Match Preview: Racing Louisville FC vs. Chicago Red Stars
Lynn Family Stadium | Louisville, Kentucky – Saturday, August 27 at 7:30 PM ET
Players to watch:
Against Houston, Racing Louisville goalkeeper Katie Lund notched nine saves in a shutout for the second time this season. No other NWSL goalkeeper has had even a single clean sheet with nine or more saves in 2022. Saturday’s hosts have only scored four goals in their last six games though, relying on four different goalscorers between forwards Kirsten Davis and Nadia Nadim as well as midfielders Alex Chidiac and Savannah DeMelo to help get the job done.
Chicago midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo led her team with five shots against North Carolina on Saturday. DiBernardo will be making her 150th regular season appearance for Chicago her next time out, becoming the fifth player in NWSL history to play 150+ regular season games with a single team (OL Reign – Lauren Barnes, Jess Fischlock; Washington – Victoria Huster; Portland – Christine Sinclair). The team is led in goals by forward Mallory Pugh, though, who has scored six goals on the year despite not having been on the scoresheet since the middle of June.
Match facts: Racing Louisville FC welcomes the Chicago Red Stars to Lynn Family Stadium on Saturday night in the first of three games on the evening. The hosts enter on the back of a three-game unbeaten run (D3), while Chicago has lost four out of its last five games (W1 L4).
Racing Louisville extended its NWSL winless streak to 11 games (D6 L5) with a scoreless draw against Houston, becoming the third team this season without a shot on goal for an entire game (Gotham FC and Kansas City). Louisville’s xG of 0.12 was the lowest for a team in an NWSL match since Gotham FC at 0.1 against North Carolina in March 2018.
The Red Stars have had no better luck, though, as they have been shut out in their last two games and have just one win in their last six games. The last time the Red Stars were shut out in back-to-back games was in August last year, which was also the last time Chicago had a span of six games with just one win (D3 L2) in league play.
Chicago took three points at home in the only matchup this season against Racing Louisville, defeating them 2-1 in April. The teams played each other three times last season, splitting the points evenly at four (W1 D1 L1 each), with Louisville scoring five total goals while the Red Stars scored three.
