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Picking the Right Racing Jersey for You
Courtesy Racing Louisville
As of yet, there has been no official announcement from Racing on whether or not the team will have a new light/away jersey for the 2022 season. The home jersey from last year will once again be worn this year. If you are looking to purchase a player jersey for the upcoming season, I came up with a few suggestions to help you pick if you are on the fence about which player to pick. These suggestions are based on selecting a player whose public/social media/on field persona best matches yours. Not knowing any of the players beyond a quick nod of recognition, these suggestions are completely based on my limited knowledge of their background and personal observations. Not all players are listed (no goalkeepers since you can’t buy a keeper jersey unless the NWSL shop changes policy), but I tried to include as many options as possible. Anyway, it’s just a bit of fun to pass the time until real games start.
Actions speak louder than words:
You are a person who doesn’t shy away from the spotlight but is not prone to overly flamboyant celebrations. You are tough when it is required, but never without a smile on your face. Your flexibility is a strength and others know they can count on you.
Suggestions: 5-Kizer/Home; 2-Milliet/Away
Racing ‘til I die!
Who cares if Racing finished in 9th place last year. This year we are going to win it all. We will bring every piece of silverware up for grabs home to the greatest city on the face of the earth.
Suggestion: 13-Ekic/Home
With great power come great responsibility
Sometimes you feel like you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, but it’s a welcome burden. You try to be everything to everyone and most of the time you succeed. People gasp in surprise when you show a hint of weakness, because demonstrated greatness is the standard and the expectation. \
Suggestion: 11-Fox/Away
The Firebrand
Passion dominates your life and you pour yourself into every worthwhile cause with every fiber of your being. You are a change maker and are not afraid to take radical action. If your team doesn’t win the match on the field, you let your opponents know that you’ll win the fight in the parking lot. Frankly, you are a bit scary.
Suggestion: 10-Nadim/Home
The Bruiser
You remind people that soccer is a contact sport. You embrace a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge in any level of pickup game whether your opponent be and adult, a teenager, or a child. You see reprimands as badges of honor. You have talked yourself out of a warning and into a speeding ticket.
Suggestion: 6-Howell/Away
The Sage
You’ve seen it all before, but you want those around you to benefit from your experience. You are a leader in every sense of the word, but also teacher. People look up to you and hang on your every word.
Suggestion: 14-McDonald/Home
The Resilient One
Life isn’t always far and can be downright cruel sometimes, but you persevere. Every time that you get knocked down you get right back on your feet. You can’t wait to show the world what you are capable of after overcoming adversity.
Suggestion: 26-Merrick/Away
The Sky is the Limit
Potential is the word most associated with you. You have talent and time, two of the most valuable assets on the planet. You’ve shown flashes of brilliance, but now it’s time to show the rest of the world that those flashes are now sustainable. In the old adage “Form is temporary, class is permanent”, you hope to make the transition from great form to top class.
Suggestions: 22-Davis/Home; 9-Salmon/Away
The Influencer
You are the tastemaker and the trend setter. You are the social planner for you group of friends. You are a leader, but also a seeker. You want to know what’s now and what’s next. You could see yourself with over a million Instagram followers.
Suggestions: 19-Otto/Home; 8-Oloffson
The Backbone
You are the source of strength of those around you. You give so much support to those around you that sometimes your influence is taken for granted. You lead from the ground up and not from the top down.
Suggestion: 4-Bonner/Away
The Tom
You are a fanatic about Racing. You come up with nicknames for all of the players and have lavender tinted glasses for just about everything relating to Racing. You are an Oklahoma State grad and fan of Big XII soccer. You are Tom Benson.
Suggestion: TBD-Charmé Morgan (Home)
Regardless of my suggestions, I hope you decide to support the team with a new jersey this year if you are able.
Notes from the Intrasquad Scrimmage
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
Racing held their first intrasquad scrimmage of the 2022 season today at Lynn Family Sports Vision and Training Center. The scrimmage was open to the media, so here are a few things that I noticed.
Emily Fox and recently called-up Jae Howell were obviously absent due to their inclusion in the USWNT’s roster for the She Believes Cup. It’s a little tough to get a read on the team with out them there, but the 70 minute scrimmage as a whole was definitely offensively oriented.
Salmon and McDonald look especially effective playing together. Salmon had two goals to my recollection (the teams had the nasty habit of scoring when I was engaged in conversation with Bekki Morgan or Jeff Greer), and McDonald had 1. Racing are deep at forward, and I would go so far as to say that they might even be “deeply talented”. Kirsten Davis and Parker Goins both looked fast and physical going forward. Emina Ekic looked like a player who spent the off-season getting better and should be ready to compete for more minutes.
The appearance of Addisyn Merrick on the field was a sight for sore eyes. When asked about her position after the scrimmage, Coach Björkegren said that he wasn’t sure yet where she would play. In the scrimmage she played at CB, but Coach Kim said that right back was another opportunity for her. If Racing are to make a playoff push this year, Merrick will have to stay fit and in the lineup in my opinion.
On the injury front, Charmé Morgan missed the scrimmage. However, she was in attendance and is scheduled to see the doctor today. Björkegren said that Nadia Nadin is scheduled back in a couple of weeks. June is the normal timetable for an injury like the one Nadia suffered, but Coach Kim suggested that an earlier return wasn’t out of the question because Nadim “is not the normal player”.
The other absence was Cheyna Matthews who recently announced that she is pregnant with her third child, so congratulations to Jordan and Cheyna.
Sav DeMelo was interviewed after the scrimmage, and you can watch it here. She was impressive in a central midfield role. She said that she is adjusting to the speed of play and the speed of thought (knowing what your next move is prior to receiving a pass vs. waiting to decide after you have received it) as a professional. Ebony Salmon also answered questions after the scrimmage and talked about her preparations for the season, the team starting to gel, and getting minutes in their legs. For Salmon, this will be the first chance to experience a full NSWL season and preparations for that season. She took a few weeks off over the break, which was a luxury she wasn’t afforded last year. Along with scoring twice, Salmon hit the woodwork a couple of times with the first one leading to McDonald’s goal.
