August 24, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Racing Louisville FC News Release
Racing Louisville FC celebrates win
(Racing Louisville FC, Credit: Jordan Prather/NWSL)
A night of firsts helped Racing Louisville top the visiting Chicago Red Stars, 3-1, and move into playoff position on a warm Saturday evening at Lynn Family Stadium.
Bethany Balcer registered an assist in her Racing debut, Marisa DiGrande scored her first goal for the club, Taylor Flint recorded her first assist for Louisville and Kayla Fischer netted the first regular-season goal of her career in the comfortable win. Uchenna Kanu’s 12th-minute goal was the third time this season she opened a game’s scoring.
The game felt exactly like the reset Racing hoped it would be as the team restarted the National Women’s Soccer League regular season campaign with its sights set on the first postseason qualification in the young club’s history. In addition to Balcer starting in her first game in lavender, fellow newcomer Janine Beckie came on in the 69th minute to make her debut.
“Fantastic from the group,” said Racing coach Bev Yanez. “Early on in the first half of season, there was a lot of, ‘You guys start off well. You play well in certain patches of the game. You guys are finishing well.’ For me, that was a complete performance, and I’m very, very proud of the group.”
Racing Louisville (4-6-7, 19 points) entered the match with a golden opportunity to move back into eighth place – a playoff spot – as the NWSL enters its final phase of a long campaign. Bay FC, which claimed eighth place before the five-week break for the Summer Olympics, lost to Utah on Friday night, opening the door for Louisville.
Yanez’s team took advantage. And now, Racing is not only one point clear of ninth-place Angel City, but its goal differential is also seven goals better than any of the other teams in playoff contention, a critical plus in the event of a tiebreaker.
“The sky’s the limit for this group,” said Beckie, who arrived Thursday via trade and trained with the team for the first time on Friday. “… I’ve had a lot of experience at the international level. I’ve been in this league for a few years. I’ve been overseas. I’ve kind of seen it all. So, what excites me is the potential of this group and the youth. We’ve got a lot of hungry players who have a lot of potential and a lot of passion to play this game.”
The Louisvillians set the tone early, controlling the game from the outset. In the buildup…