spirit were begging Racing to stick to the plan. You witnessed the result.
The season isn't technically over, but it feels like it is. A win next week would potentially change things but Portland seems to have been able to pull themselves out of their slump. Anything is possible but it is more probable that Racing ends up in 9th or 10th and stuck with a roster that cannot be dismissed as “too young” anymore. The defense needs an overhaul, but that is easier said than done. The tactics are stale and predictable even when the formation changes. For me, an offseason will be most welcome at this point.
