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The Lull
Win, lose or draw there is always an anticipation for the next game. If you win, you want to ride that momentum. If you draw, there is an eagerness to fine tune and make that little bit of difference that could result in a win. If you lose, stepping back onto the practice field to get ready for the next game is all you can think about. Well at least that's what I think it would be like. I never played competitively, and have only played pick up games for about 10 years.
For fans, there is also usually a full week to obsess, agonize, and theorize about the next match on the schedule. My goal with this site is to (hopefully) fill that terrible void between matches. I am starting to formulate a schedule in my head where there is new content on the site 4 or 5 times per week to help with “The Lull” between games. I hopefully will have a surprise or two up my sleeve in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
What can you learn from a 5-0 defeat?
Three is a magic number . Yes, it is, it’s a magic number…
You can learn from a lopsided defeat, but I think you can learn more from a trend.
A quick perusal of the basic stats from Racing’s 7 games so far showed me some things that I expected, and some things that I didn’t. I was certain that Racing had lost the possession battle in all of their games, but they actually won the possession battle (albeit narrowly) in 2 of their draws: Home to Orlando 2-2 (51%) and Home to KC 0-0 (51%). In the previous game against NC at home, a 2-3 defeat, Racing had 48% possession. The Road paints a different picture. Washington (44%), Gotham (45%) and NC (39%) all road games show Racing struggling to hold possession away from home. The warning signs were also there in the 2-0 win vs Washington where they held possession for just 40% of the time.
The passing numbers in those games are even worse. Racing was out passed by 108 at Washington in the Challenge Cup, 101 by Gotham in the same competition, 165 in the victory against Washington, and 171 last night against NC. On the year Racing has been outshot by opponents 129-65. Those are the numbers.
However, you can’t just look at the numbers, you have to take into account what you see on the pitch. Here is the part where I remind you that I am not a soccer coach and very well may not have any idea what I am talking about. On the other hand…I have watched a lot of soccer. I also probably need to disclose a couple of other things about myself:
I am a huge Arsenal FC fan
I find club soccer much more compelling that international soccer
You may ask yourself what these two facts might have to do with anything, but let me assure you that they are important. Arsenal is (typically…ugh these last couple of years have been rough) one of the historically better teams in the English Premier League, but also haven’t been THE best in quite some while. What this means is that against weaker teams their tactics quite often look different than when they set up against Liverpool, Chelsea, or Man City. Beyond that, they quite often set up differently at home vs. on the road vs. these teams. Take Chelsea for example. Chelsea play in the Champions League final today, and have had a much better season that Arsenal. In fact they have had Arsenal’s number for quite some time in the league, but Arsenal defeated them twice this year (H 3-1, A 0-1). That second victory is the important one in this context, but more on that later.
The second fact is more of an insight about me I think. I find international soccer to be played with a different intensity than club soccer, at least in the qualifying and group stages of competitions. That isn’t a positive or a negative, just an observation. This is important because the league season in a grind. The level of competition can vary greatly at the international level, and let’s be honest here…the US Women’s National Team are bullies. I don’t mean that in a negative way, but in the way that means that they tend to dictate style and tempo through force and a talent gap sometimes. Theoretically in a league competition, the teams should be closer in skill and talent level with a pretty important distinction…an expansion team. Now that you know those two things about me, you can take or leave my analysis based on those or any other factor.
I promise to keep the digressions to a minimum (bar one important one) for the rest of this post.
I say all of this to frame up a brutal reality. Racing Louisville FC are going to be the second best team on the pitch several times this year. They won’t be able to dictate tempo. This shouldn’t be breaking news, but it still stings a little bit to type those words. That is why it is important to know who you are.
I attended the first NC game in person with my daughter. She played soccer a bit growing up, but isn’t what I would call a huge fan. However, she was there and heard (or completely ignored…which is her right) my commentary on the game. Here is what I saw in that 2-3 defeat.
NC loved to attack down the left
Racing was too narrow in defense, especially on the counter attack
So, going into last night’s game I wondered if Racing would set up any differently. The answer to that was a disappointing NOPE! The formation was 4-3-3 and they got run off the field. I thought NC was most dangerous when they used the width of the field, especially on the left side. A couple of times there seemed to be no Racing player on the right-hand defending/left-hand attacking side in the last third of the pitch. Any switch of possession from right to left was exposed.
