Racing rallies to open the Summer Cup with a 3-1 win against CF Monterrey
This win ends Louisville's five-game winless streak and puts them in first place in their tournament division.
Hitting refresh
Despite giving up a goal within the first 11 minutes, Racing Louisville rallied to take down CF Monterrey 3-1 in their first match of the inaugural NWSL x LIGA MX Femenil Summer Cup on Saturday night at Lynn Family Stadium.
Racing found their footing when Emma Sears tapped in a loose rebound to equalize in the 36th minute. They built on that momentum after half-time when substitution Kayla Fischer scored two minutes into the half. Midfielder Ary Borges also made a quick impression by scoring the final goal in the 71st minute after being subbed in the 63rd.
“I thought it was a great team performance,” Sears said. “We played together and we were committed the whole way through despite them getting a goal on us early. We were resilient in what our game plan was coming into the game.”
This game ends a five-game winless slide that Racing has endured since early June. Although the regular season is now paused for the Olympic break, head coach Bev Yanez said players returned from a league-mandated week off feeling refreshed and energized. The Summer Cup can now be a time to test things and give attention to what went wrong during their recent run of poor form.
“[Monterrey is] a very respectable side that we played today and very proud of the group for earning the three points in the fashion that they earned the three points,” said Yanez. “We wanted to try something different, and I felt the group really adapted to it throughout the training week and showcased very well what we were specifically asking for.”
Yanez didn’t change much in starting personnel until the second-half substitutions, but she did tweak how players were utilized. Let’s break down some of these positional changes and how the team performed in general. But, first, let’s look at some key stats.
By the numbers
Racing had 1.43 xG overall compared to Monterrey’s 0.98 according to Opta. Both teams had 15 total shots with six on target.
Racing had almost 58% possession throughout the match including a full 63% in the second half as they seized momentum.
Rookie Emma Sears now has four goals in 17 matches across all competitions. This ties her for second on the team in goal involvements.
This was keeper Jordyn Bloomer’s first start since a 2022 Challenge Cup match against the Houston Dash. She was tested throughout the match and managed six saves on the night.
Key takeaways
Adaptions
Many teams are using the Summer Cup to rotate their rosters but in this first match, Yanez kept the starting eleven almost identical to the previous starters against North Carolina.
The biggest change was bringing Bloomer into goal. Monterrey’s players were fans of volleys and shooting from distance which kept Bloomer on her toes, but she proved to be up to the task. She proved to be a solid enough shot-stopper that she earned Player of the Match accolades from fans.
The other change from North Carolina to Monterrey was putting Sears back in after starting Kayla Fischer previously. Sears has been a starter more often than not recently so this felt more like a return to normal than a change.
Despite the lack of major rotation, Yanez did opt to utilize her players differently. Some of these changes had already started back in North Carolina and the fact they’re continuing in the Summer Cup indicates they have the potential to become more permanent.
The double pivot
Taylor Flint has been a standout for Racing this season. After a career spent primarily as a No. 10 or central attacking midfielder, she’s moved to Racing and exclusively played in a 6/8 pivot. This means she’s either played as the No. 6— the defensive midfielder who sits deep above the center backs—or as the No. 8 who is positioned next to the No. 6 but is given more leeway to move forward. To say she’s adjusted to this role well is an understatement. Flint currently leads the league in the regular season in tackles won (44), interceptions (46), and aerials won (57) according to FBref.com/StatHead. According to Opta, she leads the league in duels won with 166—a full 29 ahead of the second runner-up. To lead the league in one or two stats from a new position is great. To lead the league in at least four is exceptional.
Flint’s ascendency has been a boon to Racing especially considering the fact fellow midfielders Borges and Jaelin Howell have missed extensive portions of the season due to injury. Marisa DiGrande’s addition as a free agent this off-season has also helped Racing bridge this gap, but now that both players are healthy, there are big questions about what to do in the midfield.
Flint and DiGrande have spent most of the season paired up in the double pivot with Flint playing deeper and DiGrande going forward. Now that Howell’s back, some might expect her to step back into the deeper role in the pivot, but against Monterrey, she was the one getting forward, as seen in the graph of average starter positions below.
It’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out because Howell is, in many ways, a consummate No. 6. It’s been her lifelong position and it’s one she’s very passionate about. Not only does she wear the No. 6 on her kit, but she’s won two consecutive MAC Hermann trophies in college in that position. She’s also the team captain.
Against Monterrey at least, she was pretty effective. She had more shots (4) than any Racing player with two going off the woodwork and one rebounding to create Sears’ goal. And she was still able to break up passes and won the second most duels (7) on either team. She’s just doing the defensive work a bit higher up on the field.
Will this switch work against in-season NWSL competition? It’s hard to say. They tried something similar against the North Carolina Courage in the most recent regular season match and it was almost the mirror image of the Monterrey game in all the worst ways. Flint took a game or two to get into form in her new position, so maybe it’ll just take some adjustment for this position to click as well.
This isn’t a settled issue, though, because there’s still the question of where to put Borges. She came in for Howell and played as a No. 8 and almost immediately scored. Borges is one of the most dynamic players on the roster and needs to be on the field. She can play on the wing, but she’s comfortable as a No. 8 in the pivot where she was played next to Howell all last season. This raises some big questions for Yanez and co. to answer.
