No excuse: A slow start seals Racing Louisville's loss to Angel City
Clawing back from a two-goal deficit after early mistakes wasn't enough to keep Racing from falling 2-3 on Wednesday night
Slow Starts
Coming off a bruising loss against Gotham FC last weekend, Racing Louisville needed to enter their Wednesday night road match against Angel City on the front foot. Unfortunately, they did the opposite.
Racing Louisville came out flat and disconnected against the Los Angeles-based side. Their failure to string together passes and generate any forward progress led them to fall behind by two by the 31st minute. This is a worrying trend for Racing who’ve also had slow starts in their previous two games. While they rallied and won against Houston, they lost 2-0 to Gotham. The loss in Los Angeles puts them on a two-game losing streak.
“We just need to come out better,” midfielder Taylor Flint said post-match. “There’s no excuse for that. It’s something we’re struggling with.”
In the 41st minute, Racing forward Elexa Bahr drew a penalty that Flint blasted into the side netting. This proved to be a jumpstart for Louisville who performed significantly better after. Emma Sears coming in at the half also provided a spark. One of her long crosses found defender Carson Pickett who equalized for Racing. Despite several solid chances throughout the second half from Abby Erceg, Savannah DeMelo, and Elexa Bahr, Angel City earned the late game-winner in the 85th minute off of a header by Sydney Leroux.
“Goals change games,” said head coach Bev Yanez. “In any fashion they come, they change games. And I think especially in the second half, what we were able to create and the opportunities that we were able to create— if we’re able to put one away, I think we continue to snag momentum.
“So I think obviously, there’s games that you walk away and you’re upset with or frustrated with the fact that you didn’t create enough. I think we created today. And then it’s just a fact, right? Goals change games so how can we put goals away to continue to squeeze that momentum?”
By the Numbers
Yanez is correct. Compared to their match against Gotham last weekend, Racing did create against Angel City. They generated a whole 1.07 xG off three shots and two on frame in the first half versus the zero they generated in the first half against Gotham last Saturday. Comparatively, Angel City had 0.78 xG off of six shots and three on goal. Racing’s cold start comes a bit more into perspective when you realize that a whole 0.788 of that xG was off of Flint’s successful penalty kick in the 41st minute.
In the second half, Racing came alive and had 13 shots. Unfortunately, only two were on frame. They generated 0.98 xG in the half for a total of 2.05 overall exceeding Angel City’s 1.61 xG overall. They also limited Angel City to only five shots with one on target in the second half, but that one on frame in the 85th minute was all it took to steal all three points from Racing. As Yanez said, goals change games.
The match ended with Racing earning 48% possession and having only 75% passing accuracy. Angel City had 77% passing accuracy. Racing is in the bottom four teams in the league for passing accuracy at 76.29% with the league average at 77.26%.
Angel City and Racing Louisville have now each scored in all five meetings between the sides. This is the first time the home team has won in any of these matchups and the first time the visiting team did not lead at some point.
Racing has failed to win any of their matches this season when going down a goal first which is why it’s imperative they focus on getting off to better starts.
Racing has won three penalties this season, the most of any team in the NWSL.
Katie Lund is the 11th keeper to have reached 250 saves. All the more remarkable she’s done it under four years. Both Taylor Flint and Carson Pickett scored their first goals in lavender in this match.
Key Takeaways
Searching for a full 90-minute performance
Last weekend, midfielder Jaelin Howell said the team needed a “gut check” after their loss to Gotham FC. It’s not clear if they had one. Sure, Racing played a solid second half and was the better team during it, but the fact they let the first half get away from them made it too steep a climb for them to catch up.
This is the third straight game where Racing had a poor start. They pulled off the win against Houston and almost pulled back a point in Los Angeles, but this trend is concerning.
“I don’t think anybody wants to start out slow, do they? I think everybody works really hard to put an impact pretty early in the match,” said Yanez. “No, we don’t expect to start out that way. We always expect to start off on the front foot. We always expect to start off with our identity, but I know that the response from the group is where my focus is going to go.”
