April 24, 2022 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – Racing Louisville FC News Release
Racing Louisville FC vs. the Houston Dash
(Racing Louisville FC, Credit: USA Today Sports Images)
Racing Louisville FC suffered a 2-1 road defeat at the hands of the Houston Dash in its NWSL Challenge Cup finale on Sunday, but the young team is leaving the Lone Star State with a sense of optimism as it now turns focus to the impending regular season.
“We showed a lot in the Challenge Cup, but we’re not satisfied,” said rookie Racing midfielder Jaelin Howell, who was the second overall pick in the NWSL Draft. “Not moving on to the semifinal and not getting this win at the end, we’re not satisfied. We’re going to come together as a team and really show what we’re capable of. We’ve seen spurts of it. Now it’s just the consistency part.”
Neither Racing nor Houston had the chance to advance to the Challenge Cup semifinals entering the game, giving both teams the opportunity to rotate their lineups. First-year goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer and recent Racing signing Sh’Nia Gordon, a wide forward, made their first career NWSL starts.
The loss was Racing’s second in the league-wide preseason competition, against one win and three draws. Despite losing both matches to Houston and tying with the Dash in overall points, Racing finished ahead of them because of a better goal differential over the six games.
Racing opens the NWSL regular season on Saturday at Chicago.
“I’m extremely happy with the group overall,” Racing coach Kim Björkegren said. “When it’s five minutes after a game, of course you can be disappointed and the energy in the body is not the best. But overall, I’m super happy with the group. They work hard, and I think our performances in games 3, 4 and 5 have been really good. We made some rotation today, and maybe that’s affected why our performance was not in the direction of the other ones, but that’s normal.”
All the games came in the first half, though Racing looked much…