At the time of writing this article, Racing Louisville has yet to win a match at the start of the 2024 NWSL season despite avoiding losses and playing relatively convincingly against Orlando Pride, Houston Dash, Portland Thorns, and San Diego Wave. Scoring goals was not really the problem for Racing Louisville, as they were able to score four goals in two games so far this season while failing to score in the two other games.

The problem, however, lies in their inability to take advantage and preserve it. For instance, they were able to score two goals against Portland Thorns since the first 10 minutes of the match but then failed to win the three points because they conceded two goals during the second half. The exact same scenario happened against Orlando Pride as well, since Racing Louisville scored twice in the first 20 minutes but failed to protect their lead and finished the game with a 2-2 draw.

Some necessary tactical changes need to be made quickly to eliminate such scenarios and succeed in winning more games, especially when knowing that the attacking aspect was not always the problem. In fact, for the games against Houston Dash and San Diego Wave, Racing Louisville were not good enough from an attacking perspective. However, the team was neither balanced enough, defensively compact nor concentrated enough to avoid conceding goals after they got the advantage against Orlando Pride and Racing Louisville.

In this tactical analysis scout report on Racing Louisville, we will study the team’s tactics under Beverly Goebel Yanez’s management before exploring their actual weaknesses in both the attacking and defensive phases. The analysis will also suggest possible improvements and changes that need to be made to start winning more games and eventually succeed in reaching the NWSL playoffs.

Formations and preferred line-ups

Yanez started the season using the 4-2-3-1 formation in all of the four played games so far without trying other formations, such as the 4-4-2 or the 4-3-3 ones, which can suit this squad’s abilities better. The 4-4-2, in particular, can be very useful to Racing Louisville on certain occasions, especially when they need to defend with more players and form two compact lines of defence while relying on wingers for transitions and two strikers upfront.

Reilyn Turner, Savannah DeMelo, and Taylor Flint (known as Kornieck) can all be excellent strikers and can play well alongside each other. Flint used to be a dangerous striker at San Diego Wave before becoming an advanced playmaker and then a central midfielder at Racing Louisville.

Therefore, it is believed that Flint can add considerable value and depth to the team’s attack because she has all that is needed to disturb opposing defences, making use of her excellent physical abilities and forming an attacking duo with one of Turner, Bahr or DeMelo when needed.

At the same time, using wingers is very important for Racing Louisville, as Uchenna Kanu and Elexa Bahr can create many opportunities per match for their team. Yanez also relies on the advanced playmaker position to link between midfielders and strikers, as she usually uses DeMelo or Kayla Fischer in that position. Both players are good enough to penetrate the box and lean towards the wings, as both are quick enough and have reasonable control over the ball.

In midfield, Yanez has always opted for Jaelin Howell and Flint as central midfielders. Both players have been doing well so far and are progressing after each game since they are gaining more chemistry after each match. Nevertheless, a lot of work will be needed from both players on the defensive aspect as they will have to help the defence in a more crucial way and cover a lot more whenever needed.

Defence-wise, Yanez opted for Abby Erceg and Arin Wright as centre-backs after she started the first three games with Elli Pikkujämsä alongside Erceg. It is fair to say that Yanez discovered that Erceg and Wright would form a more solid defensive duo than Erceg-Pikkujämsä, especially following some crucial individual mistakes from the Finnish international.

On the flanks, the team relies on Lauren Milliet as a right-back and Carson Pickett as a left-back. Both players have previously proved their ability to be effective in both the attacking and defensive phases. However, Yanez’s role is to find the right balance between both phases and to know when to instruct one or both players to advance more and keep both players in their own team’s half based on the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.

As a goalkeeper, Katie Lund is the team’s first-choice goalkeeper and is certainly not to blame for the goals conceded. She was doing her best during the start of the season and saved her team from numerous dangerous goalscoring opportunities. This being said, working harder to improve her reflexes’ timing would help Racing Louisville a lot, especially when conceding powerful shots that need very quick reactions.

Attacking performances and possible improvements

In terms of attacking performances, Racing Louisville have the necessary weapons to perform better even though they have already shown glimpses and signs of excellent attacking actions, especially against Portland Thorns, as they scored two beautiful goals. Kanu’s penetrations from the left wing towards the box and the changes of roles between wingers and strikers within the team were a source of confusion for the opposing defence. This second-goal action highlights the impact of this change of roles, mainly between the striker Turner and the left-winger Kanu, as Turner leaned towards the right wing to receive the ball and cross it. At the same time, Kanu took her position inside the box, fixing two defenders and succeeding in having the advantage on them to score a beautiful header.

