Racing Louisville Makes Significant Progress During Final 2022 Road Trip

“We Can Only Go Up”

After beating the Orlando Pride last Friday, Racing Louisville headed west for their final road trip of the 2022 season. First, they visited Portland for a 3-0 loss on Wednesday and then rallied for a come-behind 3-1 win against Angel City on Sunday night.

After the Women’s Cup in mid-August, Racing seemed to be on an alarming backward slide with a 4-0 loss to Chicago and a 5-1 loss to North Carolina. It’s taken several games for the true shape of those games to become clear – was it a true regression or a painful but temporary pothole? Thankfully, it seems to be a temporary albeit deep pothole. Despite the shutout loss in Portland, both games taken together indicate a continued shift back into form for Racing that started with the Orlando win.

After the match against Angel City, Coach Kim Björkegren praised the players for being resilient despite a rough patch and said  he was “really proud of the girls that they kept going.”

Rookie midfielder Jaelin Howell admitted that it’s been a tough few weeks for everyone. It’s the end of the season so the players are both physically and mentally tired, so pulling out a win against a sellout crowd in Los Angeles against a team competing for the playoffs was a big step for the young side. 

“For us to come together and pull it out three to one,” Howell said, “it was huge and I think it says a lot about the character of this team.”

Howell credited veteran players Nadia Nadim, Jess McDonald, Gemma Bonner, and Lauren Milliet for helping to push the very young team through some tough growing pains.

“I think they’ve stepped up when times got tough and really got the new group together and taught us younger players some essential things so I’m grateful for them. And, you know, there’s a lot of great lessons learned this season as a young squad and I think it’s exciting because we can only go up and grow together and I’m super excited for the future. If we can keep playing like this and keep developing and stay on the right road then I think that there’s going to be a bright future.” 

The assist from @___emilyfox. 🎯
The strike from @emina_ekic10. 💥
The celly from #RacingLou. 😍💜 pic.twitter.com/r1ZwPFwa5I

— Racing Louisville FC (@RacingLouFC) September 26, 2022

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