Photo Credit: Racing Louisville
Los Angeles, CA | May 15 | Kelly Landaverde – @kel_una
The new Louisville expansion side was still in search of securing their first win after a positive participation in the Challenge Cup. Even though they couldn’t take the three-point win, they ended up sharing one point. This young team proved in their first regular season that they’re continuing on being a competitive team that’s full of potential at home with 6,622 fans in attendance. Head Coach Christy Holly has been consistent with his starting eleven, and many of the same names that we’ve seen made it in this match, except for Emina Ekic. Who was on the bench, for Katia McClure who made her first NWSL start. Post-game, Coach Holly said this about her “ We are exceptionally proud of her. Katie has a very good eye for goal, which, for this team, separates her a bit.” Formation-wise, the team appeared to be lined up in a 4-2-3-1 similar to what they had used in the previous two matches.
During the first half the visitors pressed on the pedal, getting the ball into the box, and sending a low shot from Amy Rodriguez that was blocked by Michelle Betos. Few minutes later, a free kick from Jenkins outside the box was sent towards goal, but went just wide of the net. After the visitors created those chances, the locals were able to control the match, and kept pressuring on KC. In the 36th minute, Emily Fox made a fantastic run down the pitch was brought down, but was able to leave the ball to Yuki Nagasato, who sent a cross in to the box finding Savannah McCaskill, but was blocked, the loose ball that was still alive in a great spot bounced right to her midfielder teammate Lauren Milliet, who fired a banger on goal, but Nicole Barnhart snagged it, denying the home team from opening the scoring sheet. In added time, McCaskill’s low cross from the right side found Cece Kizer who was waiting in the box, her shot went over the crossbar; that was a big missed opportunity for the local team. “That one at the end of the half I think Cece on any other day that’s going into the back of the net,” McCaskill said post-match. “She was in a great pocket. That’s where we want to be. That where we want our nine to be –in and around the goal taking those opportunities.”
In the second half, the home team launched a corner kick, Barnhart jumped to catch the ball but ended up missing, Racing was able to get a shot through Kaleigh Riehl, but it went right into one of the defenders, for the goalie to catch it in the 51st minute. In the 60th minute, Erin Simon made a superb slide tackle to get control of the ball, that found McClure, she drove it down the pitch and passed it over to McCaskill, who fired a shot close to goal, that slightly missed the top corner. The home side made their first substitution, taking off McClure for Ekic, followed by Taylor Otto in for Lauren Millet in the 82nd minute, and Jorian Baucom in for Cece at 90th minute. Even though Holly had fresh legs, there were no other opportunities for both sides. The match ended up in a scoreless draw, leaving both teams with their first point. Racing tallied 13 shots, and Kansas 11, blocking 8 of those opposing attempts, and controlling 50.6% of possession. “We did a better job at staying as a unit,” McCaskill said. “We created chances, and we need to find a way to put one in the back of the net at the end of the day and find a way to win. I think it was all around a pretty solid 90-minute performance, but obviously we need to find the back of the net and figure out a way to not let our level drop throughout the 90 minutes.” “I can’t tell you enough about how proud I am of this team’s performance to keep a clean sheet for two games in a row,” said defender Erin Simon. “We are not conceding, which is really awesome from a defensive point of view. Obviously, we want to start scoring some goals and creating a better result in that final third. “We are still learning each other as teammates, learning our tendencies, and we are still implementing our style of play. It is a long season, and we have a lot of growing to do so this is a really good foundation to build off of.”
Racing has less than a week to prepare for their next home match against the Washington Spirit on the 21st. “We limited them to a few good chances,” said coach Christy Holly. “They had Amy Rodriguez, Darian Jenkins, Mallory Weber and Victoria Pickett. To limit a team like that, and not only keep a clean sheet, but to limit them to smaller chances is something good we take away from this. “I think the frustration is that in the first half, I thought that we need to clinical with our opportunities. We didn’t unfortunately and we will have to improve on that.” “I thought that we need to clinical with our opportunities. We didn’t unfortunately and we will have to improve on that.” Missed opportunities were a reoccurring theme. The team had little issue getting the ball into KC’s half, but finding attackers in good shooting positions posed to be a challenge. While KC’s defense deserves some credit, this might be some of Racing’s youth showing. “We need to be a little bit braver and put ourselves in positions where we can actually score,” Coach Holly said. “We must take a little more responsibility as an individual and as a teammate to step up and let the shot go.” Several possessions ended because of players being on different pages. Passes into space with no one advancing to that position. Simon stated, “We are still learning each other as teammates, learning our tendencies, and we are still implementing our style of play. It is a long season, and we have a lot of growing to do so this is a really good foundation to build off of.”