Intensifying similar actions and intelligent/coordinated movements without the ball inside the final third would enable Racing Louisville to score more goals in the upcoming games.

Moreover, Turner often drops to midfield to receive the ball and help with playmaking while paving the way for the wingers to have more space and be able to penetrate inside the box. During this goal against Orlando Pride, Elexa Bahr was able to free herself from marking and exploit the fact that Turner was having the ball in midfield and tried to exploit the gap she left within the opposing defence. Turner was reactive enough and had the vision and the passing accuracy needed to provide an excellent assist to Bahr, who could finish with great technicality, lobbing the ball past the goalkeeper and going for delicacy rather than power.

This means that the team has quality finishers, with Tunrer, Kanu, Bahr and Flint all capable of scoring various types of goals. However, the issue that needs to be addressed is the ability to create numerous goalscoring chances per match to score more often.

When looking at the team’s statistics so far, we notice that they reach a considerable number of shots per match, with a minimum of seven per game. Nevertheless, they are very poor in terms of counterattacking opportunities, as they create two counterattacking chances at a maximum per match.

Knowing that the team has numerous quick players up front and in midfield, Yanez will undoubtedly need to work harder with her team on counterattacking to get a higher number of counterattacks per match and eventually create dangerous goalscoring opportunities.

Defensive issues and suggested solutions

From a defensive perspective, we can argue that Racing Louisville will have to make certain alterations quickly to solve their defensive issues and concede less, especially after they get the advantage. The team’s defensive numbers indicate that they can do much better, as they win 69.06% of defensive duels per game. They can make this rate even higher if they keep their concentration levels high enough during critical moments of the match, especially during the last minutes when Racing Louisville often suffer.

Precipitation when trying to clear the ball away often impacts Racing Louisville as mistakes happen in similar cases as the one shown below when the goalkeeper tried to quickly clear the ball away following a backwards pass from the defender, knowing that the team was conceding high pressing from Portland Thorns.

This high pressing impacted the way Racing Louisville handled the situation, as they are not yet capable of playing well under high pressing at the back. If Yanez succeeds in changing this hesitancy and confusion in defence when conceding high pressing, then the team will cope better with the opponents’ attempts to intercept the ball in their own half.

Training on quick and accurate ball circulation in defence while prioritising solutions A, B, and C can certainly help Racing Louisville concede fewer goals, as it would help them build up from the back with more serenity and security.

Conceding last-minute goals is always disappointing and affects the team’s defensive confidence in the long term. Avoiding this concentration drop during the last minutes is another concrete solution for improving Racing Louisville’s defensive performances.

This conceded goal from Portland Thorns in the 98th minute of the match highlights Racing Louisville’s inability to remain defensively focused for the whole game, as they allowed too much space for Sam Coffey in this action. The defenders close to her could not disturb her in the right way before she got the time to shoot. More importantly, no one stood in front of her to close shooting trajectories, which allowed Coffey to lob the ball past the goalkeeper with ease, knowing that the credit goes to her as well since she was quick in dribbling and shooting, as opposed to Racing Louisville’s defensive reaction which was slow.

Also, offering goals to opponents can cost Racing Louisville a lot this season if they keep repeating the same type of errors during crosses or set-pieces. One of the reasons Racing Louisville lost their match against Orlando Pride after they had the advantage was the own goal scored by Elli Pikkujämsä when she was trying to deviate a cross from the left wing.

Intensifying the training on how to intercept passes and how to clear the ball away in the right way without giving it to an opponent or surprising the goalkeeper with a pass or shot seems like an obligatory task to apply with the players regularly until they master interceptions and clearances and reduce the number of individual errors committed due to wrong interceptions/clearances.

Conclusion

Racing Louisville have the potential to become one of the best teams in the NWSL this season because they don’t lack quality players and have already proved that they can score goals and defend well. Their defensive aspect indeed needs some more serious work to avoid unnecessary mistakes. Yet, they are better than numerous defences in the league, and extensive training on certain errors can make them even more compact defensively and eventually concede fewer goals per match, especially after they get the advantage.

Racing Louisville will have to battle seriously for an advanced playoff spot, as they are capable of reaching the playoffs and playing for the title as well. With more chemistry between the players and diversification of their attacking plans, Racing Louisville can be dangerous attacking-wise against any team in the league and even against teams from the WSL, Serie A Women or teams who play in the UEFA Women’s Champions League in general.