After taking a two-goal edge in the first 21 minutes of the match, Orlando dropped a 3-2 NWSL decision at Racing Louisville FC on Friday night, leaving the Pride with a critical final regular-season match at home next Sunday against Houston.
“I can never fault the players’ efforts,” said Pride coach Seb Hines, whose seventh-place club is just outside of a playoff berth. “They were brilliant. They battled all the way to the final whistle. And that’s been a theme throughout the season. There’s been the standards. We haven’t always got the result at the end of it but today was disappointing considering where we were at the start the game.”
Marta scored on a penalty kick in the 17th minute for the Pride (9-11-1, 28 points) before getting the first career goal from Kerry Abello in the 21st minute.
Marta’s kick came after a VAR review, and the Pride captain calmly beat Katie Lund to her left. Abello scored after collecting a pass from Marta before dribbling around her defender and blasting the ball in from a tight angle.
However, started by a first-half stoppage-time goal from the host, Louisville rallied to score two more in the second half.
After Racing Louisville’s Nadia Nadim tallied on a penalty kick for its first goal, in the 70th minute Thembi Kgatlana slotted a ball across the box that Kirsten Davis was able to connect with on a sliding effort in the box. Racing Louisville (6-6-9, 27 points) took the lead after an own goal by Anna Moorhouse, with the goalkeeper’s save attempt under pressure on a corner kick falling into the back of the net.
“Good start to go two-nil up away from home,” Hines said. “I think we were pretty comfortable and then …
“It’s our own doing: individual errors that allow Louisville to win the game. It’s something that we haven’t seen recently. We’ve been [playing] really good. And I hate to make excuses, but with the travel and injuries and so on played a part in the game.”