Whether or not Jess McDonald is nominally the captain of this team, she is the leader. It was crystal clear that she was the leader of her side today. During the halftime break, she was using practice cones to show her teammates something she noticed from a tactical perspective in the first half. On the field, she is vocal and encouraging to her teammates. I have the feeling that this is becoming her team and it is only a week or so into practice. I think this is a good thing. I don’t want to say that the team didn’t have a true leader last year, but this year I think it will be obvious that the team is hers.
I believe that some of the players that will ultimately not be on Racing’s squad this year might find a way into the USL W team. There were a few Academy players in the scrimmage today, and none of them looked overmatched. There were some non-roster invitees as well and they held their own too.
It was interesting to me to here Coach Kim talk about how he is communicating his philosophy to the team. He sees the preseason as a modular learning exercise. So far, he has focused on the buildup play from the back, which is the core of possession-oriented football. From a sequential perspective, it sounds like the plan is to move on to the midfield, and then to forwards and wingers in terms of what the focus will be in the next practices. He did mention that he planned to work with the starting XI next week. I took that to mean that he has his starting XI, at least preliminarily, already identified. The work with the team will also include “finding lines” (in my parlance keeping your shape in your formation) and working on a high press. In a nutshell, he is taking a building block approach to getting the team to play in his preferred high-pressing style.
Racing Sign Jordyn Bloomer/Other News
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
Racing signed goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer to a one-year contract with a club option for an additional year on Tuesday. Jordyn was the 26th overall pick in the most recent NWSL college draft and had a stand out career at Wisconsin registering a 82.3% save percentage. For reference, Kailen Sheridan (89%) and Bella Bixby (85%) were the only two keepers in the NWSL with a percentage higher than 83% last year. The league average was around 76% and Racing’s keepers were at 75% (Betos) and 71% (Lund) respectively. I would not expect the level of NCAA competition to NWSL competition to be a straightforward comparison, but those are the numbers. In case you didn’t remember, Bloomer also attended the Pre-Draft Goalkeeper Camp for Racing in early December.
Racing will likely carry 3 goalkeepers on the roster, so Jordyn earlyish signing isn’t a surprise.
Racing also recently announced the Challenge Cup schedule which you can find here. The home games don’t conflict with JCPS’s (and likely the rest of the region’s) spring break for schools, so you won’t have to contemplate your mandatory trip to Destin conflicting with a Racing Home match. The rood match on April 2nd in Kansas City will be an opportunity to see if any beachside bars are up to date on their Paramount Plus subscriptions or willing to put a Twitch stream up on a big screen.
Finally, I would like to put in an (early) plug for a new Racing Louisville podcast for the Beautiful Game Network featuring Bekki Morgan and Tom Benson called Butchertown Rundown. I got to listen to a practice episode and the first episode will be up on Spotify/Apple etc. soon. I think all Racing fans will enjoy the podcast. If you can’t wait until tomorrow, you can take a listen here. Check out their cool logo.
Racing sign No. 4 Overall Pick Sav DeMelo
Courtesy Connor Cunningham
For the 3rd week in a row, Racing has announced the signing of a player. Today Savannah DeMelo signed her first professional contact. It is a 2-year deal. DeMelo was taken with the 4th overall pick by Racing in its natural position in the 2022 NWSL College Draft (Howell being taken by the pick from Angel City). In her career at USC, DeMelo scored 17 goals and provided 28 assists from the midfield. With another midfielder signed, Racing has significantly upgraded their midfield roster for 2022. While you can almost certainly pencil in Jae Howell as a starter, it will be interesting to see how much “New Sav” (coining it!) will be on the pitch this year. She suffered an Achilles tendon injury that made her miss her entire junior year at USC. Her senior season at the Trojans saw her recover most of her form. She had been first-team All-PAC-12 in her freshman and sophomore year and was second team in her senior year. I believe that she will be allowed to ease into the team and get minutes as a sub throughout the season with a target of earning a starting role as the season progresses.
In other news, Racing’s USL W-League announced its schedule yesterday. Home matches will be Lynn Family Sports Vision & Training Center, where admission is free and open to the public. There is an 11 day stretch from May 15th to May 25th where Racing will play 4 matches at home. If you can’t ever get enough soccer, that may be a dream week for you. I would like to get out to all of those matches, but that might be a difficult goal to achieve for me. If anyone knows that they will be attending all of those matches and would like to give match reports on this site, let me know. The easiest and most reliable way is to hit me up on Twitter, but you can also get my email address in the About section of this site. Even if anyone wants to do a single match, let me know.
First Practice of 2022
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
Coach Kim Björkegren conducted his first official Racing Louisville practices today. It was also the first practice at Lynn Family Sports Vision & Training Center for several players like Jae Howell and Jess McDonald. There were a few familiar faces as well like, CeCe Kizer. “It’s really weird being told that I am one of the older players,” according to Kizer. It will be her 4th year in the league, and she said that she was ready to step into a leadership role. On Coach Björkegren, CeCe said that her was “very funny” and “pretty loud”. She also commented that his practices were very focused on technical details. Rookie Jae Howell echoed those sentiments in regard to the technical nature of practice. Howell said that the first practice was spent getting to know her teammates and coaches. The practice itself had a lot of touches on the ball according to both Kizer and Howell.
Coach Kim said that it was an “amazing feeling to be back on the pitch.” When asked about his immediate plans for training, he said that he was likely going to change “almost everything”. He said that he sees potential in the team but will be looking to change tactics quite a bit. When I asked him about formation, he said that he is planning on sticking with a back four and that the changes will likely be in how he sets up the midfield and attack. Above all else, I believe that he is looking for a change in attitude on the field. Björkegren stated in his first press conferences and reiterated today that he has watched a lot of film of Racing and sometimes saw the players playing with “low energy” and playing “scared”. From the sounds of it, he will try to get Racing to play more aggressively and will tell players to “take chances” and not to be afraid of making mistakes.
The weather may put a damper on the rest of the week for practicing outdoors, but the team seems ready to attack 2022 with new energy and a fresh start.
Racing Releases Preseason Roster
Racing announced its 28 player preseason roster today. Here are some items of interest:
26 Players have reported, with the 2 players not yet reporting being Nadia Nadim and Cheyna Matthews. Nadia is still recovering from injury, and Cheyna is likely getting things in order after her husband Jordan’s deep playoff run with the San Francisco 49ers. I would expect them in Louisville soon.
