Racing 0 Red Stars 4 Post Match Thoughts
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
Racing put in a dreadfull team performance in their 0-4 loss on Saturday. It's hard to know where the team goes from here and if there is any value in examining this performance too deeply.
Coach Björkegren was frank in his assessment of the team after the match and didn't shy away from expressing his disappointment. He seemed genuinely surprised by their performance because it seemed to come off of a really good week of practice and a good warm-up period prior to the match. Björkegren said that the team planned specifically for the areas that ultimately led to the team's demise. The Red Stars are not a team that takes you by surprise tactically. They did exactly what Racing planned for, but Racing could do nothing to stop them. The Red Stars cut right through the heart of Racing's midfield and defense with seemingly little resistance. More than once, a Racing player was in the unenviable position of trying to defend Mal Pugh while isolated and backpedaling. Björkegren said that the game plan had specifically called for Pugh to be given extra attention. Evidently, the players missed the memo on that.
Nadim and Fox both owned up to the player's deficiencies after the match. Nadim immediately apologized to the fans in her opening remarks. Both answered some tough questions about whether Björkegren's message wasn't being effectively understood by the players. The feeling that I got was it was really a case of a bad start snowballing into a terrible performance vs. a breakdown in communication or planning.
I think that there are probably quite a few lessons on the game film from the match. It will likely be a painful review for all parties involved, but may prove beneficial in the long run. I think the most disappointing part of the performance was just the overall lack of energy in the first 30 minutes, but there are surely plenty of tactical breakdowns to review as well.
Yuki Nagasato put in a particularly efficient and ruthless performance. She scored a brace, but her terrific long ball to Pugh for the Red Stars 4th was the pass of the night. Pugh looked onside in real time and (of course) there was no video evidence available to prove otherwise. Racing miss Yuki. She could always pick out a pass and seemed to maintain her composure in just about every situation. Sometimes you really do have time to take an extra fraction of a second to make a pass or shot just that crucial bit more precise. Yuki is the master of this. Racing needed a settling presence to get a foothold in the match, something I think several fans overlooked in Yuki's game in her all-too-brief time in Louisville.
Racing has 2 more home matches this season, so it will be interesting to see if any new fans from the “Fill the Fam” night will come out again this year. There probably isn’t any amount of promotion that works better than winning. I don't think losing this match in such a lopsided fashion will be too detrimental to the current fan base, but it surely didn't make too many new converts. Racing is a long term project, but the lack of tangible on-the-field success has to matter at some point.
