By Christine Espinoza
For Louisville, the loss of some of Louisville’s key players in Nadia Nadim and Gemma Bonner in their lineup is becoming obvious, and it has clearly started to hurt them in this 4-0 shutdown loss with the Houston Dash.
Louisville appeared to dominate the Dash in the first part of the first half, especially with forward Cheyna Matthews who made two approaches to the box in under fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, though, her attempts were denied.
Houston would turn the tables and come alive after Bri Visalli’s goal at the 34th minute and was quickly followed by Kristie Mewis’s goal at the 43rd. The two quick goals marked a difference in play as Houston would remain the dominant team throughout the rest of the match.
Substitutes Jorian Baucom and Ebony Salmon were brought in in the second half by Louisville coach Mario Sanchez to keep the game alive; however, the strikes, including one from Baucom would not find the end of the net.
The Dash would proceed to score two more goals past a visibly frustrated Michelle Betos at the 72nd by Katie Naughton and at the 83rd by Nichelle Prince.
Given their position as second to the last in the standings, Sanchez emphasized that the goal of the team is an improvement from game to game, stating “It’s about getting better and one game and that continues… We got to make sure we continue to grow.” Lauren Milliet echoed a similar sentiment “We still have a lot to play for. We have a lot to work for. Again, it is a bigger picture, so I think a lot of us just want to perform. We want to go out and make sure we are representing the city of Louisville, representing ourselves, representing our teammates.” Regarding methods of improvement, Sanchez would like to see the atmosphere that the team has in training transfer to the field during game days.
Racing Louisville will play against Gotham FC on Friday, October 1st at home.
We are Area Sports