Racing currently only has one fully rostered goalkeeper in Katie Lund, so Jordyn Bloomer, Gabby Kouzelos (University of Louisville) and Hillary Beall (Michigan) will be fighting for a spot, possibly two. Racing carried 3 keepers last year, so I would expect the same this year. My prediction is that the 3rd spot will come down to Kouzelos and Beall. Beall stands at 5-11 compared to Kouzelos’ 5-7 and had a better goals against average at Michigan (.74 compared to 1.65 in 2021).
Last year's draft picks that returned to school like Parker Goins are listed as non-roster invitees. There are 3 players whose rights have been held by Racing since last year’s draft. In addition to Goins, defender Emily Smith (California) and Taylor Malham (Arkansas) were selected by Racing but returned to school for an additional year. Parker Goins is still listed as a forward, so that puts the number of forwards at nine. Goins if definitely an attacking players but could be deployed in the midfield.
Since Goins is still listed as a forward, Racing has invited Sadie Sider-Echenberg to preseason to flesh out the midfield. If there is to be another story like Nealy Martin this year, it will be her. I couldn’t find much about her, but she scored 2 goals and had 4 assists in her “rookie” season with the University of Ottawa. Sadie’s inclusion in the preseason roster puts the number of midfielders at 7, but only 3 of those have any NWSL experience.
If the roster rules for the 2022 season mimic the rules for 2021, Racing will be able to keep 24 fully rostered players with an additional 4 players on the Supplemental Roster. Racing has open international spots to fill as well, so I would expect some cuts to come from this group of 28. If I interpreted last year’s rules correctly, a team must have a minimum of 22 players on the full roster. Obviously with the new CBA in place, the rules for this season will be different. If the players had to make any concessions, it might have been in keeping the roster size the same. I’m not really basing this on anything, but I expect the roster size to look the same as last year.
I predict that these 28 players will get narrowed down to 22 or 23 like Racing carried last year. The 3rd keeper will almost surely be on the Supplemental roster, so I expect Racing to hold 2 open spots for international players, similar to last year when they added Bonner, Salmon and Nadim in midseason.
The most exciting thing about this preseason is that half of the roster has played together for Racing compared to zero last year. Buried a little bit deeper in the press release was a confirmation of the Challenge Cup start date as March 19 which means that there are only 6 Fridays between now and the start of NWSL action.
Racing Hold Open Tryouts
When Nealy Martin attended open tryouts in January 2021, the conditions were worse that they were for today’s session. She offered to shovel snow off the field at last year’s tryouts, just to be able to show what she could do. This year, she was able to attend tryouts as an observer with her place in the team secured. She described the field last year as “straight ice…we were basically ice skating.” Even though the temperatures were far from warm at about 15 F°, the conditions this year were not all that bad. Some of the trialists looked a little cold before taking the field, but the Racing coaches put them through the paces to keep them from worrying too much about the frigid temperatures.
The open tryouts this year will likely not yield as many opportunities as last year’s tryouts did. Racing is much more stable from a roster perspective at this point when compared to last year. However, it isn’t hard to imagine that maybe one or two players might make the squad. At this point in the process, a trialist’s goal is to get that critical invitation to pre-season camp. For Nealy, that is how her journey started. “I just focused on every little detail: what can I do, how can I make this pass better, this touch better, and give myself the best chance of making the team. Then after the trial I went home, and they gave me a call and I am so grateful for that and asked me to come to preseason. The process began then, and I just focused day by day on what I could do and keeping the same mind set: leaving with no regrets.”
As for what Coach Kim Björkegren is looking for in an open tryout, he mentioned that he would be looking for players that bring something “extra” which I took to mean raw talent, and also players that were “useful” which if you look at Racing’s current roster, I think it would be easy to assume that depth in defense and midfield would be useful to the team. Coach Björkegren went on to say that “we are still looking for a couple of players,” and noted that personality and working hard would be considerations. When I asked about how much research he does on players ahead of the tryout process, he said that he gets a little information on the players but likes to get his first impression based on what he observes during the sessions. The evaluation process is a group effort that involves multiple coaches and players have two additional sessions after the first session this morning (one this afternoon and one tomorrow).
I wish the best for all of the trialists that attended the sessions today and maybe Racing can find another gem like Nealy.
Racing Officially signs Jess McDonald
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
Jess McDonald officially signed a two-year contact with Racing Louisville today. If “winning the press conference” is a real thing, then she won this one 3-0. Here are the three items she “won”:
She wants to be here. She mentioned that Louisville was one of only two destinations that she asked her agent to pursue. She also mentioned that she wanted to be in a “family environment”, especially for her son. McDonald said that she wasn’t a big city person, so my assumption is that she sees Louisville as a bit of a small town, which if you have lived here for any time at all you realize that it sort of is. It has most big city amenities and most big city headaches, so let’s try to keep those headaches to a minimum as we welcome Jess.
It is clear that she sees herself as a veteran leader. Racing was young last year and may be even younger this year. McDonald sounds willing and eager to take on the leadership role. I put her as the even money favorite for team captain. Regardless of whether that honor is bestowed on her, she will definitely be a leader on the pitch.
She has a winning personality. She started off the press conference with a joke about needing a chap stick sponsorship and seemed at ease in front of the camera. To my eyes and ears, I could see her being in front of a camera after her playing career is over if that is something that interests her. I don’t want to call out any players or be too harsh on players since their job is to play soccer, but if I ever needed a quote after a match, Jess would be first on my list.
It was simply a great introductory press conference. Let’s hope she continues her success on the pitch.
Racing appoint Schmidt to Lead USL W Team
Courtesy of Racing Louisville
Racing announced today that academy director and former Racing interim head coach Mario Sanchez has named an “All-Female USL W League Staff”. The staff is comprised of Kincaid Schmidt (moving from her role as U5-U10 Director) as head coach, Libby Stout (current Director of Goalkeeping for Racing Louisville Academy) as an assistant coach, and Kiley Polk (current youth academy coach for Racing) as team administrator. This is a good step for Racing Louisville, and I look forward to seeing success on the field very soon.
