Hard Lessons: Racing Falls 0-2 in Portland in First Loss of the Season

Racing Louisville’s match against the Portland Thorns on Saturday night couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. By the second minute, the Thorns were already on the board, and Racing’s center-back Elli Pikkujämsä simultaneously went down with a non-contact hamstring injury and had to exit the match. Despite the rough start, Racing was able to play themselves back into the match before giving up a last-second goal during first-half stoppage time. Although Louisville would come back and play a solid second half, the damage was done and the match ended 2-0 and gave Racing their first loss after three consecutive draws to start the season.

“When you start like that – they scored a goal after two minutes – it’s really difficult to play against maybe the best team in the league away,” said coach Kim Björkegren. “It’s disappointing – we gave away some pieces in the game way too easy. I think really we had a chance today. I had a really good feeling. We had good energy in the group.”

As tough of a result as this game might have been, it was hardly a major full-team collapse. As a whole, the team played consistently, held decent possession, and regularly forced Portland into turnovers or earned corner kicks. Instead, this match was doomed by individual mistakes. Both Pikkujämsä and Wang Shuang gave up balls in dangerous areas which led to Portland’s goals. Neither Carson Pickett nor Jaelin Howell was able to get back and either mark Morgan Weaver when she scored the second goal or defend the back post. And, no midfielders came back to help. This left defenders outnumbered far too often and unable to contain Portland’s potent attack.

“It’s a hard lesson,” said defender Abby Erceg after the match. “We’re still learning how to win. We’re still learning how to play against these top teams.”

By the Numbers

The last time Racing played Portland in Portland in September of 2022, they lost 0-3. Although Saturday’s match only had one less goal, the course of the matches was very different.

In almost every metric Racing has improved significantly. In 2022, Racing only had an xG of 0.31 and Portland 2.96. On Saturday, Racing had an xG of 0.83 compared to Portland’s 1.44. That’s significantly better. Although Portland was able to get 20 shots on Saturday only six were on target. Again, that’s much better than the 29 they had in…