On Friday, Michelle Betos earned Racing Louisville FC’s first individual NWSL award when voted the league’s Save of the Week winner.
On Sunday, she continued the momentum with a four-save performance at NJ/NY Gotham FC, preserving the club’s first clean sheet in a scoreless draw.
Gotham FC had scored as many as four goals in a single game during the NWSL Challenge Cup, and Racing conceded after the 84th minute in its three prior appearances. Both those trends hit a halt Sunday at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Voted Woman of the Match, Betos, who made 12 saves throughout the Challenge Cup, is also Racing’s captain. Going back to 2015, she was named the NWSL’s Goalkeeper of the Year.
More from Sunday’s game…
— Racing’s lineup went without a change going back to Monday’s 3-2 loss to the North Carolina Courage. Throughout the Challenge Cup, the only rotation that has happened is between center backs Nealy Martin and Kaleigh Riehl.
— Working in a box-to-box midfield role, Lauren Milliet led Racing with 4 shots taken.
— Racing’s attack was dealt a blow when Emily Fox exited the game after a 52nd-minute collision in the Gotham FC box. To that point, the defender was passing with 95% accuracy working up the left side.
— Exiting the Challenge Cup, with Racing’s regular season to begin May 15, team leaders are Cece Kizer with 2 goals, four players (Kizer, Emily Fox, Freja Olofsson and Erin Simon) with 1 assist and Yuki Nagasato with 6 shots attempted.
What coach Christy Holly said…
“I have to keep a real clear perspective here. If we came out of this without the clean sheet and without the gritty performance and without the understanding piece that there’s growth in what we’re doing, then it wouldn’t have been a productive day. As we continue growing and continue to produce better collectively as a team, I think that win will happen. As we maximize our potential and take care of our roles on the field, the results will come.”
What midfielder Lauren Milliet said…
(Betos) is rock-solid back there. It’s honestly super nice to have such a high quality veteran back there. She’s a freaking dynamo at saving, and she is a great voice for us. We do have that leadership with her back there. She’s top notch. We can learn a lot from her leadership-wise and all around soccer-wise. Great person as well.”
What defender Kaleigh Riehl said…
“We hear that we’re a young team and all of this, but we can really compete with the best teams in the league. I think we’ve showed that. I think we just need to be a little more consistent in that and truly believe in ourselves — but yeah, we can compete with the best.”
