Courage v Racing Preview

Courtesy EM Dash Photography

It's hard to know when to resume “regular” or “normal” activity after the news of last Thursday. I hate to even consider what “normal” is in this league given the continuous parade of stories reporting heinous and despicable behavior. This league needs transformation not normalcy. However, unless you want to “burn the thing down” (which I don’t think is an unreasonable idea) the NWSL is going to try to press on while attempting to fix its many problems. I decided since there is going to be a return to game action on Wednesday that I would resume my usual cadence of posting a match preview the day before the match.

First off, the women on these teams are professionals and will do their jobs, which should solely be the game of soccer by the way. On the other hand, they are human and completely within their rights to have their minds on other things. I believe we will see focused performances on the field from both teams, even if part of that focus is just to escape the outside pressures of the current environment for 90 minutes.

On the Racing side, here is the depressing injury report:

D ADDISYN MERRICK (OUT/SEI)

F NADIA NADIM (OUT/SEI)

D GEMMA BONNER (OUT)

F CECE KIZER (QUESTIONABLE)

Not having Bonner usually means a greater struggle on the defensive side.

As for the Courage, they will be under the guidance of Sean Nahas as their interim coach. The Courage will have to adjust to a new coach, but if that is the most difficult thing the women on the team have to deal with this week, I’m pretty sure they will count in as a win.

No prediction for a scoreline, but I predict a good effort from both clubs.

Racing v Gotham preview

Courtesy ISI Photos

Sometimes you just want to write a match preview and the dumpster fire that is the NWSL just won't stop burning. Oh well, I am going to set said dumpster fire to the side, knowing that it will continue to burn into the foreseeable future and write about the match-up between Racing and Gotham tomorrow.

What is happening indeed?

Racing has a clean injury report for once, with only the known season ending injuries to Nadim and Merrick listed. I hope that means we see either Bonner or Riehl or both return to the starting XI. I think I have changed my mind a bit about how much talent evaluation I believe the team should do in the last 5 matches. I think wholesale changes make the team hard to evaluate. I would like to see Lund get a start with Bonner and Riehl. We already saw what a backline of Hendrix and Martin combined with Betos looks like, so it would maybe be nice to also see a Hendrix Riehl and Betos setup one more time, but honestly there is game film on that lineup from earlier in the season. I also think we've seen enough of the forwards to know the strengths there. The one other thing that I would like to see is Fox in the midfield, with maybe Ashley and Martin in as the right and left back. Either way, I expect the strongest possible starting XI against Gotham.

I spoke with Gary Gibson from the Soccer Over Gotham podcast earlier this week, so I am going to let him do the heavy lifting on the Gotham side:

Gotham has gone through a lot over the past month or so. They lost 3 starters to injury (Freeman, Purce, Monaghan) and had a coach pulling double duty and experimenting with formation changes on her way out. Our new coach Scott Parkinson did what our previous coach didn’t, which was put our players in positions to succeed with a 4-3-3 formation and playing aggressively. We already know how stout this defence is. It's time to take the restrictor plate off the offense. Midge Purce is the player that makes everything go offensively. She can burn defenders, demand attention, draw penalties and most importantly hold the ball up and allow other players to get forward into the attack.

I also asked about Gotham's position for a move up into a playoff spot:

Gotham is in a great position to make the playoffs. They are currently sitting right below the line with games in hand, 4 points away from 3rd place with a game in hand on NC (who they just beat and play again) and 2 games on hand on the 4th and 5th place team. With the return of starting attackers Midge Purce and Paige Monaghan who both scored in their return there is very little doubt that not only can Gotham make the playoffs but can make a run at the title.

While on the Soccer Over Gotham podcast I predicted a 2-0 victory for Gotham. I will stick with that prediction knowing full well that it pretty much guarantees that the scoreline will not be 2-0 Gotham.