April 30, 2023 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – OL Reign News Release
SEATTLE, WA. – OL Reign (3-1-1, 10 points, 2nd place) pulled off a second half comeback at Lynn Family Stadium in Kentucky against Racing Louisville FC (0-1-4, 4 points, 9th place). After going down 2-0 in the first half, the team mounted a comeback to start their three-game week with a point on the road.
From the first whistle, the home team applied quick pressure to the Reign, forcing them to stay pinned in their own half for the majority of the opening minutes of the match. OL Reign struggled to string together quality touches early in the half, not quite achieving the sharpness they usually play with.
The Reign conceded their first goal of the night seven minutes into the match, when Louisville created an attacking opportunity close to OL Reign’s 18-yard box. Midfielder Ary Borges slotted a ball from the top of the box into the middle toward goal, where forward Paige Monaghan took one touch before passing it to the far post to put Louisville up 1-0.
The Reign continued to spend the majority of the first half defending, but forward Megan Rapinoe found some of the Reign’s first offensive action in the 28th minute, when her shot toward goal hit the crossbar.
As the half was wrapping up, OL Reign conceded a second goal, this time from the foot of midfielder Savannah DeMelo. A Racing Louisville corner kick was punched out of the box by goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, but DeMelo hit a rocket of a shot from outside of the box to double Louisville’s lead.
After the halftime break, the Reign flipped the tempo, starting the half on the front foot. They immediately pressed forward and earned an early freekick in a dangerous position, but Rapinoe’s service went just over the bar.
Continuing to bring energy to the match, the Reign held Louisville in their own half as they searched for a goal back. As OL Reign was attacking, Louisville’s goalkeeper Katie Lund took Jordyn Huitema out in the box, resulting in an OL Reign penalty kick. There was never any doubt that it would be Rapinoe to take the kick. Per usual, Rapinoe was cool, calm and collected as she stepped up the spot and played the ball low to the right, beating Lund to begin OL Reign’s comeback.
In the 73rd minute of the match, things took a turn for Racing Louisville, as DeMelo received a second yellow card for kicking the ball away after a foul was called, the hosts had to play down a player for the rest of the match.
With the…