Racing Louisville Tie the San Diego Wave in Energetic Scoreless Draw

Control and Consistency

Despite energetic end-to-end play by both teams, Racing Louisville’s Friday night match against the San Diego Wave ended in a scoreless draw. This was one of Racing’s most consistent and mistake-free matches all season even if they only earned a point. To earn a clean sheet in a late-night away match against the top team in the league is no small accomplishment. Still, with a missed penalty and a questionable foul call that pulled back a goal, Racing will certainly be frustrated not to come away with the full three points while San Diego probably feel like they ended up lucky.

Even if the players are frustrated with the result, Louisville fans are likely heartened. The story of Racing this season has been excellent stretches of play marked by periods of inconsistency. They’ve dominated opponents in almost every statistic but lost points due to nagging, recurring mistakes. On Friday, most of these mistakes were gone. Racing coach Kim Björkegren told the media it was one of the team’s most disciplined games and it showed. Players pressed well which earned them a good number of chances and kept the Wave from getting comfortable. Jess McDonald, Alex Chidiac, and Kirsten Davis all got into the box to help force turnovers in dangerous areas. Even better, multiple players would get numbers in the box together to collect rebounds and win the ball by double-teaming opponents which is something they’ve struggled with before. Davis in particular had an excellent first half where she got in behind defensive lines and even beat San Diego keeper Carly Telford at times.

Defensively, Racing put on one of their most consistent matches all season. Defenders stayed organized and more attentive when playing out from the back. They marked and pressured attackers well to help reduce good looks on goal. Gemma Bonner and Julia Lester put in possibly their best shifts all season. Newcomer Zaneta Wyne started for the second time in left back and looked every bit the experienced veteran she is. In the midfield, both Jaelin Howell and Freja Olofsson looked sharp as dual No. 6’s with the rookie Howell continuing to look better and better every match. And, of course, goalkeeper Katie Lund put on a masterclass in goal and earned eight big saves to keep a clean sheet.

“For us to come away with a clean sheet, for sure, that’s a huge positive,” said captain Gemma Bonner after the match. “But we can also see a huge positive in that…