Lynn Family Stadium | Louisville, Kentucky – Saturday, April 1 at 3:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
Racing Louisville FC goalkeeper Katie Lund was a standout performer in the club’s season opening draw with Houston, making a crucial seven saves en route to keeping a first clean sheet in 2023. That marked the seventh time she has made at least seven saves in a single game since the beginning of last season. That is more than twice as many games as the next closest NWSL goalkeeper in that time (Adrianna Franch and DiDi Haracic – 3 each). Though the club also failed to score, forwards Uchenna Kanu and Jessica McDonaldwere the only players to register more than one shot in the match, with Kanu’s three and McDonald’s two contributing to its attacking momentum.
Washington forward Trinity Rodman scored her side’s lone goal in its 1-0 win in last week’s season opener. The distance strike with her left foot was just shy of 30 meters out from goal, the longest goal of her career and the furthest away from goal by a Spirit player since Jordan Baggett struck from 36 meters out in the 2019 season against the Thorns. In addition, Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury had an incredible opening outing against the Reign, making four crucial saves to help pick up the three points.
Match facts: Racing Louisville FC hosts its first regular season contest at Lynn Family Stadium on Saturday afternoon as the club welcomes the Washington Spirit, who are fresh off a great result against OL Reign, to the Butchertown area of Louisville.
Louisville’s start to the year involved a scoreless draw in Houston. Statistically, the club has struggled in regular season play in the match immediately after having played to a draw, winning just twice in 15 such games (D6 L7) in club history. The club should be encouraged by its first performance though, with Kanu especially looking like she’ll get off to a quick start as the side introduced a few new faces to the starting XI compared to last season.
Washington, however, are coming off of an incredible result as they beat the 2022 NWSL Shield winners OL Reign, 1-0, at Audi Field. Washington did well to not only limit the Reign in attack, but also create enough going forward the other way with Rodman finding a good amount of success dribbling inside from a wide position. That same sequence saw her score the game’s lone goal in the 54th minute, when she raced through the midfield and struck a powerful effort that nestled in the bottom corner of the far side of the goal.
Unfortunately for Saturday’s hosts, Washington is unbeaten in its last four matches against Louisville (W2 D2) with Ashley Hatch having scored four goals over the four games. Only Debinha (five) has more goals in NWSL play against Racing.