DeMelo/DiGrande
Another big question arises from pushing DiGrande out of the double pivot. Yanez clearly wants to keep her on the field because she’s chosen to push her up into the No. 10 position for the past two matches. DiGrande has done fine here, but the consequence of this is that Savannah DeMelo, Racing’s all-time goal leader and arguably most consistent player, gets pushed out to the wing. This has happened against North Carolina and against Monterrey.
DeMelo has played wide before so this isn’t a total surprise. What is a surprise is that she’s being played on the right side. For someone whose bread and butter is dribbling forward, cutting onto her right foot to shoot (see her late equalizer against Kansas City earlier this year for an example) placing her on the right flank robs her of this ability. And it’s noticeably slowing her down in games. In the 24th minute against Monterrey, DeMelo intercepted the ball and charged forward in typical fashion only to stop at the top of the box to take an extra touch to try and get the ball onto her right foot. This is enough time for Monterrey to shut her down and she doesn’t get a shot off. By the 40th minute, she switched sides with Sears and both players looked better as a result of it. DeMelo, in particular, came alive and assisted in the next two goals.
DiGrande ultimately did fine as the No. 10, but did she do well enough to warrant pushing DeMelo over? Recent poor results make it clear that Racing needs changes and the Summer Cup is the time to experiment, but this is adding up to a lot of players playing outside of their natural positions. Throw in the fact Arin Wright is most traditionally out wide and not a central defender and that’s another one. In the case of Wright, at least, we got to see her take on a wide role for only the second time this year thanks to rotations.
Substitutions and rotations
All five substitutions were used this match which gave fans a chance to not just see new faces, but see familiar players in new roles. As mentioned Fischer and Borges both made almost immediate impacts after coming on. Outside of the goal scorers, Ellie Jean got a solid number of second-half minutes at centerback. Elexa Bahr was also brought on to replace Sears and put in a solid shift along the flank. Linda Motlhalo most notably got some of her first minutes in lavender when she came in for DiGrande. She didn’t make much of an impact, but it was good for fans to have some footage to use to gauge performance. When players get no minutes, it’s hard to know what they bring to the table. Now that fans have seen Bloomer, they know we have a reliable backup to Lund. Now that we’ve seen Motlhalo, we have a better sense of who she is on the field.
Using this time to give bench players minutes has other positives as well. Sears said rotation doesn’t just benefit individual players, it strengthens the whole team.
“I think it's great for team morale, team chemistry, and getting players on the field,” the forward said. “It was a great team performance. Jordyn Boomer getting Player of the Match was amazing. And Linda getting minutes, too. It just team morale and is going to carry us throughout this tournament.”
Beyond just using these substitutions, it is once again interesting to see how Yanez chose to utilize them. Fischer came in as the No. 9 instead of as a winger and looked great. She almost scored a goal in the first play of the second half and then actually scored one two minutes later. Would it have been called offside if VAR had been implemented? Probably, but her chance creation was vastly improved when played centrally and possibly after coming in as a substitute. Bahr also looked more comfortable back on the flank than directly in front of goal. She’s not a natural striker and using her out wide again looked more natural. Finally, Ellie Jean coming in Carson Pickett meant Arin Wright did get pushed out wide. The Wright-Abby Erceg-Ellie Jean-Lauren Milliet back line ultimately did fine which, again, demonstrates that Racing does have some flexibility along these previously unshakeable lines if necessary.
Even if Yanez does choose to keep finetuning the chemistry of her starters during the Summer Cup in a bid to truly win the trophy, it can only benefit the team to continue to rotate heavily using substitutes.
What does it all mean?
Monterrey is a very good team that just won the championship, but they’re in pre-season and traveled from another country to be here. As the in-season home team deep in a bad run of form, Louisville simply had to win this match. Despite it not being a regular season match, they probably had to win it more than any game yet this season. If they’d lost with so little rotation, that would be a huge red flag for an already struggling team. Thankfully that didn’t happen and this strong victory can serve as a desperately needed confidence boost instead.
While the win was needed, can we take much away from it? The coaches can tactically and player performance-wise, but as fans, it would be risky to assume Racing has turned a major corner. This is a low-stakes-friendly tournament. It can be used as the refresher and learning environment it is. Hopefully, Racing can put in a good run for a trophy. All that’s great, but they still have a lot to prove against other NWSL teams, and, starting on Friday, they’ll have that chance.
Looking Ahead
Next Friday, Racing once again faces their White Whale, the North Carolina Courage. It really is some kind of luck that of all the teams in the NWSL, Racing was drawn into the group with the top team in the league (the Orlando Pride) and the one non-expansion team they’ve never beaten in four years (the Courage).
Louisville’s last loss to North Carolina is as fresh as it gets, considering it came two weeks ago as their final regular season match before the break. Instead of this being a negative, however, Yanez said that proximity is a good thing.
“You don't have to really get a group confident and get a group excited about playing someone that they just lost to,” Yanez explained. “It's already there. The fire's already there. So the fact that we get to play them so quickly, I think is exciting for us.”
The Courage’s first match in the Summer Cup went to a penalty shoot-out, as all games will if they remain tied at the end of regulation time. The Courage won the shoot-out, but the fact that it went to PKs means they only earned two points from the match. This puts Racing alone in first place in the group after Saturday’s win. The Courage used a somewhat rotated roster, but with players like Ashley Sanchez and Tyler Lussi still available, they remain formidable.
Even so, this is probably Racing’s best chance to steal a point from them for the first time in their history so it’ll be interesting to see what lessons Yanez and company ultimately take from the Monterrey win.
Great analysis, Bekki. I love how you break down all the changes and use of the players.