Thorns 3 Racing 0 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy USA Today Sports Images
I'm not sure that there is a whole lot to be said about last night's loss. Racing lost to a better team. They simultaneously played well and were lucky not to concede in the first half. Once the first goal went in, there was frankly no way back.
I will beg your indulgence on this next bit. It may be hard to follow or reconcile with the way you personally watch soccer, but it's how my brain works. For me, no shot on target until the first goal is scored really matters. For example, commentators often like to say things like “the score line should be 2-0” in situations like last night where the score was 0-0 at half. Portland definitely had opportunities and Racing made heroic saves, but the ball has no memory or conscious. Every shot on goal is indicative of and predicated on the current score. The fact that Bonner saved a goal and prevented an early score from Portland dictated every action that followed. If she didn't make that save, all of the action that followed would have been different. My theory is that if Bonner is not there to make the save, the score line is 1-0 and Nadim is not there to make the second goal line clearance because both Portland and Racing behave differently with the score line at 1-0. When the scoreline is 0-0, there is a very high probability that in the next measurable moment that the scoreline will still be 0-0, a low probability that the score line will be 0-1 or 1-0 and absolutely zero probability that the score will be 0-2 or 2-0. In essence, I don't like to think about a theoretical scoreline that is mathematically impossible at a specific point in time. When the score is 0-0 at half, there is is no possible way that the next goal would make it 3-0 to the team with the better opportunities. Though hilariously, that seemed to be exactly what happened after the second half restart. Racing were down by 3 before they knew what hit them, but in my mind it was predicated on Bonner's misplaced header, and nothing that happened in the first half. That first goal changed the behavior of both teams. I also have to think that the Thorns were told to be more direct and relentless at half, which surely contributed as well. Regardless, the match for sure changed at 1-0.
It will not shock anyone for me to say that Racing needs better defensive players, but I feel like they need better cohesion, regardless of who is out there. Several times in the first half I saw players backpedaling vs. stepping to the ball. In my experience this is down to a lack of trust in the positioning of the defenders behind you. More than once the defenders were in good position, but the player closest to the ball didn't TRUST in them enough to step to the ball to try to stop an attack further up the pitch. This is a difficult thing to get right and it is especially hard when you don't have a ton of experience playing together and you have seen your defenders be out of position on several occasions in the past. Racing's back line doesn't move together. It should look like they are connected by an invisible rope that never lets them lose their defensive shape too much.
All in all, it was an expected result. Portland are much better on paper than Racing. The only way to be ultimately competitive is for Racing to get better on paper, top to bottom on the roster.