With all of the items I stated above I want to congeal my thoughts into these basics facts
Racing is a team that struggles to hold possession, especially on the road
Racing is a team that get frequently gets out passed by 100 passes/game
Racing is a team that gets out shot 2 to 1
Now how do you combat this? I don’t have definitive answer, but many things have been tried and some quite successfully.
Concede possession and “park the bus”: For those unfamiliar with the term, parking the bus basically is a derogatory term for having a purely defensive mindset, mostly to protect a lead or a point. Jose Mourinho’s teams used to be that master at this. There are two very glaring negatives: A) your team almost always needs to score first and B) It is like watching paint dry. Stoke City in their stint in the Premier league was a stubbornly negative team, but they did grind out a lot of draws and a few wins and avoided relegation for quite some time. I was delighted when they finally were.
Have an unbalanced formation: Racing needs help on the right defensive side, so theoretically Christy Holly could give his RB some extra cover on that side by employing a second MF to cheat to the right side. While this has been tried a few times, I can’t recall any team using it more than a one or two off situation.
A Back 3: To my eyes this is a solution that I would at least like to see attempted. Several teams play consistently with 3 Center Backs and a Left and Right Winger. Back to my final digression. Arsenal defeated Chelsea 0-1 this year at Stamford Bridge using a back 3 and in the 2020 FA Cup using a back 3. The 0-1 victory this year was really only notable for 2 reasons. The first was that Chelsea gifted Arsenal a hilarious goal, and secondly that Chelsea never really got close to scoring until they added extra attackers at the end of the game.
Here is what I think a back 3 would do for Racing:
You create defensive width naturally by having an extra CB on the field. The CBs have specific sections of the field to cover and the LCB and RCB have natural support from the Left and Right Wings (or Left and Right Backs if you like it stated that way).
You free up Emily Fox to attack even more. Emily would still have plenty of defensive work to do, but in attack she would be able to push even further forward with 3 CBs vs 2.
Guess who is coming to town! I don’t know much about Gemma Bonner yet other than she is an England International and she is a central defender. Slot her into a back three and give it a try.
I believe Racing is going to have to embrace being a counter attacking team, at least on the road. A change in formation would greatly help that.
I look forward to the 4-3-3 set up against Portland…
M
Racing @ NC Courage Player Ratings and Instant Analysis
The good news is that NWSL Official Cards are out…
Well there was bound to be a game or two like this during the season…
Congrats to the Courage for what I thought was a well played game by them, especially in the 2nd half. Racing seemed a bit off the pace from the beginning of the game and despite a decent spell in the later stages of the 1st half, tonight just wasn’t their night. It’s difficult to know how tough to be on the players from a rating perspective for a game like this. With dishonesty being the second best policy I guess you know where that leaves us.
Before we get to the player ratings, a few things I noticed:
LEFT, LEFT, LEFT! The Courage sure loved to attack down the left. If this was a surprise to anyone, they must not have watched the Challenge Cup match against NC. They did also find success down the right…once Fox was taken off in the 86th minute.
The Courage are a really good side. I was super impressed with Williams (above), Mewis (of course), Debinha (duh!) and Pickett.
Racing will have to find that fine balance between playing quickly and staying composed. It’s a fine line to walk. Tonight I was satisfied with the speed of play, but disappointed in the passing accuracy and composure.
When you allow 5 goals it’s hard to give much credit to the defense. To my (obviously uneducated) eyes I thought the problems were more around positioning and discipline than effort. The effort was there and the other things are coachable. It was a bit worrying that I saw the same issues in the previous game vs. the Courage.
Ratings (out of 10):
GK: Betos - Could really do nothing about any of the goals. Did have an uncharacteristic spill on a save in the 3rd minute.
Rating: 6
RB: Simon - There will surely be great games for her in this uniform, but this wasn’t one of them. Continually beaten for pace and out of position on several occasions. Could have used more help
Rating: 4
CB: Riehl - Had a good interception or two. Most of the inside out play left her blameless for the goals
Rating: 5
CB: Hendrix - Had a nice tackle in the sixth minute. See above.
Rating: 5
LB: Fox - Was dangerous in attack, and most of the attack for NC seemed to go down the opposite side of the field while she was on the pitch. Easy to see why she was the #1 overall draft pick in this year’s draft.
