Racing Louisville FC: Recapping the season at the 3/4 Pole

Keeping up the tradition of reviewing Racing Louisville’s performance at the end of every quarter of the season, here is a review of the last six (or seven if you include The Women’s Cup Final) games.

Racing Louisville has now completed 18 games in its inaugural season and has compiled a record of 4-5-9, accumulating 17 points. The third 6 game stretch of the season showed improvement in play, a trophy won, but only 3 points in the league.

This stretch has been the most eventful section of the season. In order, Racing:

• Won the Inaugural Women’s Cup against Bayern Munich
• Fired Christy Holly for cause
• Probably lost Nadia Nadim for the remainder of the season

Let’s take a quick look at each of those.

The Women’s Cup victory was a nice first piece of silverware for the club, but to be completely honest it: a) is really just a trophy for winning a glorified friendly match and b) seemed to cause a hangover to which Racing still hasn’t recovered. Winning the cup was a lot of fun and will rightly be remembered for a long time, but shouldn’t be seen as a validation of the club’s progress. The sole measure for that has to be league performance.

The firing of Christy Holly was a surprise to most people. We may never know exactly what occurred to ultimately lead to his dismissal, but when you hire a coach with baggage, it can’t be a complete shock when something like this occurs. I hope the club does a bit more due diligence on the next hire and on a completely personal preferential note, hires someone outside the organization. To be completely frank I hope they hire a candidate that looks nothing like the majority of the coaches did when the NWSL season started. Take that for what you will.

Nadia Nadim’s injury hasn’t been officially confirmed at the time of writing this, but it looked bad. It has been reported to be a knee ligament injury, which if true means she is done for the year. Since she joined, Nadia has been Racing’s best-attacking player, but there are other attacking talents on the team that will have a chance to shine in her absence.

Reviewing Questions from Last Quarter

Back in when I wrote my midseason review, I posed 5 questions for the team, so let’s review how Racing answered each of those.

Can Racing Louisville accumulate enough points to get back into the playoff race?

This was a big NO. Three points in 6 matches mean that any hopes for the playoffs are virtually non-existent. Making the playoffs as an expansion side would have been a tremendous accomplishment, but that was always a long shot. The coaches and the team will not give up, nor should they. However, the team will need to balance trying to win its remaining games vs. preparing for the future. The younger players like Ekic and Salmon need more playing time if they are to be part of the plan for the future. The team also needs to figure out where to play Fox and where they need more talent.

Who will step up and take over the second starting CB role?

This one we now know…Kaleigh Riehl. In my opinion, she looks better the more she plays. Coach Holly for some reason decided that he preferred Martin at CB for a while, but in retrospect, that looks rather foolish. Based on play and not reputation, Riehl has been the best CB for the team in the last few games.

Can the team cut down on passing errors and improve their defense?

Uh…sort of? Maybe? They are still susceptible to giving up equalizing goals and the first one in the match against KC was a horrible error. On the whole, there had been some improvement. Most of the goals scored by Racing Louisville opponents this quarter were more down to superior efforts by the opposition vs. a mistake. I guess that counts as some progress.

Has Racing Louisville settled on their true starting XI for the rest of the season?

No. Interim Head Coach Mario Sanchez made immediate changes once he took over. I wouldn’t say that his choice of a starting XI has exactly solved any of Racing’s issues. I believe Sanchez is selecting his starters based on how well they will adapt to his high pressing style. That’s fine, and the organization seems to want to play that way. I highly disagree, but what do I know. I believe a high press works if you are conditioned to do it for 90 minutes. Racing seems conditioned to do it for the first 20 to 25 minutes of each half. That simply doesn’t work in my opinion.

Will the possession numbers continue to improve?

This has been a mixed bag and even when they’ve won the possession battle, it hasn’t meant much. Possession has always been a bit of an overrated stat. To be fair, Racing has had long stretches in matches where they have played well and even dominated the match. They just haven’t been able to have enough sustained high level performance to get a win recently.

Questions for the final quarter of the season

Even if the playoffs are realistically out of sight, there are still plenty of things to play for as the team looks to next season. Here is what I will be interested in seeing for the final six matches.

1. Can Racing win another match?
2. Can Racing come from behind to secure points?
3. Can the team settle on a identity in the final few games?
4. Will some fringe players get chances to be evaluated?
5. Who has shown they merit protection in the expansion draft?

These will be the key items as Racing Louisville FC looks toward a more successful 2022 season.

Also Read: What concerns remain after Louisville football’s win over EKU