#2am thoughts publication free#

Mostly, she says, her style is the product of coaching and “breaking down” video analysis of the “attributes that I’m naturally gifted with”. But more recently, the area I’ve developed is about moving the defender, going one-v-one, close ball control, dribbling”. When I was younger, I didn’t do technical sessions with coaches and close ball control. Raso’s earlier coaches were eager to exploit this and for years their plans for her were “always about getting in behind. This is a newer component to her game, and it’s one staff at City were especially keen for her to hone: pace. Goals like this are the best: where I’m able to dribble, keep the ball close, keep the ball tight to me and finish among all of those players.” “I was thinking, should I go round? Should I chip it? Should I shoot early? Should I not? You have so many thoughts in your head. “If I’m dribbling at a ’keeper or running in behind - in those moments it does,” she explains. In those moments, does time slow for her? Goals of that nature seem to involve assimilating huge amounts of information frighteningly quickly.

#2am thoughts publication free#

The moment she steps out, I know the goal is free for me to score. “As I beat, like, two or three of them-” - she breaks off, laughing self-deprecatingly at the absurdity of it all - “I can see the ’keeper comes out as well. “I beat the first one and then I’m like: I’ll go again, I’ll go again,” Raso says. Barclays Women’s Super League March 28, 2021 🤩 Right foot was on fire against Brighton! #BarclaysFAWSL /Yw0KTbUQwe

It is the first goal in a perfect hat-trick. She fires amid a pack of bodies - including another defender sliding to make a last-ditch challenge - into the bottom corner. Raso receives the ball deep in the opposition half and runs into the box, coasting past the onrushing Emma Koivisto, then taking on centre-back Victoria Williams, who seems to materialise from nowhere. It does not take long to unearth a particularly impressive example - this one from Everton’s 5-0 win over Brighton in March 2021. On her preferred angle for shooting: “I don’t mind. “I love taking on players, and dribbling at players is my favourite thing to do,” she grins. Extraordinary things, after all, tend to be less impressive to those who do them. She has a handful of piercings in each ear, wears bracelets she makes herself from a kit she ordered on Amazon - a friend spotted the box one day and now she is tasked with making them for everyone - and has a quiet confidence. In person, she is softly spoken but businesslike, with an understated air of coolness about her.