Rating: 7
MF: Milliet - Didn’t do Simon any favors. Subbed off at the same time.
Rating: 4
MF: Ollofsson - Had a really good first half, but as the middle of the field opened up late she disappeared a bit.
Rating: 5
MF: McCaskill - Feisty, and quick on the ball. She didn’t linger in possession as much as she did in the previous games. If Racing were ever going to score, it was going to come through her. Hit a cracking effort late that was a yard or so wide. Worked her legs to death. Her best effort in a Racing uniform so far.
Rating (Woman of the Match): 8
LW: Yuki - Fought really hard and showed good toughness. Not given much service.
Rating: 6
RW: McClure - Unfortunately rather anonymous…subbed off early.
Rating: 5
F: Cece - Wasn’t given much to do, but still worked hard.
Rating: 6
Subs: Ekic (53’) - 6 /Martin (53’) had a slip that led to the second goal - 5/ Baucom - NR/Kara - NR
Welcome to Fleur de lis FC
This is the first post. I hope it will be the first of many posts. I am new to blogging, running a website, and many of the other technical things that make an idea that seems simple, actually quite complex. However, there has to be a first post and this is it. Hopefully other posts will be more insightful, relevant and useful.
The idea behind this website is really simple. It is a fan blog. I will post about Racing Louisville FC. Some of the posts will be news related. Some of the posts will be one person’s opinion on the games and other activities around the club. Some of the posts I’m sure will be digressions.
Hopefully they won’t be as boring as this one.
The week that was - Week 2
This week has been a special one for Racing. It has seen a first goal, a first win, a first player of the week. Here’s a quick recap by the numbers:
1 - A first goal in league competition. That is always special, but it helps when the goal itself is special. Emina Ekic’s effort was just that. It was also the first win and the first home win.
2- This was the second clean sheet in a row in the league and the third overall. The defensive effort for the game against the Spirit was a collective effort. Michelle Betos as the last line of defense was the official Racing “Woman of the match”, but there were several other blocks inside the 18 yard box that prevented goals. More on this later…
3 - There were exactly 3 on target. Spirit keeper Aubrey Bledsoe didn’t have much to do on the night other than pick the ball out of her on net. Racing was efficient with their shots, but you would like to see more attempts on target.
4 - WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE, SAID WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE…or at least we were until the Pride victory last night. 4 points from 2 games is a decent return especially for an expansion side. I believe the home crowds might be enough to expect some wins at home. The road form will be tested over the next couple of matches. It’s hard to gage this early, but I believe the league looks fairly balanced. It would be overly pessimistic to consider any road victory out of Racing’s reach.
7 - There were seven total shots vs. the Spirit. Racing seemed to get into some good spots during the game, but you would like to see more attempts on goal. Being outshot 4 to 1 is not a recipe for success.
10 - Michelle Betos made 10 saves, which is currently a NWSL season high through Wednesday’s game. A new/young team will quite have to rely on an experienced keeper in goal. It appears that Racing certainly has an excellent one.
29 - If the plan is to concede 29 shots on goal and win, then I would say that plan is flawed. Racing was beaten on the stats sheet in all critical categories except for the most important one. The possession was roughly at 40/60 split, which I am sure a little concerning for Coach Holly. Racing was also out passed by over 150 passes. The Spirit has 10 more corners. At the game I didn’t consider Racing lucky to win, but there was a around the 70th minute when I could sense a goal was eminent. If you have watched enough soccer (football) you know that you can get that feeling that a goal is on its way. I commented to my wife who was with me at the game that if Racing didn’t score very soon, there was very likely to be a Spirit goal in the next few minutes. Of course what needed to happed for a Racing win is exactly what happened next. Racing got a goal against the run of play, and another shortly after on the counter when the Spirit began to chase the game. If you watch enough soccer, you see this happed from time to time as well. It’s a great feeling to win a game you probably should have lost or drawn, but I imagine the long term plan for Racing is to control the possession like their brother club LouCity and to out shoot their opponents. It may be a long season if the stats for the game vs. the Washington Spirit repeat themselves.
100 - After that bummer of a paragraph I want to reiterate that I am 100% behind this club. I was on the phone the first day season tickets went on sale, and I bought the best seats I could get. I didn’t expect many wins this season, so each one will be a delight. You never know, maybe this team is special. Scratch that…I know this team is special no matter where they are in the table.
M