Washington 1 Louisville 1 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Daniel Rankin
On the night Louisville played hard but committed more than their fair share of mistakes. Fortunately for them, the Spirit could only make them pay once and committed enough of their own to allow Louisville to escape DC with a point.
Every time I watch the Spirit play, I dream of what might have been if Louisville had selected Trinity Rodman at number one in its inaugural college draft. We've seen that the team doesn't really miss Fox with Erceg and Pickett covering thr left side of defense. I know they wouldn't be in Louisville without Fox being there first, but the explanations (or really rationalizations) that I heard over the first 2 seasons were that Fox was a particularly unique talent. That may still be true, but Rodman is even more unique and important where it matters. Last night when she was in space she looked terrifying. She made poor Julia Lester look out of her depth on her goal. Conversely, Milliet seemed to do a pretty good job marking her when she attacked down the Spirit's left side. She still isn't a world class finisher, but having the ability to consistently run past someone isn’t something Louisville has seen in attack, at least until Kgatlana has taken the pitch.
The Spirit had a pretty good amount of opportunities attacking on the counter and Louisville's pressing in the first half didn't seem coordinated. At times Davis seemed to be trying the high press by herself. I know Björkegren likes to stick with his system and his lineup, but it might be interesting to see Wang drop into the CAM role and have DeMelo play in an actual forward role. She pretty much does that for Louisville now anyway, and Wang's intermittent work rate in pressing might actually not be so noticeable in a central area. I also think Monaghan's starting days may be numbered. She is probably a more steady defensive presence, but surely what Kgatlana brings in attack will earn her the starting nod soon. The one thing that makes me nervous about Kgatlana is that she defends like personified yellow card. She likes to stab at the ball on occasion in defense which if you get it wrong is always subject to punishment.
Speaking of cards, Pikkujämsä was on for a grand total of 1 minute before picking up her red card. It was about as clear of a red card decision as you will see for the denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. In the end, it was actually a pretty heroic red card in that it all but certainly earned Louisville its point. I believe Rodman would have scored on that play and Elli had enough presence of mind to pull Rodman back outside of the 18-yard box. I dislike substituting centerbacks in the middle of a match and this is a prime example of why I don’t think it's a good tactical decision. Pikkujämsä had virtually no time to get involved in the speed of the match before she had Rodman bearing down on her. For all of Pikkujämsä's talent, she hasn't shown much recovery speed in matches, so having Rodman go directly at her at the first opportunity was not ideal.
Louisville was able to escape with a point because Paige Metayer committed the cardinal sin of fouling a player in the box with their back to goal. It looked like a penalty in real time and VAR agreed. Up until that point Louisville had done nothing in attack, so Washington really gifted them the penalty. DeMelo finished it off by sending Kingsbury the wrong way to up her penalty conversion rate to 50%. It wasn't the most clinical penalty ever taken but it was good enough.
Louisville now has 3 matches at home in a row with 2 league matches and one cup match. They find themselves 4 points out of a playoff spot almost halfway through the seaon, which isn't great so they will be looking to amass points quickly in the remainder of June. Their opponents are tough ones in the Wave and Gotham at home and the Courage in North Carolina.
