June 14, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Racing Louisville FC News Release
Riding a three-match unbeaten streak, Racing Louisville will make its ESPN debut at 12 p.m. Saturday at Lynn Family Stadium against the reigning NWSL champions, NJ/NY Gotham FC.
Saturday’s matchup is this year’s Ali Day game, celebrating the impact and life of Louisville native and international icon Muhammad Ali at the conclusion of the annual Ali Festival put on by the Ali Center. The celebration coincides with Racing and Lynn Family Stadium hosting the fifth annual Louisville Juneteenth Festival after the game.
The match will be nationally broadcast on ESPN and ESPN Deportes and streamed on ESPN+. You can follow the radio broadcast of the game on News Talk 1080 AM, online at talkradio1080.iheart.com or the iHeart Radio app.
Saturday could be a significant day for the Louisvillians, who have won three straight games only once before in their short history and never in regular season play. Racing topped Chicago, 1-0, at the end of May and followed it up with a 2-0 win over Houston last Friday.
The victory moved Racing Louisville (3-2-6, 15 points) into seventh position in the NWSL table, one point behind the sixth-place Chicago Red Stars and two points clear of the playoff cutline. Savannah DeMelo’s quality took center stage once again in the club’s second consecutive win as she netted the go-ahead goal before dishing out her first assist of the season to Parker Goins for a late insurance score.
“I think it continues to push momentum for us,” said Racing head coach Bev Yanez. “It continues to show what we’ve been saying from the beginning, what we believe that we can do and what we believe we can continue to do.”
Racing aims to carry that form into the weekend against Gotham, which has beaten Louisville once in nine contests across all competitions, with six of those matches ending deadlocked. At Lynn Family Stadium, the Louisvillians are 1-1-1 all-time vs. the East Coast outfit, picking up a 2-0 victory last June thanks to goals from DeMelo and former forward Thembi Kgatlana. DeMelo has scored in the previous two occasions that Gotham has come to Louisville.
At home, Racing is one of four clubs in the NWSL to score in double figures while allowing five or fewer goals. Yanez’s team is 2-1-2 this year in games at Lynn Family Stadium, where attendance is up 22% over the 2023 season.
Gotham (6-2-3, 21 points) has strung together a six-match unbeaten run after piling…