Houston Dash will hit the road for the first of two road matches on Friday, Sept. 15 to take on Racing Louisville FC for the fourth and final time this season. The match at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville is set to kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT.
The Dash, who enter Friday's match in 10th place in the standings are looking to close the point gap in an effort to move closer into playoff contention. Six points sit between Houston and Washington, who currently holds the final playoff position.
Several of Houston’s players will join their respective national teams for the September FIFA window which begins next week. Forward Nichelle Prince, who made her first start of the 2023 regular season on Sept. 3 against San Diego Wave FC, will join the Canadian Women’s National Team to play in a two-match winner-takes-all Concacaf W Olympic play-in series against Jamaica. Midfielder Sarah Puntingam is expected to join the Austrian Women’s National Team for a pair of UEFA Women’s Nation’s League matches against Norway on Sept. 22 and France on Sept. 26. Midfielder Bárbara Olivieri is expected to join the Venezuelan Women’s National Team for a pair of matches against Uruguay on Sept. 21 and Sept. 25. Forwards Diana Ordóñez and María Sánchez will join the Mexican Women’s National Team for Women’s Gold Cup qualification matches against Puerto Rico on Sept. 22 and against Trinidad and Tobago on Sept. 26.
Houston and Louisville opened the 2023 NWSL regular season at Shell Energy Stadium on March 26. The match ended in a scoreless draw and that was the first of seven clean sheets across all competitions for Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell. The Dash maintained possession for 54 percent of the game and had seven of its 15 shots on target. Both teams met twice during the Challenge Cup group stage with Racing taking the first match 3-0 at Lynn Family Stadium on July 14. Nearly two weeks later, the Dash beat Louisville 1-0 at Shell Energy Stadium.
Racing enters Friday’s match after traveling for almost a week straight. Louisville fell to North Carolina Courage 2-0 in the 2023 UKG Challenge Cup Final on Saturday, Sept. 9. Racing advanced to the Challenge Cup final after beating OL Reign 1-0 on the road in Seattle on Wednesday, Sept. 6.
Houston will be back in action on Sunday, October 1 as the team travels to New Jersey to face NJ/NY Gotham FC at 5:30 p.m. CT. The team returns to Shell Energy Stadium on Oct. 8 to host Angel City FC.
