May 24, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Racing Louisville FC News Release
Racing Louisville is set to rekindle its regional rivalry with Chicago at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, taking on the fifth-place Red Stars at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois.
The game is the fourth and final road trip of a grueling five-week stretch that has seen Racing play four of the top five teams in the NWSL standings in addition to NY/NJ Gotham FC, the reigning league champions.
The match will be broadcast over the air on ION and streamed for free on ionnwsl.com. News Talk 1080 AM or online at talkradio1080.iheart.com, and the iHeart Radio app will carry the radio broadcast.
Racing Louisville (1-2-6, 9 points) sits in 10th place through nine games. After Saturday’s matchup with Chicago, the Louisvillians will have played eight of their first 10 matches against teams currently holding playoff positions, including six against the top five squads in the NWSL. Only one other NWSL team – Seattle Reign – has played more teams in playoff position than Louisville to this point in the season.
Coach Bev Yanez’s team returned to Louisville this past weekend on a high after Savannah DeMelo scored a dramatic late equalizer in an entertaining 3-3 draw at then-first-place Kansas City. Her goal in the 13th minute of second-half stoppage time was the second latest in NWSL history, and it gave Racing its fifth goal in the final 15 minutes of a game, a mark that ranks third in the league.
The Current had won its first four matches at the new CPKC Stadium, scoring 15 goals in the process. Defender Abby Erceg and standout rookie Emma Sears, who just signed a new three-year contract with Racing, scored the other two goals for Racing.
“It was an incredibly relentless effort,” Yanez said. “The group, as I said in the postgame speech, did that and accomplished that together.”
Now Racing turns its attention to Chicago, where Louisville is 1-2-0 in regular-season matchups and 2-2-1 across all competitions. Racing has the ninth-best road record in the league so far, with four points – all from draws – in five games.
The Red Stars, led by new coach Lorne Donaldson, are off to a strong start this year, thanks to a 3-1-1 road record. At SeatGeek, Chicago is 2-3-0, with seven goals and nine allowed.
Last time out, Chicago lost a nail-biter at Gotham, with former Chicago player Ella Stevens scoring in the 90th minute to claim a 2-1 win in New Jersey. The loss snapped a two-game win streak…