Site Redesign and NGWSD
First of all, I want to thank and give credit to Anne Evans for the look and feel of the redesigned site. Anne and I talked in December, and I gave her some very vague instructions on a site redesign. I believe I said I liked a certain kind of fleur-de-lis and honestly that’s about it. She came back with a set of logos, colors, and brand guidelines. It’s more than I would have ever expected, but Anne definitely over delivered. When I started this site less than a year ago, I developed a really basic logo and selected some random colors and fonts for pages. The goal was to work on my writing and worry about site design in the off-season. For the redesign, I basically just wanted a more professional looking site, which I believe was achieved. The fact that Anne put so much thought into the logos and colors was a great surprise. If you ever need any design work done, I can’t recommend Anne Evan Creative highly enough.
Second, I want to let everyone know that I am always open to suggestions. I made the initial decision to go with an ALL CAPS look but got a suggestion from a Twitter follower (Marie @marielynn502) that the all caps look was difficult to read. I agreed and since it was just a setting, made the change. I anyone ever has suggestions on the site, I will consider them even if I don’t implement them.
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The University of Louisville Women’s Basketball team celebrated National Girls and Women in Sports Day by defeating Wake Forest 72-60. Prior to the game, 5 Racing Louisville players were made available to sign autographs: Emina Ekic, Addisyn Merrick, Taylor Otto, Nealy Martin, and new signee Kirsten Davis. It was good to see so many players in town to train early. In fact, Nealy told me that they were likely returning to training shortly after signing autographs. Here are a few pictures.
Racing Sign Jaelin Howell
Courtesy ISI Photos
Jaelin Howell signed a contract with Racing Louisville FC Today. The crucial piece is that the contract runs for 3 years. Jaelin will presumably play in the #6 jersey for Racing and will be the first Racing player to ever don that squad number. By all indications, she will play in the traditional 4/6 central holding midfielder role that she played so well for Florida State while winning back-to-back MAC Hermann trophies. I will try to get a report on if Bekki Morgan was able to contain herself from audibly shrieking when she heard the announcement.
In site news, you may notice the new look. I am still tweaking it, so I will talk more about it in a later post.
Kim Björkegren in Louisville/Off-Season Answers and Questions
Today served as part 2 of Kim Björkegren’s introduction to Louisville. Coach Kim arrived in Louisville via Frankfurt, Germany where he was sorting out his final visa issues. I’m not sure he has slept much, if at all since arriving in Louisville, but you couldn’t tell that from his demeanor or his hair. Jeff Greer commented to me that he wanted the name of Kim’s barber, as his hair looked perfectly coifed for someone who had been going non-stop for the last 20 hours or so. Here are some answers that Coach Kim supplied to the local media:
He “almost promised” that Racing will score more goals in 2022. Racing scored a nearly league worst .9 goals/match last season. That’s half the problem sorted then. Racing conceded a league high 1.7 goals per match last season too. Very few managers come into a new job and talk about locking down the defense or “parking the bus”, but I hope that the goals conceded number improves as well. As an aside, I can’t be the only one who appreciates a lock-down defensive performance on the pitch, right? I know that the so-called “neutrals” prefer a 4-3 match over a 1-0 match, but my resolution for this year is to ignore all other fans but Racing supporters. I frankly don’t care about their teams and if Racing win all of their matches 1-0, I won’t complain. As always, scoring guarantees you nothing, but a clean sheet guarantees you a point.
The goal will be to attack with more players and press higher up the pitch. Where has we heard this before? It’s interesting that Racing’s alleged philosophy last season didn’t translate onto the game film to Kim’s eyes (he said he watched all of last season’s matches already). He did offer a preliminary solution to this, and that was to increase the team’s fitness to be able to press for 90 minutes. In attack the plan is to have more players in the box. It’s not groundbreaking stuff, but we’ll see if this season’s group of players get the message.
He tentatively set the top 6 as a goal. I think that is the bare minimum for any team in the league, so I expected nothing less.
He told me that he had been somewhat involved in the roster building so far this season. More on this later.
In summary, I think that if anyone had questions about playing style that those have been answered. I still have a few more questions that it’s not fair for a new coach to answer, so I will list them out here and hope we have our answers sooner vs. later.
What is Racing doing about international players during this current transfer window?
Racing has international spots open for players. I believe there are 3 spots open (Yuki’s spot, a spot from Chicago from Yuki’s trade in 2022, and an extra spot allocated to all teams in 2022.) Racing is not only competing against other NWSL teams for these players but is competing with the top teams in Europe. The European winter transfer window is open until January 28th and the top European teams have been busy. At the time of writing this, there have been 76 transfers in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Are Racing in the mix for players like Rafaelle Souza, who attended college at Mississippi and played for the Houston Dash or Sofia Jakobsson who just went to the San Diego Wave? Last year Salmon, Bonner, and Nadim all came in after the season started. Is that the plan for this year as well? LouCity has been pretty busy, so one might wonder if that that been a detriment to Racing’s recruitment simply through divided focus.
Will Racing’s top draftees sign?
Kirsten Davis is the only college draftee to recently sign, and she was a 2021 draftee. I don’t have any reason to think that the top draftees won’t be at camp in a few weeks, but as we saw with Mia Fishel, a draft pick is not a guarantee. I would like to see Parker Goins, Jaelin Howell, Savanah DeMelo and Charmé Morgan signed sooner vs. later.
Will anyone make the team from the open tryouts?
My guess is that the answer is yes, but I hope to have a little more clarity on this next week.
Will Soccer Holdings replace Brad Estes before the seasons start?
I honestly have no read on this. As with most positions of this caliber, the general public is left in the dark on the recruitment process until someone is named. If you’re a gambler, you might put your money on Soccer Holdings hiring “John Somebody”. If anyone get tired of my harping on this issue, I will be happy to apologize when proven wrong.
Will Racing have a local TV contract for 2022?
I feel like this is an area where Brad Estes will truly be missed. I don’t know if he would have gotten this done in 2022, but his absence doesn’t make me feel good about the prospects of this since “interim president” James O’Connor now has more off the field duties to go with his on the field ones. A local TV contract is vital for growth as long as streaming is the main source of viewing for fans not in attendance.
