Grinding It Out
Another day, another draw for Racing Louisville. On Friday night they tied their third straight game when their match against the Houston Dash ended 0-0.
This draw wasn’t like other draws, however. There was tension simmering around the edges before the match started. This was Racing’s first time meeting the Dash since they traded Ebony Salmon to Houston. To say Salmon has been on a tear since leaving Louisville is an understatement. Before Friday, she’d scored six goals in three games and most viewers were expecting her to continue this trend against her former squad. It was not to be, however. Racing did a good job of stopping Salmon who only got off two shots although both were on target.
This is even more remarkable considering Racing was playing with only 10 players for about 50 minutes of the match. Center back Satara Murray got a yellow card in the 33rd minute after fouling Shea Groom. Just about 10 minutes later, she fouled Salmon and got sent off with a second yellow. Despite this massive loss, Racing held on throughout the rest of the game and even improved markedly in the second half. So while another draw may be disheartening in almost every other circumstance, earning a shutout in a game where they played down a player the majority of the time is a win in and of itself.
“The whole squad deserves huge credit with the way we stuck together until halftime,” said defender Gemma Bonner. “There was never panic in the group. What you saw was a different side of us – we have to be hard to beat, first and foremost, and fight for each other, and you could see that in abundance.”
“It was very tough,” admitted midfielder Jaelin Howell after the match. “Playing away, hot and humid, playing with 10 players – we definitely had to grind it out and come together and work hard. Obviously, we don’t want to be in that position, but it happens. To come out with a point, we fought pretty hard for that. But we want to start getting on that winning track.”
⭐️ WELCOME TO THE LEAGUE ⭐️
Entering in the 60th minute, @RacingLouFC forward @wangshuang7 made her debut, becoming the first Chinese player to feature in #NWSL league play. 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/gjHIBHAVEu
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 13, 2022
A Huge Addition
Another major moment of the match was the debut of Chinese national team member Wang Shuang for Racing. Although only 27 years old, Wang has over 100 caps for the Steel…
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