Hopes Dashed
It really was the best of times and the worst of times for Racing Louisville on Friday night. They started out their match against the Houston Dash playing better than they practically ever have before. Rookie Kirsten Davis scored her first professional goal in the 16′ and Jess McDonald scored her first goal in lavender in the 40′. However, Racing just couldn’t adjust when the Dash came out on the front foot in the second half. Houston scored two goals only two minutes apart in the 56′ and 58′. The nail in the coffin came in the 65′ off a penalty scored by Houston’s Rachel Daly and the match ended 2-3 in the Dash’s favor.
“We kind of were on our heels in the second half,” said McDonald after the match. “We kind of didn’t know how to handle the pressure we were under, especially when we were tied 2-2. It was as if we just didn’t know what to do with ourselves.”
She said that she hopes her experience in the front combined with Gemma Bonner’s leadership in the back can help her younger teammates “learn from [the match] and learn to move on ’cause we’re going to be in situations like that, as we can see.”
Giving up a 2-0 lead isn’t good. Clearly, the defense needs some work. Clearly, Racing needs to work on maintaining consistency and momentum. In the second half, Racing was far too complacent with their lead. Houston adjusted at halftime, but Racing did not and that hurt them.
However, not everything is as grim as it seems on the face of it. There were actually quite a few indicators of growth during this match. For instance, both starting rookies had very good games. On a whole, the team improved offensively across almost every statistic. Racing had more shots, shots on goal, touches in the opposition box, etc. They actually improved in a few areas defensively, too. They won more tackles and had more interceptions.
Ultimately, this was a game of extremes. Let’s take a holistic view of the match and try…
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