It’s fair that Yanez wants to focus on the response because, despite the loss, Racing did end the game in improved form and the goal will be to carry that form over to their match on Sunday in Seattle. Still, there’s no question they need to figure out why they’ve been starting slow when earlier in the season they did the exact opposite—started hot only to cool down and struggle to stay in games.
Racing needs to learn how to put in 90-minute performances against teams that don’t yield space or possession to them, as Chicago did immediately and Utah and Houston eventually did in the second half. They struggle to maneuver against teams that press them early and there’s no question their opponents will smell blood in the water and attempt to push them on the back foot at the start of every game. Until Racing can punch back early and hard enough to force opponents to take a step back, they should anticipate this being their new norm.
For Flint, this means fixing the team’s mentality at the start of games.
“There’s no excuse for not coming out and giving 110 % every game,” the midfielder said. “That is something we definitely need to fix this weekend.”
We need to talk about Fischer
With numerous injuries thinning the roster, Yanez has chosen to give Kayla Fischer a good number of starts this season. Fischer is a player who isn’t afraid to get stuck in and will fight harder than anyone, but it’s apparent she’s unable to moderate herself. Not only was she suspended for five yellows after barely over 500 minutes, but it’s clear that suspension has had no tempering effect on her.
Wednesday night in Los Angeles, she was as physical as ever and playing as if she’d never seen a yellow card in her life. It’s something of a miracle she get sent off with two yellows considering how hard some of her tackles were. These include a collision with Merritt Mathias that led to a cascading series of events involving Mathias shoving Fischer on the ground and getting a yellow followed by DeMelo defending Fischer by shoving Mathias and getting a yellow herself. Even if you could argue that Fischer wasn’t to blame for that specific collision, she had enough bad tackles beforehand to raise that level of ire from Mathias. And now DeMelo has an unnecessary yellow as well.
Prior to that collision, one of those bad fouls led to the set piece that gave Angel City their second goal. This is the second opponent goal after the penalty given to Kansas City that can be attributed to a Fischer mistake. If there was some sign that Fischer was trying to be less reckless, it would make sense to continue starting her. However, that’s just not happening and her presence is becoming costly. Yanez seems uninterested in playing Linda Motlhalo or Milly Clegg and she may have her reasons, but, at this point, even an ineffective performance might be better than one that’s actively setting the team back. Fischer still has a huge amount of potential and her passion and willingness to give her all are highly commendable, but Racing can’t keep suffering from preventable mistakes like these.
Looking Ahead
Racing is holding onto a playoff spot by the tips of their fingernails and could very easily drop out of it this weekend if they can’t get all three points from the Seattle Reign on Sunday evening. Their positive goal difference is the only thing holding off Angel City who also have 15 points. The San Diego Wave has 14 and the Houston Dash has 13 so at least two of these teams can shoot past Racing, considering Houston and San Diego play each other.
The Reign are about as vulnerable as a team can be. They’re in 13th place with a -12 goal difference and only eight points. They haven’t won since early May. Theoretically, Racing should have this game in hand, but if Racing’s mentality continues to lag, they could trouble. The Reign will be rested and at home while Racing will be finishing up a very discouraging three-game week featuring two consecutive losses and playing about as far from home as possible. They’ll also be playing on turf which Seattle is familiar with and Racing is not.
There’s no doubt about it, Racing needs this win. It’s halfway through the season and losing to two teams below them on the table and losing their hold on a playoff spot will not put them in a good headspace.
The good news is that Racing has shown they do have what it takes to win. When they’re firing on all cylinders, they’re a formidable team. There’s no question the team is better when Sears is starting and after getting rested on Wednesday, it’s assumed she’ll have the start. Reilyn Turner was also rested, so maybe this will be a chance for the rookie forward to get some confidence back as well. Will it be enough for Racing to stop their slide? Find out when Racing takes on the Seattle Reign at 6 P.M. on Sunday on NWSL+.
I’m interested in why it seems that some players, like Miley and Linda, never get minutes. I can understand that they might not be there yet, but if they never play how will they ever get there?
You give hope when you say Racing is formidable when firing on all cylinders. The slow starts make me wonder about their locker room mood right before the start of game. Are they too tense or too relaxed? Either way they would not be appropriately focused to perform at their best.