Angel City Tops Racing Louisville in Tight Battle

Not Quite There Yet

In an exceedingly tight and fast-paced match, Angel City managed to squeak past Racing Louisville 3-2 on Saturday night. Although the loss is disappointing for Louisville, the performance was drastically improved over the previous two games against Kansas City and North Carolina respectively.

“It’s definitely frustrating because we know we’re playing really good soccer,” said midfielder Savannah DeMelo about the result. “Now it’s just about being disciplined in the details and going with our game plan because I think we knew the game plan but kind of slogged on some details.”

Racing really did get off to a solid start. In the 29th minute, Racing earned a set piece at the top of the box. DeMelo’s low cross into the center of the box was backheeled in spectacularly by Gemma Bonner for a tremendous first goal. In the 35th minute, however, a long ball over the midfield found Los Angeles’ Christen Press who got a jump on defenders and beat keeper Katie Lund to tie the game. Only two minutes into the second half, a floating cross to the far post from Christen Press found Savannah McCaskill who knocked it in to put Angel City on top.

Still, Racing wasn’t done. In the 63rd minute, Savannah DeMelo was shoved down in the center of the box and earned a penalty which Nadia Nadim converted to bring Racing even. But, as DeMelo said after the match, it was missed details and a lack of discipline that ultimately did Racing in. In the third minute of stoppage time, Julia Lester got beat by Los Angeles’ Simone Charley. Instead of letting Lester recover, Lund made the decision to leave her box and played a bad tackle on Charley that sent her flying. This earned a penalty that McCaskill converted that ultimately did Racing Louisville in.

📼 A gutsy performance in the Derby City 📼 #LOUvLA presented by @nationwide pic.twitter.com/BBz066arC0

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) June 12, 2022

“I think our performance was much, much better than previous games,” was coach Kim Björkegren’s final assessment of the match. He said Racing was the dominant team for much of the match, they just need to play a more complete game. “Everything thing is there, it’s just small details and a couple of mistakes.”

By The Numbers

Coach Björkegren’s assertion that Racing was the better team for much of the night is borne out statistically. Racing the high xG (2.45 to 2.11), more touches in the opposition box, more…