August 5, 2022 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – Racing Louisville FC News Release
Racing Louisville FC versus Washington Spirit
(Racing Louisville FC)
Racing Louisville FC led in a game Friday night for the first time in a month, but the club couldn’t hold that advantage en route to a fifth draw in its last seven games.
The visiting Washington Spirit equalized with a 64th-minute Ashley Hatch roller through traffic, leveling 12 minutes after Nadia Nadim similarly snuck a goal past to move ahead at Lynn Family Stadium.
Points shared hurt both sides in their bid for an NWSL playoff spot down the stretch of the regular season. Racing moved to 2-6-7 (13 points) with Washington at 1-5-9 (12 points) – six and seven points, respectively, from a top-six spot.
“I think we deserved three points today,” said Racing coach Kim Björkegren. “We played enough chances, and I think we were a little bit unlucky on their goal. … It’s similar to more or less the whole season. I think we deserve a little bit more than we get right now.”
Despite making this its third game over the last seven days, Racing could consider itself the better team for much of the way. The hosts tallied 10 shots in the box to the Spirit’s five and pressed for a game winner following the equalizer.
In the 70th minute, a Gemma Bonner strike was waved for offside on a corner kick; Nadim forced another save in the 82nd minute; and a Jess McDonald cross to Nadim in the 86th minute led to a header just high.
Washington had its share of looks to win it, too. Katie Lund parried away a breakaway Trinity Rodman attempt in the 74th minute. Seconds later, Savannah DeMelo cleared a shot off the line as Racing fended off the ensuing corner kick.
Ultimately, the result left Racing still looking for its first win since May 22, a run of 10 games. It had been since a 2-2 draw July 2 against the Orlando Pride that Louisville led a game.
“That’s kind of the story of our season,” Nadim said. “We’re getting very close, but just the last thing or loss concentration in both boxes – it’s a part of the game. A positive thing you can take out of this is for me that I can go 90 minutes and we played a good first half. Second half, I think they were the better team. I don’t know what they did. I think they changed something tactically, and they were more on top than we were.”
Racing did feature a new wrinkle Friday, going with three defenders at the back of its formation. The forward pairing up top of rookie Kirsten…