“The Life of Kings”
Photo by Elizabeth Shaw
Stolen The Wire Epigraph
For those of you who haven’t seen The Wire, it is just like “Cheers” but in an abandoned row house with Bubbles playing the role of “Norm”.
“I go into the 2025 with the absolute lowest of expectations. I can’t envision how this team will be good. They may be competitive. If they do turn out to be decent, it will be counter to most of the previous evidence.”
-Me, here
“I expect a regression back to Racing 1.0 or Racing 2.0 defensively. I am not sure who is going to ‘lead the line’”.
“The club could be feeling really good about this season, and I imagine that most clubs do in their own protective bubbles and echo chambers. I just wish I had something to go on other than 4 years of failure. There hasn’t been enough positive change in the offseason to offset even the losses that needed to come.”
-Me, here
“I thought Racing had a chance to win, but in my heart, I didn’t believe it.”
“I think Racing is a dinosaur set for extinction. They have always moved too slowly or not had the right pieces.”
And this last one really stings…
“I don’t think Bev will turn things around.”
-Me, here
I have always said that I don’t have any emotional capital invested in by “being right”. I am so glad to have been wrong on so many things.
In a world where people double down and go into their echo chambers, nobody likes to openly admit that their opinions are wrong and definitely there is a bizarre resistance to “change your mind” on much of anything. I changed my mind here, here but mostly here.
Is it odd to be so emotional about something to which you didn’t really personally contribute?
Bev turned things around. The whole team did, but with her at the helm of the ship.
The last few weeks made things nervier than I wanted them to be, but the end result ended up being so much sweeter. I promised myself not to check the score of the North Carolina match. I checked the score of the North Carolina match several times. Gotham FA’ed and my guess is that they are about to experience FO part in Kansas City next weekend.
The match itself, objectively, wasn’t a thing a beauty, but we don’t care. Bay offered next to nothing going forward. Their only real threats seemed to come from isolated attacks, mostly from Bay’s wing players. I really thought that Bay would fold with an early goal, but without Racing finding one, they did put up a fight defensively and North Carolina fans should not complain about Bay’s defensive effort. They were just a bad team playing out their last match with dignity.
Racing only needed a single moment of magic and Hase scored a goal that everyone will remember. It feels like her first goal has been coming for a while, so this was the absolute best time to get it. It will surely be a special memory for her.
This whole season will be a special memory to me. It has been the most fun season to write about and to observe.
I will paraphrase HL Mencken here: I find myself more and more convinced that I had more fun writing about this team than in any other enterprise. It is really the life of kings.
Post Match Moment of the Match
There could be hundreds, but the joyful walk around the stadium was my favorite moment after the match. It’s traditional for a reason. It is quite good when the season ends on a positive note.
Lo Milliet seemed to be the most emotional player in the time after the whistle. It’s hard to imagine that this win means any more to one single person than her. She praised the defensive performance and said that the defense had really performed well all season. When asked if she was tempted to peek at the score of the North Carolina match at half she said that the players kept their phones put away.
Bev on the other hand was aware somewhat of the score of the other crucial match at halftime. She said that she felt that she had to be for tactical reasons. I don’t think she shared the score with anyone. Bev was so clearly happy after the match, and Racing will do well to hang onto her after the job she has done this season. She trusted her process and by not making the game bigger than it needed to be by focusing on one match at a time, she ultimately got the job done. She always defers credit. She deserves a huge credit. She pointed to the home loss to San Diego as the point at which their season changed. “We’re too special…we had some tough conversations as a group but we ultimately wanted the success for each other.”
Ella Hase was the hero but was deferential in her comments saying that she was “prouder of the performance we had after the goal” and “Katie, my girl, played a really, really good ball” and that we should be interviewing Katie. That’s silly. Hase had a fantastic match all of the pitch. She also got hilariously distracted by her boyfriend during the interview. Maybe that was my second favorite moment.
JBS versus noses in LFS
Somebody has to make the bacon and the sausage. Due to the short notice of the match start time, JBS seemed to be doing a little bit of processing. Mercifully, the “eau de Butchertown” only wafted for a few moments prior to kickoff and then after the match. I wonder whose role it is to make sure that things are coordinated. Do they have a backup? Please tell me that both JBS and Soccer Holdings have roles with outlined job responsibilities that say something like “serves as Vice Stench Reduction Coordinator when the Head of Stench Reduction Coordination is unavailable.”
Did the stadium have good food?
To nobody’s regret, this bit will be retired going forward. The mini cheesecake bites were the highlight. I always like a good French Onion dip as well. The “sausage” of the night appeared to be chorizo, of which I am evidently not a fan of in link form. The fruit salad was hilarious being comprised of only blackberries (the king of all berries) and cantaloupe (trash fruit incarnate). The dichotomy was striking. I was greatly appreciative of the hot chocolate and the coffee. I run cold by nature.
