The Orlando Pride created some scoring chances but only found the net once Friday night. Orlando lost to Racing Louisville 3-1 at Inter.co Stadium, falling to the second-to-last place team in the NWSL standings.
It was the first win by the visiting team in series history. No away team had won in the previous 14 meetings between the clubs across all competitions. The loss dropped Orlando to 2-5 since returning to action from the league’s summer break.
Overall, Orlando is 7-10-2 with 23 points and entered the evening 10th in the table. The Pride has now lost two straight without Barbra Banda, who is set to return next week after Zambia was knocked out of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations World Cup qualifying tournament. Louisville (5-11-2, 17 points) scored three unanswered goals before a late Orlando response.
Orlando had 18 shots, six on target, and hit the goal frame twice, but could not match the visitors’ efficiency. Louisville had seven shots on goal.
“A team like Louisville, who are very aggressive, they like to put pressure on, and we didn’t execute the best that we could have,” Orlando head coach Seb Hines said. “We were close in moments, but close right now isn’t enough to get us three points.”
Audrey McKeen opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Katie O’Kane’s corner found McKeen unmarked, and she headed it past Anna Moorhouse for a 1-0 lead. The goal made McKeen, 17, the youngest goal-scorer in team history.
Orlando’s best chance of the first half came in the 31st minute when Simone Jackson hit the crossbar, but the Pride managed little else going forward and went into the break trailing.
Emma Sears made it 2-0 in the 68th minute after winning the ball from Hailie Mace in midfield. Sears carried it wide, cut inside center-back Rafaelle, and fired past Moorhouse for the goal.
Sears nearly had a second in the 80th minute when she got past Moorhouse and substitute Kerry Abello for a tap-in, but the goal was disallowed for offside in the buildup. She did not have to wait long for another chance. Sears beat Rafaelle again in the 86th minute, breaking in on goal to make it 3-0.
Abello pulled one back with her first goal of the season in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time. She hit a left-footed shot from outside the box toward the top corner, and Jordyn Bloomer could not get a hand to it.
“I wish that was the winner and not what it was, but I was just trying to make something happen. I knew that we needed a little bit of life,” Abello said. “The moment the ball was being passed into me, I saw that I had space, and before I even got it, I was like, ‘I’m gonna touch it and shoot and pick out the top corner,’ and it came off today.”
The Pride next travel to Providence Park to face the Portland Thorns on Aug. 15 at 8:45 p.m.