So Much Confidence
Racing Louisville continued their excellent run of form on Sunday afternoon when they shut out NJ/NY Gotham 2-0 at home. This is Racing’s sixth win in nine matches across all competitions and their third consecutive clean sheet. As a result of this win, Racing has kept the playoffs within striking distance with a sixth-place spot only three points away.
“It’s huge, and it keeps us up with our goal of going to the playoffs,” said Savannah DeMelo. “I think it puts us in a really good spot to keep growing and keep going. It’s motivational for us.”
DeMelo opened scoring in the 23rd minute when she capitalized off a loose ball and confusion in the box to put Racing ahead. This was DeMelo’s fifth goal of the regular season and her ninth career goal which ties her with Nadia Nadim’s record for the most in team history. Only seconds into the second half, Thembi Kgatlana combined with Kirsten Davis and scored the second and final goal of the night. This was Kgatlana’s first goal in Racing colors and her first since returning from a ruptured Achilles last July.
Head coach Kim Björkegren had nothing but praise for the South African striker and her performance on Sunday, saying, “She had a great game. I think she was the best player on the pitch, to be honest, so, of course, it helps her. She creates so many chances so to finally get a goal is of course important.”
For her part, Kgatlana said that this win and the fact new players are starting to score is a sign of just how far the team has come since the beginning of the season. “We got so many draws at the start of the season but it was because we were still trying to understand each other. We don’t depend on one person to score, it’s always different people…The different players that we have, there’s just so much confidence that whoever’s on the pitch is going to give 100%, whether you play five minutes or you play 90 minutes.”
All in all, this was another very complete, very consistent match from Racing Louisville. What’s especially positive is the fact that this was a match against a top-six team. It’s one thing to get a solid victory over a struggling side or one that’s heavily rotated for the Challenge Cup, it’s another to get it off a playoff contender. For the last month or so, the discussion around Louisville has been, can they beat a team that isn’t Chicago or Kansas City? Between Wednesday’s Challenge Cup match against Houston…