Lynn Family Stadium | Louisville, Kentucky – Friday, May 12 at 7:30 PM ET
Players to watch:
Both of Racing midfielder Paige Monaghan’s multi-goal games in all competitions have come against the Red Stars, doing so in the regular season in 2019 and 2020 Challenge Cup with Sky Blue. Four of Monaghan’s 11 NWSL goals have been scored against Chicago Red Stars as she hasn’t scored more than twice against any other team. Of those to have scored for Louisville in the regular season this year, though, only midfielder Savannah DeMelo has scored multiple goals (2), with Monaghan and teammates Ary Borges, Kirsten Davis, and Abby Erceg all scoring one goal.
Chicago forward Ella Stevens has set up six chances for teammate Penelope Hocking in regular season play this year, including combining for a goal against Kansas City on April 15. No other player has set up more shots for a teammate than Stevens has for Hocking this season (tied with Trinity Rodman and Ashley Hatch for Washington). Stevens and Hocking are the only players to have scored multiple goals for Chicago this year, though the Red Stars have seven players in the scoring column in total through six regular season games.
Match facts: Racing Louisville FC hosts the Chicago Red Stars at Lynn Family Stadium on Friday night, with the home side still aiming to earn its first win of the season as the lone team in the NWSL without a win in the column. The Red Stars, who have won just one game, are winless in their last three (D1 L2) and have lost four of their six as they look to reverse fortunes on the road.
Racing Louisville (W0 D4 L2) is the eighth team in NWSL history to go winless through the first six matches of a season as only five teams have had longer season-opening runs. Louisville’s four points, however, are the most at this stage of any of the eight teams without a win in the first six matches of a season. Louisville has yet to lose a match in which the club has scored, though, drawing all three of their two-goal games, 2-2.
On the flip side, the Red Stars’ four points through the first six matches (W1 D1 L4) are their fewest since the first NWSL season in 2013, when they had just two points at this stage. Chicago has lost five straight road matches in all competitions, the longest road losing streak in club history. The Red Stars’ two road losses this season have seen them lose by a combined 8-4 aggregate, though they are also two of the only three games in which they have scored two or more goals.
Racing Louisville recorded a 3-0 win over the Red Stars in the first-ever meeting between the sides in June 2021. Chicago is unbeaten in the five meetings in all competitions since (W2 D3), including winning the last two meetings by an aggregate score of 6-1.