Rando of the match
Nobody enjoys hearing about “first world problems” but one of the reasons that Elizabeth and I will be moving to different seats next season is that people tend to hang out in the loge boxes whether or not they buy tickets. I don’t mind so much except more than once I have had to kick people out of our box (including an unnamed local media personality who was very gracious about it). At one match earlier in the season a very nice young man invited himself into the box and talked Elizabeth’s ear off. That was fine (her opinion may vary on that). On this night however, there was a rando guy who was sitting in the box next to us and talking loudly throughout the first 30 minutes. He was barking out such helpful advice as “play defense” when Racing was in firm possession. Someone called security on him (not us) because they sent a security guard to “check our tickets”. The guard then went to the next box and checked the loud guy who was obviously not supposed to be there. Minutes later a crew escorted him out of the box. He was back in the second half standing outside of the box (which is permitted) and was much less raucous. Anyway, my tip for box squatters next season: be discrete and don’t call attention to yourself. You will make out just fine. Maybe also don’t stand in a box if someone else is sitting in it. It amazes me how many people feel comfortable doing that without asking.
The Kayla Fischer Honorary Yellow Card of the Match (brought to you by Taylor Flint)
If I keep a similar format next season I WILL be keeping this section. It will likely be renamed to fully honor Flint and her league-leading discipline record. She hit double digits by picking up a yellow for a tactical foul in the 57th minute which I honestly didn’t even remember. The only card for Racing for a bad foul was the one the one that Ary picked up which was labeled as a “Reckless Offence” according to Opta. Wright’s was also labeled as such by Opta, but that seems a stretch. Bloomer pickup up a tasty one for “Time Wasting” (correct and labeled in the traditional manner). Lema for Bay picked up one after that for an “Argument” (I prefer the traditional label “Dissent” for this).
Lightning-in-a-Bottle-O-Meter
Whenever Racing wins a match, I will rate how much of it was down to catching lightning in a bottle versus Racing just doing the things they do well.
This is another section I expect to retire for next season. I expected Racing’s wins to come few and far between and when they have won this season, they haven’t been “lucky”. On this occasion once again, the only bit of fortune that Racing received is that they played a bad team. Bay haven’t been great all year but did outplay Racing in the reverse fixture. In this match, Racing dictated play and took the match to Bay. None of Bay’s shot were on target, but there were only six to begin with. With the team looking to do bigger and better things, the fact the Racing has now finally beaten every other team in the league (until next season when Boston and Denver join) becomes a footnote. 1/5
“If you’ve never been nowhere, don’t you pay that no mind.”
“Machine Gun Ibiza”/Jordan: The Comeback/1990
I don’t know if we will ever know how expectations played into the story of the season, but they will for sure next season. If you’ve never been nowhere, nobody expects you to be anywhere. Now Racing is in the playoffs, and likely are the draw nobody wanted. There has to be a nagging feeling in the back of the mind of any future opponent of Racing in this year’s playoffs: You cannot let things go to penalties. Bloomer has at least one save in her, maybe two if you do. Racing will want to win their first playoff match, but honestly, they are playing with house money the rest of the way regardless of what the coaches and players may say. Washington isn’t a bad draw for Racing, so maybe there will be more destinations in the future.
Let me speak once again on the collective success of the club this season: “Black wand, white magic, nitroglycerin”
Black Wand - You need players to get anything done. You need the right players, and you need them bought in. Just like a stage magician, Bev waved her wand and then: pledge, turn, prestige (the three acts of a magic trick). However, the players did the work. Sears needed to score double digit goals and did so. The rookies needed to not be rookies for long, and they never seemed like they were. The defense had to work. It did. “All the pieces matter” is my motto, and this season showed how much,
White Magic - It is the benevolent counterpart of malicious black magic. It’s selfless. Has there ever been a more selfless coach than Bev Yanez? She has preached her principles without making it about her. Make no mistake though. It was magic. There was no previous evidence that these types of performances were possible with this group. Last season’s performances were not necessarily bad or underwhelming, but they sure weren’t this. Bev doesn’t seem like the type of person who gets caught up in awards or junk like that. This season’s achievement is its own reward.
Nitroglycerin - Isn’t it funny how it is explosive and healing at the same time. Jordan Bloomer has been this team’s nitroglycerin this season. The change in the team has been noticeable. It made it okay for the rest of the team to adopt her personality a little bit. Individuals can be fiery in and of themselves, but Racing never seemed like a fiery team until she took over. I often malign goalkeepers as interchangeable and not as pivotal as the outfield players, but to this team it has been the most important change.
I learned a lot by being wrong this year. I think that is my takeaway and advice. Don’t be afraid to be wrong, admit it, and move forward. You will enjoy yourself much more when you do.
