"Some Really Good Soccer": Everything Clicks as Racing Tops the Chicago Reds Stars 3-1
New arrivals raise the bar for Racing Louisville and help propel them into their most complete performance all season.
A Complete Performance
Racing Louisville muscled themselves back into a playoff spot with a dominant 3-1 victory over the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday night at Lynn Family Stadium. This wasn’t just a strong return to form from a club that had limped into the Olympic break on a five-game winless slide. It was one of the most complete performances Louisville has ever put together.
Said head coach Bev Yanez, “Early on in the first half of the season, there was a lot of, ‘You guys start off well. You play well in certain patches of the game. You guys are finishing well.’ For me, that was a complete performance, and I'm very, very proud of the group.”
The completeness of Saturday’s performance stood out to anyone who has watched Racing this season. They were largely in control and scored early. Even when they gave up an equalizer, the response was immediate. They even scored an insurance goal—something rare for a team that struggles to score multiple goals—but best of all, they killed off the game effectively. Louisville confidently held possession, passed the ball to each other, and managed the clock instead of getting pushed into a late defensive scramble. This is a far cry from the Racing that would put in nearly perfect 70- or 80-minute shifts and gain leads, but like clockwork, allow opponents to gain ground and spend the last ten or fifteen minutes of the game scrambling only to give up a late equalizer.
Midfielder Marisa DiGrande who scored the game-winner with her first goal in lavender, agreed this was a truly complete game for Racing.
“I think our game management overall was great,” the goal-scorer said. “And I think that’s something in the first half of season maybe we were kind of struggling with a little bit is finishing out the games. And I think we absolutely did that quickly tonight. And we just wanted to be calm and controlled on the ball and I think throughout the full 90, we had a good amount of possession. And I think we played some really good soccer. Not just getting multiple goals, but really truly closing out the game, not on the back foot at all, really just completely in control.”
This change in form comes on the back of some dramatic changes to the roster that have happened in just the last week and a half. These include sending left-back Carson Pickett to the Orlando Pride for cash last week, trading Racing’s captain and midfielder Jaelin Howell to the Seattle Reign for striker Bethany Balcer on Tuesday, and acquiring veteran attacker and Canadian gold medalist Janine Beckie from the Portland Thorns in exchange for rookie Reilyn Turner on Thursday.
These moves were shocking and bold, but the message was clear: Racing needs to win now. And while Saturday’s win can in no way be entirely attributed to these changes, there’s no doubt they had an impact. Before we get into that, let’s look at the stats of this match.
By The Numbers
This is the third time all season Racing has scored three or more goals. Uchenna Kanu scored the opening goal and now ties Savannah DeMelo for the most regular season goals for Racing. Bethany Balcer got her first assist all year for Kanu’s goal.
As mentioned, DiGrande scored the ultimate game-winner with the second goal. She was assisted by Kayla Fischer. Fischer scored the third goal off an assist by Taylor Flint. According to Opta, Fischer is only the second player in Racing history to score a goal and notch an assist off the bench as a substitute. (The first was Emina Ekic in 2021).
Racing has now beaten Chicago in their last four out of five matchups.
A Racing player had never previously attempted more than 80 passes this season. In this match, Abby Erceg had 101 passes and Ellie Jean had 87. Taylor Flint also came close with 76. Unsurprisingly, Racing had the highest number of passes this season with 573. This is way above Racing’s average total passes of 378 prior to this match.
It’s interesting to see that Racing’s highest total passes for the season in a rejuvenating 3-1 win came on the back of their lowest total passes of the season in a disastrous 3-1 loss.
This is just total passes, though, not passing accuracy. However, passing accuracy was also very high at 87%. Nearly 70 of the 573 passes came in the final 10-15 minutes of the match as Racing was killing off the game and Erceg, Jean, and Flint were playing keep away to some extent and daring tired Chicago attackers to press them. Interestingly, though, Racing actually had slightly higher possession in the first half with 63% and 56% in the second with a total of 60% overall.
Racing earned a total of 1.98 xG according to Opta/StatsPerform off of 18 shots with seven on target while Chicago had 0.58 xG with 10 shots and three on target.
Key Takeaways
Instant Impacts
There’s no question this feels like a different Racing Louisville. Something has profoundly shifted in the squad.
Both Balcer and Beckie had instant impacts on the team. The most obvious impact was in Balcer’s almost immediate assist to Kanu. While Balcer didn’t have a single shot or shot on goal, her recognition of Kanu’s run and perfectly taken cross that drew Naeher into a dive that left Kanu free to pass the ball into the back of the net was fantastic. And that, of course, takes absolutely nothing away from Kanu’s run to the post or the couple of times the pair came close to connecting earlier as well.
Kanu was on fire this game. Part of that is because getting other strong attacking pieces, like Balcer, spread defenders’ attention so Kanu had the time and space to really showcase what she could do instead of getting shut down as one of the only really dangerous threats on Racing’s front line. Just like Orlando’s Ally Watt has looked better next to Barbra Banda than she has at practically any time in her career, better players elevate those around them.
Another thing Balcer did well was press relentlessly. She would charge down to the wings to back up Arin Wright, DeMelo, or Lauren Milliet to help force a bad pass that Flint or Borges could clean up. She didn’t necessarily get an interception or a duel, but her presence cut off passing lanes or forced the Chicago player into a decision that helped win turnovers.
While Beckie had less time on the field, she had some good connections with Lauren Milliet considering she’s only had one practice with Racing Louisville since arriving in town. The key to this is the fact she was constantly communicating. Racing has not always been the most communicative team. Opponents would come to town and we’d hear them from the stands more than Racing. But Beckie was pointing and giving directions and what do you know? Teammates responded. This veteran communication helps keep the team calm and in control as they’re closing out games. I’m not at all implying Beckie is the sole reason Racing was able to shut the game down, but having a gold medal and NWSL championship-winning vet in the front with Erceg as captain on the back line definitely improves communication across the team during tense moments.
