Children’s Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas – Saturday, May 20 at 8:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
Kansas City midfielder Debinha scored in the club’s 3-2 loss to Louisville in the Challenge Cup on Wednesday, her seventh goal against Racing in all competitions. Since Louisville joined NWSL in 2021, the only players with seven or more goals against a single club (all competitions) are Debinha (also 8 vs. Gotham) and Ashley Hatch (9 vs. North Carolina). The Brazilian leads the way in scoring for Kansas City with four goals, while former Racing forward Cece Kizer is right behind her with three of her own.
Racing attacker Wang Shuang became the first Chinese goalscorer in NWSL history with her penalty kick just before halftime against Chicago. Prior to the goal, only Australia and Japan had produced an NWSL goalscorer among countries in the Asian Football Confederation. In the goals department, Wang Shuang is one of seven different goalscorers for Racing through its seven games played, and only midfielder Savannah DeMelo has scored more than once, with one of her two goals also coming from the penalty spot.
Match facts: After meeting Wednesday night in Louisville in the Challenge Cup, the Kansas City Current now return home to host the reverse fixture in the regular season, though the visitors Racing Louisville FC are who enter with momentum on their side.
The Current attempted 20 shots in their 2-0 loss to San Diego, their second most shots ever in a league match (26 vs. NC in 2021). Fifteen of those 20 shots came in the second half, the club’s second most attempts in a single half (18 in second half vs. NC in 2021) of a league match. Kansas City has now also lost three straight in all competitions, falling 3-2 at Angel City a week prior to the San Diego match in addition to the midweek loss to Racing.
Louisville notched its first win of the season on Friday, scoring a 3-0 home win against Chicago. Racing’s goals included both an own goal and a penalty kick, marking the first time the team has scored on both of those types of goals in the same game. Though the club had not won any of its first six games matches, it managed to draw four of those six to lead the league in that category and help it avoid the bottom of the league standings. Louisville can also boast in the fact that it has succeeded in earning at least a point in each one of the games it has scored in.
Racing Louisville defeated Kansas City, 3-2, in the Challenge Cup on Wednesday. It is the first time that Kansas City has ever played the same opponent in consecutive games (all competitions) in the same season, while Racing has done so once (vs. Gotham in October 2021).
