Racing still finds themselves in playoff contention but has not found consistency.
Racing Louisville finished its 13th match of the season on June 19th, and now has the same number of matches remaining. There is a quick turnaround to the next match on June 23rd, so the second half of the season starts right away.
Louisville finds itself in 8th place in the league, but only leading Angel City in 9th place by goal difference (although it is a significant difference at+2 compared to -5). During the 6 matches in this portion of the season, Racing acquired 7 points out of a possible 15. In the first quarter review I stated that Louisville would likely need 8-10 to keep pace, but 7 points ended up doing the trick. I think the consensus on Racing at this point of the season is that they are a “middle of the pack” team that has a decent shot of making the playoffs. That is my assessment as well.
The Matches
Racing 1 – Spirit 2
Best Bit: Savannah DeMelo scored on one of her patented stunning free kicks.
Worst Bit: Racing are asleep on the opening goal and the Spirit score on a missed assignment from a corner.
Takeaway: Racing dig themselves into a hole and fight back valiantly but can’t dig themselves out.
Current 3 – Racing 3
Best Bit: DeMelo scores a great equalizer deep into stoppage time.
Worst Bit: Fischer concedes a penalty by dawdling on the ball and KC convert.
Takeaway: Racing gets a somewhat fortunate point on the road and are the first team to take points off of KC at home all season.
Red Stars 0 – Racing 1
Best Bit: Sears scores a terrific goal regardless of her intention.
Worst Bit: Chicago were frankly terrible in this match, so it made it tough to gage Racing’s performance.
Takeaway: Racing has about as comfortable a 0-1 win as one could have.
Racing 2- Dash 0
Best Bit: Racing put on a display in the second half that rivals the best 45 minutes they have played all season.
Worst Bit: The first half of the match was an afront to football by both teams.
Takeaway: Racing pick up 3 more points and find themselves back in the playoff spots.
Racing 0 -Gotham 2
Best Bit: I don’t know…Gotham were good for the first 40 minutes if you watched as a neutral.
Worst Bit: Realizing the gap between Racing and the top teams remains pretty wide.
Takeaway: Racing didn’t play poorly but were never really in the match.
Angel City 3 – Racing 2
Best Bit: Racing equalize on a goal by Pickett and look promising to score after that.
Worst Bit: Racing’s defending all night left lots to be desired.
Takeaway: Angel City snatch all 3 points because Racing lacks a clinical edge.
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Is this the best Racing can expect to do?
In my opinion, yep.
Racing has never done anything consistently other than be inconsistent. Based on the health and status of the roster, I think Racing is about where they need to be. They don’t have the depth of talent that the best teams in the league have, but they have enough to give the top teams a fight on any given day. I think Bev has done a solid B-/C+ job in her first season. There are things that the team could do better, but that is any team really. Personally, I am not particularly pleased with the style of play, but that’s just me. I think Racing give away too much possession, but that is more of a result of the speed at which they like to play versus not having the skills to do it. Let’s not forget that 8th place (where Racing currently sits) would be pretty good progress. I kind of like it that there are 4 to 5 teams that you can definitively say are the best in the league and everyone else is chasing them. It gives Racing a target and a model compared to last season where it felt like such a jumble from top to bottom with no clear team being that much better than any other.
Injuries and squad depth haven’t helped Racing’s performance much this season. Racing added 11 new players and while 5 or 6 of them really contribute, at least 5 have given them next to nothing. With injury spells to Borges, Kirsten Wright, Howell, Bagett, and Pikkujämsä, many times there weren’t enough outfield players to fill up a 9-player bench. Even when there were 9, it is highly debatable that even 6 of them were even realistic options. Unfortunately for Racing, there aren’t any returning superheroes that are going to find themselves completely healthy in the next few weeks and months. Borges, and Kirsten Wright could plausibly help, but their returns aren’t enough to drastically change Racing’s fortunes.
If you are inclined towards optimism, the good news is that if Racing makes the playoffs and is playing their best football at that time, they could still make a run. Ever the pragmatist, I think making the playoffs and a good showing in a first-round match is about the best outcome you could expect at this point in the season.
Halfway point MVP/ROY
You could always make an argument that Savannah DeMelo is the MVP at any point in the season, but I think the addition of Taylor Flint has been the thing that has kept the wheels from falling off this season. She does so many stat filling things on the defensive side, that she is the 6th rated player in the league according to FotMob while only have a single goal contribution. When comparing her to Howell’s 2023 performance for Racing at the deepest midfield position, Flint is winning nearly 70% of her duels compared to Howell’s 57% in 2023. She is near the top of the league in a bunch of defensive categories. If you removed her from the team, I truly think Racing could be at the bottom of the league.
Rookie of the year is an even easier discussion. Emma Sears will be a very good to great player in this league in my opinion. She has all of the tools to be great, so only misfortune could prevent it. I think Racing’s current system fits her well. It would be interesting to see how she worked in different system that prioritized possession a little more. Reilyn Turner has been good too, but her minutes have dropped along with her production.
Looking Ahead
If Racing Louisville is to make the playoffs this season, they might want to get things as close to wrapped up as possible in the next 9 matches. Racing next plays a team that I consider “elite” on October 5th at home against Kansas City. Before that, they get Bay twice, Seattle twice, North Carolina twice, Chicago, Angel City, and Utah. Those nine matches present the opportunity to accumulate points without having to play perfectly or even near it. I would feel better about things if the team would just show a little bit of consistency.
The things that they do well in spurts, also cause them problems at times.
Savannah DeMelo is just as likely to dribble through trouble effectively as she is to pick the wrong time to try to dribble through a double team at the wrong spot on the pitch.
For all of Sears’ exciting runs, she still picks the wrong pass as much as the right one.
Katie Lund is just as likely to follow up a great save with a head-scratching decision or poor pass.
Many players have moments of greatness just to disappear into the background for long stretches.
Taylor Flint is as close to a reliable player that Racing has, and she only has half of a season in a new role. I can’t remember two consecutive halves where I thought Racing played well on both sides of the ball. If they can improve even just a little bit in their mentality and consistency, I think they as capable of going on a bit of a mini run based on their next opponents.
However, they’ve never had a run better than 9 points from 5 matches. That happened twice. I feel like they will need to hit a form of at least 10 from 15 during this stretch to give themselves some cushion prior to a touch closing 4 matches.