Falling Into Place
As helpful as the changes in offense were, the midfield also looked like it’s fallen into place. Injuries had left lingering questions of how to manage the mixed bag of skilled players in these positions, but those seem to be answered with Ary Borges falling in as a true No. 8 in the double pivot next to Taylor Flint. Howell had never fit in comfortably next to another defensive midfielder and struggled with going forward effectively and not leaving gaps. This hurt Racing against North Carolina in the last regular season match in particular. Borges, meanwhile, struggled during the Summer Cup and Women’s Cup experiments in the No. 10 role. She’s a much more natural No. 8 and seemed everywhere at once against Chicago.
Although I haven’t loved the double No. 10 experiment that pushes DeMelo out to the right, it does keep DiGrande on the field and both DeMelo and DiGrande had fantastic games last night. Even if DeMelo didn’t score, the ball moved through her in the midfield as she came in centrally and her service was better in this match than in previous ones. With the arrival of Beckie, it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Howell was an amazing player for Racing who did amazing things for the community, but this collection of players seems to be a more natural fit than any we’ve seen this year.
With the loss of Pickett, there was a lot of worry about how Racing would cope. The current answer seems to be to move Arin Wright to the outer back position she played for years in Chicago and to bring Jean in as a center back.
Jean has not disappointed. Her service has been excellent, she has good speed and solid coverage. She’s also proven she can step up at key moments. Most notably on Saturday, Chicago’s Penelope Hocking broke away and seemed destined to go one-on-one with Racing’s keeper Katie Lund. Not only did Jean catch up to her, but she positioned herself so that Hocking was forced to take an extra touch and go to her left foot. This gave Jean enough time to get her leg up and block the shot.
Racing recently acquired Angela Baron, a Colombian national team member fresh from the Olympics, so rotation is likely, but it’s exciting to know that Racing has the depth needed for a solid push.
Kayla Fischer also continues to impress. She’s gone from a yellow card-generating rugby tackler to a surprisingly deft on-her-feet-quick-turning No. 9. The idea of her starting over Balcer seems highly unlikely but nothing raises the quality of a young player who wants to grow than competition. Fischer has shown all the signs of a player who can be a great super sub if she wants to be and she’s given quite a few back-lines fits when she’s come onto the field.
Bigger Pictures
For years Racing has been a team that couldn’t build up to save its life. They were the most direct team in an already direct league. They had the fewest passes to get to goal which isn’t necessarily a good thing because they also weren’t scoring much at all. If it was by design, that would be one thing, but it wasn’t for Racing. For all their talk of being a high-pressing team, Racing had no real tactical identity at all in their first three years—something players have been increasingly blunt about. Their press was inconsistent and they were the worst or close to the bottom for the number of successful progressive passes in the league for most of their existence.
This has been changing under Yanez and her coaching staff. One of the most frustrating things about Racing’s current season is that in a few of their losses, like the one against Bay or the Summer Cup match against Palmieras, they controlled most of the match and built up well. They just couldn’t score. This positive development was hard to see under the slog of everything else that was happening, but it was there even if consistency was hard to find.
On Sunday, Opta released the following image which shows just how much Racing has developed in this area.
For Racing to achieve a prolonged build-up to this extent is almost absurd. It not only shows a change in strategy and tactics, but it also shows a change in the confidence and comfortability of the players on the pitch with each other. Of course, this is a weakened Chicago side with key defender Sam Stabb out with an Achilles injury and key striker Mal Swanson out with an illness. But this isn’t just a long build-up, it is tied for the eighth-longest build-up since 2016. That’s impressive for a team that up until last season if not the first part of this season was the most direct team in the NWSL.
Now Racing needs to show that they can continue these buildups against stronger teams and continue to score goals. This is why Balcer and Beckie were brought in and this is the final piece that is missing from making this a functional, truly competitive team.
Looking Ahead
Racing couldn’t have had a better first game to return to the regular season with. They historically play well against Chicago and have won five out of their last six matches. Chicago was also hobbled with Staab out and then fellow defender Milazzo had to leave just as the first half was ending with an illness as well.
To really take a step forward, though, Racing didn’t need to just win, they needed to win big and that’s what they did. So much of becoming a winning team is mentality and it’s remembering what it feels like to hold onto a lead. It’s remembering what it felt like to score multiple goals. It’s developing the habit of winning. Racing’s players aren’t going to remember it was against a weaker Chicago, they’ll just remember they won big at home. They’ll remember the feeling of being dominant on their home turf. If they hadn’t played as strongly, then the questions might have begun swirling and doubts might start to creep in.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen, because the next one will be a doozy. The Seattle Reign will be coming to town on Saturday and Bethany Balcer will be defending her new home against the only other team she’d ever played for while former Racing captain Jaelin Howell will be returning to the only other team she’s ever played for only two weeks after being traded.
Do you think tensions will be high?
Racing ends the week in 8th place with 19 points but will need to win to hold onto this spot with both Angel City and Bay breathing down their throat with 18 points each. At the time of writing, Seattle is at the bottom of the table, so if Racing is truly changed, this is the time to show they are a winning team. They have to get all three points from Seattle. After all, Racing’s next games are against none other than Bay and Angel City so they need to make as much space as they can between themselves and the California teams—while they still can.
Great article. Lots of excellent analysis and characteristically well written. Thanks! Do you think that high press is art as much as a technique and requires a special experience sauce? I’m going to eat some Spring crow: K. Fisher was frustrating early but has amazing feet and quickly become very effective.