Will there be a new away kit?
I feel like the answer here will be “yes”, but the true test is whether it will be primarily white. I am hoping for a light lavender or mint green base. Leeds 3rd kit this year is a good template.
I hope that most of these questions will be answered in the coming weeks.
Racing’s Youth Academy Joins USL W League
Courtesy Racing Louisville
Racing Louisville FC announced today that its youth academy will join the fledging USL W League which starts its inaugural season in May 2022. For the uninitiated, the USL W League is a “a pre-professional women’s soccer league” according to the league website. This is not to be confused with the USL Super League which is intended to be the second level in the US Women’s soccer pyramid and is scheduled to begin in 2023. In a nutshell, Racing has formed its own “Racing Louisville 2” and placed it the 3rd level of the soccer pyramid. By placing the academy team in the 3rd division, Racing will hopefully avoid the negativity seen in the USL Championship world where MLS teams routinely place their developmental “2” teams in the second division and where those teams consistently perform as doormats (Red Bulls 2 excluded).
This is a strong step for the Racing Louisville FC organization. They are the first team to “to complete its developmental pyramid topped by a franchise from the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)”. From the article, here is said pyramid:
This is a great move for the organization and the city’s soccer culture as a whole. It is also a very clever hedge. The NWSL has lasted longer than any other recent women’s soccer league in America. That doesn’t mean it’s invincible or frankly even that stable. The salary numbers thrown around for the USL Super League are very close to the current league minimums for the NWSL. Orlando Pride draftee (No. 5 overall) and UCLA Star Mia Fishel recently rejected the NWSL for Tigres in Liga MX Femenil. The winter transfer window in the FAWSL has been pretty busy and theoretically Racing should be using their international spots to complete for the same players. If the NWSL is the best league in the world, it’s only by a nose and may be hanging on by a thread if the 2022 season has similar off-the-field issues as the 2021 season did. This a great move for professional women’s soccer in Louisville, but it’s also evidence that Louisville may be NWSL-proof (pun intended).
Never Not Having a Good Time
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
Yuki Nagasato was an experience for the city of Louisville. Ultimately it ended up being a brief, one-year experience, but it was definitely a fun one. Today, Racing Louisville traded Yuki back to the Chicago Red Stars upon her request to start a new life in Chicago with her new fiancé. I shouldn’t really say it’s a “new life” so much as it is a return to a life in Chicago. The word “life” seems like a fitting description of Yuki herself. She always seemed to get while “football is life”, football really isn’t life. Life is life. There is so much more to Yuki than football. If you follow her at all on social media, you know that she is a musician, artist, dog mom, fiancée, and maybe chiefly an explorer. She always seems to relish every moment whether it’s on the pitch or off.
I think sometimes it’s hard to grasp what a unique individual Yuki truly is. She played on the first team of a Japanese men’s club, won a World Cup, scored in a World Cup Final, been the top goal-scorer in the Frauen-Bundesliga and painted a commissioned picture for me for Christmas:
When my wife commissioned the picture, Yuki asked her what she would like. My wife told her to paint whatever she wanted. I think it says something about her that she wanted to commemorate her season in Louisville with her teammates.
Every time I look at that picture, which is hanging in my bedroom, I smile. Now I will look at it and smile and maybe be just a little bit sad. However, that sadness will always pass quickly because Yuki stands for joy. She never looked like she wasn’t fully in the moment and always looked like she was having fun. She once smiled after picking up a yellow card for Racing, which is a very Yuki thing to do. I wish her the best of luck in Chicago and continued joy in her football career and after.
Reviewing a Busy Week
Courtesy Florida State University
Zach Allen-Kelly made a prediction in one of our pieces for the State of Louisville website that Racing would replace over 50% of their roster in the off-season. The off-season isn’t over yet, but as of the end of the day they have only 60% of their players returning from last season. At the end of the season, Racing’s roster looked like this.
GK
Betos
Money
Lund
D
Simon
Bonner
Fox
Miramontez
Martin
Hendrix
Ashley
Riehl
Merrick
MF
Milliet
Olofsson
Otto
F
Kizer
McCaskill
Salmon
Nadim
Ekic
Nagasato
Matthews
McClure
Kara
Baucom
Racing have currently lost 10 players from last year’s roster, while adding 10 as well. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the roster is fully set. If Racing make no more off-season moves, which I find unlikely, their roster next season will likely look like this. The new additions are in bold italics and the leaving players are struck through.
GK
Betos
Money
Lund
Jordyn Bloomer
D
Simon
Bonner
Fox
Miramontez
Martin
Hendrix
Ashley
Riehl
Merrick
Charmé Morgan
Sydney Cummings
Emily Smith
MF
Milliet
Olofsson
Otto
Jaelin Howell
Savannah Demelo
Parker Goins
F
Kizer
McCaskill
Salmon
Nadim
Ekic
Nagasato
Matthews
McClure
Kara
Baucom
Jessica McDonald
Kirsten Davis
Jenna Menta
In my opinion, Racing will add at least one more defender and are probably still a little heavy in the forward department. They will almost certainly need to add a 3rd keeper as well, but that keeper very well may end up being one of the players on the supplemental roster. If the rules mimic last year, Racing will be able to fully roster 24 players and can keep 0 to 4 players on the supplemental roster. That means last year one of the players was on supplemental roster, and I would assume that player was Money. To recap the week, Racing lost Kaleigh Riehl to San Diego in the expansion draft and essentially traded Savanah McCaskill for Jessica McDonald. Racing also traded Julia Ashley for the pick that became keeper, Jordyn Bloomer. Savannah McCaskill’s trade may have seemed to come out of the blue for some fans, but there were rumors surrounding her departure for at least a week or so. McCaskill’s fight and fire will be missed, but like I have said many times, I never felt like she had a true position at Racing. I hope Angel City figure out how to best utilize her skills. Word of a trade for McDonald had been circulating for awhile as well. McDonald will hopefully bring goals and assists into the team. She has a great track record for club and country.
