Lynn Family Stadium | Louisville, Kentucky – Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 PM ET
Players to watch:
Racing midfielder Ary Borges led her side with two shots on frame against Portland on Saturday, bringing her season total to three and putting her in a tie for the team lead with forward Uchenna Kanu. That is tied for the fewest shots on target by a team’s leader in NWSL this season with Orlando’s Kerry Abello. Between the sticks, goalkeeper Katie Lund has already been off to a phenomenal start through four games this season, leading the league with 18 saves.
OL Reign forward Bethany Balcer and midfielder Jess Fishlock are both coming in having scored a brace each in the club’s win against Chicago on Saturday. Fishlock and Balcer became the first pair of OL Reign teammates to each score multiple goals in a single NWSL match and just the ninth pair of teammates to do so in NWSL history. Also of note, though Lund has twice as many saves as Reign goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, Tullis-Joyce has the advantage in clean sheets with two to Lund’s one.
Match facts: Racing Louisville plays its second home match of the year on Saturday night as the club hosts a red hot OL Reign side that has won its last three by an aggregate 8-2 margin. Racing have yet to win on the year, picking up just two points from its first four games, while the Reign have lost just once in addition to its three consecutive wins.
Though this season may not have started how Racing fans wanted, Louisville is still unbeaten over its last three home matches (W2 D1), scoring five goals and allowing two in that time. The +3 goal differential over three home games tied the highest positive differential in club history since the team scored three goals and allowed zero over its first three home matches in NWSL. Their lone home match of the year was a 2-2 thriller against Washington in which Racing had to overcome a two-goal deficit, and thanks to defender Aby Erceg and the Brazilian Borges, they managed to do exactly that.
OL Reign, enjoying a four-game winning streak across all competitions after a 5-2 victory over the Red Stars on Saturday, have not had a longer winning run since a six-game streak in 2015. The Reign also became the first team to have multiple players with 40+ regular season goals in team history after Jess Fishlock (40) joined Megan Rapinoe (47) with a multi-goal performance against Chicago. Now, Fishlock and forward Bethany Balcer are tied for the lead in team goals with three each, with all of their goals coming in the same two games as the pair scored one each in a 2-0 win over Gotham and two each in that win against Chicago.
Racing Louisville and OL Reign have drawn three straight matches going back to the 2021 season. Both teams are the only ones in NWSL to have active streaks with three draws against more than one opponent, as no NWSL matchup has a current run longer than three (Reign vs. Thorns; Louisville vs. Spirit and Dash).
