It’s almost March! That means…more preseason workouts! And St. Patrick’s Day! And fish fries for the Roman Catholicly-inclined! And weird weather!
For Racing Louisville, it also means PRESEASON MATCHES! Yes, for the first time, Racing will be playin real, live soccer games against people that aren’t also their teammates! Here’s the schedule:
I’ll direct you to the club’s press release for comments about Racing’s opponents, but suffice it to say that there are three really good college programs in this slate, plus West Virginia. As far as we know, none of the matches are going to be televised or broadcast in any way, and they’re also all closed to the public. But they’ll happen, and we might even hear about what happened! Fingers crossed!
This is my first-ever NWSL preseason, so any takes I might have about any of this are shaky at best. I’m going to try, anyway. Women’s college soccer in the US is quite a bit better than men’s in terms of “how competitive is it with the professional game.” There are talented players on all of these teams. Vandy, UofL and Florida State are regularly ranked and do well in postseason tournaments in very good soccer conferences. But they’re still college players playing college soccer, whose structural defects are myriad and well known.
I’d like to see Racing play another professional team, too, but those are still in short supply. That’s okay. This is probably the best Racing, or just about any other NWSL club, could do to get ready for the Challenge Cup in April. Hell, I bet there are NWSL clubs that don’t even do preseason friendlies. My larger point is I want our team to be as ready as it can be and make a good showing when the league finally gets rolling. I’m sure Christy Holly and [Staff To Be Named Later] feel the same way.
On the Louisville City side of things, the club announced the signing of seven players to Academy contracts. Previous Academy signees include Elijah Wynder, Arda Bulut and Muamer Ugarak. Academy signees can train with and even play in the first team while preserving their amateur status and NCAA eligibility. The signees are forwards Dino Hodzic (Ballard HS) and Hunter Sekelsky (Collegiate); midfielder Carlos Moguel Jr. (Martha Layne Collins HS); as well as defenders Anthony Cano (South Warren HS), Owen Damm (Woodford Co. HS), Sebastian Sanchez (Ballard) and Joshua Wynder (Collegiate).
We also found out Akil Watts has overcome a junk food problem, which makes him relatable as hell. We’ve all been there, Akil. Many of us aren’t ever coming back. Watts is also going to compete for minutes at right back, which will make for an interesting battle to keep an eye on once the season actually starts.
Hopefully more to come as we crawl toward live soccer we can actually watch. Have a great weekend!