The nine other new players however have no NWSL history. Jaelin Howell is the marquee name, but each of the nine new players has either all-conference or all-American honors. I am particularly excited to see what Parker Goins can do as a MF/F. On balance, I think the team got much better on paper. However we will have to wait until next season to see for sure. The other thing to note about drafted players is that they could easily decide to play overseas. Highly rated Julia Grosso, would have been a first-round pick if she hadn’t signed for Juventus. Hopefully, the all of the players that entered this year’s draft did so with the intent of signing with the teams that drafted them. At this time, the threat of playing overseas is really the only leverage that a player has if their rights are held by a team that they don’t want to play for. That or not playing at all in hopes of a sunnier destination.
About next year, the NWSL also announced some of the competition format rules for next season. The Challenge Cup will return, but will be three 4-team groups playing a home and away match against each other with 4 teams making the semifinals. Presumably the 2nd place team with the highest point total will join the 3 group winners in the semifinals. The other change is that the league will play a balanced schedule for the first time, with each team playing a home and away match against every other team. I like balanced schedules. Almost every other league in the world plays a balanced schedule and the winner of the competition is based solely on this. Of course, America being addicted to the concept of playoffs, the NWSL will crown a champion just like last year: with a 6-team playoff. For me the bigger achievement will be the regular season title, but I know I’m probably in the minority in that opinion.
The Protection List
Courtesy Texas Tech
Racing released their protection list on Friday and while some of the names were a surprise, most of the names were pretty straightforward. I think the two surprises were the inclusion of Kirsten Davis (pictured above) and the exclusion of Savannah McCaskill. First on Davis, her inclusion is probably most likely due to San Diego's desire to acquire her rights. Racing and the Wave presumably have been negotiating for months now in order to work out a trade that would include draft protection for Racing, so the teams would know each other’s wants by now. To think that Wave President Jill Ellis must have inquired about Kirsten Davis several times isn't too much of a leap based on the list. I personally think Parker Goins for Arkansas, who Racing drafted in the third round last year, had a better season and has more value to Racing as she can play in the midfield. I hope protecting Davis doesn't mean that Goins gets taken.
As for Savannah, there are a few reasons that I think Racing may have for not protecting her. First, she just signed a new contract. I am unsure if contract terms are made available to the expansion teams, but if they are, Racing may believe that San Diego may not want to be tied to the contract that Savannah just signed. If they aren't made available, the mystery may be enough to ward them off as well. The second reason might be that like seemingly every other team, Racing has a handshake deal with San Diego on who the Wave will be selecting. I have no proof of this, but rumors keep swirling around Portland and a deal that they will announce next Friday, which would be after the expansion draft. The expansion draft seems to be a mechanism to force trades this year. It's a reflection of being able to only protect 9 players vs. 11. The third option is the one that most fans really don't want to hear, but maybe McCaskill isn't a good fit for the team. I don't mean personality wise for sure. She was the vice captain, but with the captain in goal, she sometimes became the de facto captain on the pitch. Her effort and desire are unassailable. The potential issue is that she doesn't have a true natural position in the team. She's a fine soccer player, but is she a good striker? She only scored two goals. Is she a good midfielder? She loses possession often and sometimes over dribbles. For all of the things she does well, she does have some frustrating tendencies. All or none of the above may be true and I would be fine with McCaskill as an integral part of the team next year, but fans may need to brace themselves for another tough loss.
Welcome Kim Björkegren
I’ll open with a PSA. Type 0246 while holding the Alt key to get the “ö” character (make sure you have a number pad and that the number lock is on). Next, I will say “Look at that Trophy!” It’s simple and elegant and not a repugnant eyesore that deserves to be buried under 10 feet of toxic waste. If the Cypriot First Division can have a nice trophy, why can’t the NWSL? I briefly forgot: the NWSL is not allowed to have nice things like a decent trophy, third kits, or peace of mind that a dirt-bag predator isn’t still lurking around the corner somewhere. Covering this league and team oscillates between pure joy and abject depression so often that sometimes I forget that a few stories are just neutral reporting exercises.
This is one of those exercises. Racing Louisville hired a coach sometime in the fairly recent past, and that coach was announced today. The interview and vetting process seemed fine when held up to the very little scrutiny that media outlets can afford or are allowed to give. The players seem to like him, and I guess that will have to do for now. Of note, James O’Connor stated that around 80% of the interviewed candidates were women. The other finalist was a woman. Racing decided that Kim’s impressive CV was enough of a tie-breaker, along with player input, to be named as the new coach. I have no idea of the qualifications of the other candidates interviewed, but I pose the rhetorical question: “How can you build a CV when you’re never given a chance?” Everybody is always in such a rush to judge a hiring decision right out of the gate. Isn’t it more prudent to give Mr. Björkegren at least half a season before we pass too much judgement? I say “yes”, so case closed on the hiring process for now.
As for the candidate, he seems to check the boxes that Soccer Holdings likes which are:
He seems to agree with the overall footballing philosophy.
He appears to be of strong character
He has won in the past
He said all of the right things in the press conference, but honestly who says “I want to sit back and absorb pressure while the other team dictates play.” He obviously said the opposite in that he favors a press and an attacking style which dictates tempo and controls the game. Don’t we all? As an introduction it was fine. Of course Racing being Racing, he will have to get visa issues sorted out and will not be present with the rest of the team during the drafts. I’m sure he will attend via Zoom. He targeted mid-January for a move. I don’t know what month best represents what Louisville has to offer, but January sure isn’t it. He did mention that he has been evaluating players like Howell and Girma, and they will probably be the first two picks in the draft. He also mentioned that his time in China presented a similar challenge to the one he expects here in Louisville.
I think the one thing that caught my ear was his focus on improvement. When Bekki and I did player profiles for the Beautiful Game Network, each player we spoke with talked about development and how it continues to be important throughout your career. Hearing that development would be a focus was I’m sure encouraging to the players he spoke with. Based on reports, it sounds like he knows Nadia best out of the current Racing players, but didn’t want to share too much on that existing relationship. I don’t read anything into this other than it seems like he will play his cards close to the vest.
To me, the more pressing issue is the upcoming expansion draft. I have heard some odd things about Racing’s strategy, so I decided another prediction would probably not do anybody much good in terms of guessing who they are going to protect. I am led to believe that some players have expansion draft protection (wisely) written into their contracts. This makes evaluating on football terms virtually impossible, so no more predictions. I would love to know some of the details in the contracts like the length of the terms and items like draft protection. To date I haven’t been able to find anything. I don’t want to blame Racing for this. I think I asked, but I can’t remember when or in what context. Next year I hope to do better and know more.
Tough Decisions
Courtesy EM Dash Photography
In a press release today, Racing Louisville named the following players that will not be returning next year:
G-Michelle Betos
F-Katie McClure
G-Shelby Money
F-Jorian Baucom
D-Brooke Hendrix
F-Vanessa Kara
D-Sinclair Miramontez
Four players also had their options exercised for 2022: Milliet, Oloffson, Otto and McCaskill.
I will for sure miss Michelle Betos, as I am positive that almost all other Racing fans will as well. Of the names released today by Racing, hers was the most surprising and probably hardest to understand. According to executive Vice President James O’Connor, “Through offseason processes, we made the very difficult decision not to negotiate a new contract with Michelle. She wants to be a starter in the league. With that in mind, we felt it important to be open with Michelle and let her seek a new opportunity promising more minutes.” Restating this, the key things that went into the decision were:
Betos would have had to sign an new contract or exercised an existing option on a current contract by Tuesday, December 7 if she wanted to stay.
Racing were upfront with Michelle, telling her that Katie Lund was going to be Racing’s starting keeper next season.
Michelle obviously expressed a desire to fight for a starting keeper role on another team, so she and Racing mutally agreed to not continue forward with a contract for next year.
This was a 100% footballing decision. That doesn’t make it hurt any less, but as a fan you have to decide if you follow the club or follow the player. There are plenty of fans who just follow players and I don’t expect their responses to be rational. If this decision is the right decision for all involved, which if I’m being completely honest I think it is, then there should be no hard feelings between the club and most of its fans. It still stings, but I believe Lund will do just fine in goal. I expect thoughtful and measured responses on Twitter. (We need to collectively decide to come up with a designated font for sarcasm. I vote for bold italics.)
Now Racing must do a couple of things very quickly. One is to decide on a new club captain. My advice would be to sort this out straight away and name Savannah McCaskill as captain. She is currently vice-captain, so this one should be a no-brainer. However, I think it’s important to do it sooner vs. later. This could be complicated by the fact that the players tend to vote on this, so mid-January is another possible date for this announcement. The second item is that Racing now certainly has to protect Lund in the expansion draft. Here is my updated projected protection list:
1. Fox
2. Nadim
3. Bonner
4. Salmon
5. Kizer
6. McCaskill
7. Lund
8. Nagasato
9. Otto
This moves Merrick off the list, but I hope Racing manage to hold onto her. As for the other names, some fans’ favorite players will be on the list, but none of them are super surprising. Of that list the slight surprise is Katie McClure, who I thought played well late in the season. However, Racing had way too many forwards on the roster and have F Kirsten Davis and Attacking Midfielder Parker Goins coming in as very highly regarded.
The other note of interest is that every other team, bar Angel City and SD, will be releasing lists today too. Expect a wild day on WOSO Twitter. I think teams will be able to sign other team’s released players, but I don’t think there will be a great number of these. I will be interested to see if any other big names end up on the lists.
The Fan’s Wishes vs. The Team’s Plan
First of all, I wanted to share a schedule of NWSL activities over the next few weeks:
Monday, November 29, 2021 Trade Window Opens
Friday, December 3, 2021 Trade Window Closes
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 Terms of New Contracts, List of Waived Players, List of Players Receiving Exercised Options Deadline
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 End of Season Process Waiver Wire Commences
Thursday, December 9, 2021 End of Season Process Waiver Wire Concludes
Friday, December 10, 2021 Expansion Draft Protected Lists Due from All Teams (noon ET)
Friday, December 10, 2021 Protected/Unprotected Lists Distributed to All Teams (5:00 pm ET)
Thursday, December 16, 2021 Expansion Draft
Friday, December 17, 2021 Trade Window Opens
Saturday, December 18, 2021 College Draft
There has been a flurry of activity so far, and here is a pretty good summary from CBSSports.com.
As for Racing, there hasn’t been much activity. I would expect that Racing might put some players on the Waiver Wire and could possibly pick up some players off waivers, but we’ll see. The biggest item on Racing fan’s minds will almost certainly be the announcement of a head coach. Surely the team has identified a coach by now, but something it preventing them from making a public announcement. The only thing that I can think of that could be delaying the announcement at this point is that the coach is currently engaged in duties for another team. If that isn’t the case, it’s a bit worrisome that we don’t know who the coach is yet. How would you feel as a coach if you had no input into the Draft Protection list, which is due on Friday at noon? I can’t imagine that won’t announce the coach this week. If they don’t…well I don’t quite know what to think, but it isn’t good.
Moving on…the holiday season is quite often filled with wish list and resolutions to improve in the new year. I wanted to take a moment and outline the wishes that I have for Racing in 2022. Unfortunately for fans, our wishes can only really come true with a defined plan from the team. I’m fairly confident that Racing has been diligently trying to obtain roster protection from San Diego, but outside of knowing what the plan is, I have to hope that they made every effort to work out a deal. If you look at some of the other deals that San Diego has secured, you will see that the price demanded from the Wave was pretty steep. I assume that any deal that Racing tried to work out with San Diego was deemed too unfavorable towards Racing. Outside of the short term roster protection, I have 4 wishes that I hope are part of Racing Louisville’s plans for 2022.
Hire the right coach: Above all, this will likely be the best determinant of long-term success for the club. It has to be a PR win and it also has to be a win on the field as well. I will remind you that Soccer Holdings has made some really good decisions and some very questionable ones, so hiring the right person as the new head coach isn’t a guarantee. The one slightly troubling thing at this point is that the job has been open since August. We know that the club leadership will not be rushed into a decision (see letting 3 players manage Louisville City for 7 matches in 2018), but if you take your time, I fully expect better due diligence than was conducted on Christy Holly. I am hoping that they nail this hire, but I wouldn’t call myself fully confident.
Achieve a more balanced roster: Sometimes players’ listed positions don’t mean much as they can play in multiple positions, but in Racing’s case their roster is woefully short on midfielders. They really only have 3 true midfielders. Every other team in the NWSL has at least 8 nominal midfielders according to Fotmob. North Carolina had 12 listed on their roster for 2021. Savanah McCaskill is listed as a midfielder some of the time and played there quite a bit, but she isn’t a true midfielder. The good news is that help is almost certainly coming. Third-round selection from last year Parker Goins is listed as a forward on the Arkansas Razorbacks official site, but she actually won SEC Midfielder of the Year in 2021. Racing will surely plan for her in midfield. If Racing had any luck at all, they would have gotten the #1 overall pick and selected Jaelin Howell from Florida St. As it stands, there is a slight chance that San Diego takes Naomi Girma from Stanford, but Racing likely picks up a very good defender in Girma and then selects another Florida St. midfielder in Clara Robbins, who was the ACC Tournament MVP this year. Olympic gold medal winner Julia Grosso from Texas is also a possibility. The other problem is that Racing has too many attackers. Look for them to leave plenty of attacking talent unprotected in the expansion draft and possibly place a few on waivers.
Secure a local TV deal: The NWSL is a poorly run organization. This is not breaking news. They are woefully understaffed and many of the decisions they make seem baffling and unplanned. In the middle of the season last year, they decided to allow teams to have local TV deals. A well run league would have made this decision at the beginning of the year. However, Racing has now had about 6 months to be working on a deal. I believe that local TV is how you get more casual fans. Casual fans are ultimately as important, if not more important than die-hard fans. It’s hard to sustain any league on just die-hard fans and season ticket holders, especially a young one. There are definitely some people, like my parents, who I could convince to tune into a game if they could easily find it on TV. They aren’t going to seek it out, but if I can direct then toward a reliable channel they would watch. Racing already has a tailor-made broadcast team available in Jeff Greer and Casey Whitfield. If I were a local channel, I would definitely be interested in broadcasting matches next year.
Average 8,000 fans in 2022: The local TV deal would surely help with this. The team will continue to add die-hard fans, but those fans often start out as casual fans that become die-hard. This one is a little be out the the team’s direct control, but I believe it is achievable. Racing does a great job with promotion, so I think this is entirely achievable. The NWSL final surely helped with this too as almost every out-of-town fan would surely consider another trip to Louisville based on the response fans of multiple teams gave the stadium and the city.
It will surely be a busy week in Racing news, so stay tuned for additional updates.
What's in a name?
This article originally appeared on stateoflouisville.com. It was the first piece I did for that site. My writing style has surely changed since then, but I present this piece (mostly) unedited. Forgive the way too much sharing of personal information and enjoy.
We all know why our beloved club is named Racing Louisville FC. What may be foreign to some is why “Racing” is even a name that’s used in soccer. About six to twelve months ago when the buzz around a new NWSL team in Louisville started to pick up, one of my friends asked me about the name “Racing”. I was somewhat prepared to answer this question, and being an insufferable know-it-all who loves nothing better than sweeping a category while watching Jeopardy! I was happy to share what I knew.
First, the obvious one: the horse racing connection. I think he had that part figured out. He said he liked the original provisional name “Proof”, which frankly I didn't much mind either. I then went on a brief (to me, but probably “sorry I asked” to him) explanation of the history of the “Racing” moniker. I am a very, very mildly interested follower of Racing 92, a French Rugby Union club in France who I had seen one lazy Saturday afternoon. The reason they caught my eye were their fantastic (let's call it for reasons that will become apparent later) Cambridge Blue kits made by Le Coq Sportif. Don't Google Cambridge Blue. You will get the wrong color. Check out the kit here. All of this to say that there is a history of sporting clubs named “Racing”. The interesting bit is almost none of them are English.
Racing Club Warwick FC, who plays in the NINTH level of the English Pyramid is the only association football (soccer) club named Racing in Great Britain. Oddly enough, it is named Racing due to its proximity to a racetrack. So why is the name Racing a semi-popular choice for a sporting club, especially in France? I don’t have a definite answer to that question but a little research has given me a pretty good idea.
First a quick diversion. I am a self-professed Anglophile. I love many things English. When I was young, I devoured anything English that I could get, especially TV and music. I have a fantastic collection of Britpop CDs. I love Arsenal. I state these things not to make myself sound cool or unique, which my 18–21-year-old self definitely thought he was, but to show the longing to absorb a foreign culture as a rather common, and not new condition. Many historical volumes have been written about one culture loving something new and shiny from a far-off land.
The relevance of this is that in the 19th Century, many French sporting enthusiasts became enamored with English sporting culture. The French had been for many centuries very protective of their language. However, English words or “Anglicisms” began to enter the lexicon. Based on a book Titled Anglicisms, Neologisms, and Dynamic French by Michael D. Pico de (1996), I was able to date the Anglicism “Racing” to 1851. The latter half of the 19th century is probably the key to the name’s popularity. The Racing club de France was formed in 1886 as a multi-sport enterprise that included, football, rugby, basketball, swimming, athletics, tennis and many more. The rugby and football clubs are now Racing Club de France Football who was a founding member of Ligue 1, but now plays in a lower division and the aforementioned Racing 92. Both of these clubs’ uniforms are still that shade of blue mentioned above. This is an enduring homage to Cambridge's rugby team, whom the founders of the club wanted to emulate. Two other French clubs, RC Lens, and Racing Club de Roubaix both use the Racing name due to the term’s popularity and their time of founding.
The other famous “Racing” and the one that pops up most in the initial research into the name is Racing Club de Avellaneda from Argentina. Their colors are also blue but darker. The story there is that the two clubs that merged to form Racing Club de Avellaneda adopted the “Racing” name from a French auto racing magazine owned by Germán Vidaillac, a French owner of the newly established club: an Argentine Team, with an English name from a French magazine.
But why “Racing” and Football? The key there is partially that Racing Club de France was an omni-sport club and maybe the French took “racing” to mean athletic vs. actually participating in race. I honestly think like most slang, the word “Racing” was cool to whatever the 19th century French Anglophile equivalent of a 21-year-old American Anglophile was. Racing…a cool name even a century and a half later.