Racing Louisville will head to the West Coast for its first NWSL knockout tournament game in the club’s young history, taking on OL Reign in Seattle at 10 p.m. ET Wednesday, Sept. 6, in the UKG NWSL Challenge Cup semifinals.
Broadcast details will be announced on a later date.
Racing (4-2-0, 12 points) qualified for the semifinals by finishing with the most points among second-place teams across the three Challenge Cup groups of four NWSL teams. The Louisville club equaled a competition record by winning four consecutive matches to start its Central Division play this year but lost its final two games in the group to claim the No. 4 seed in the semifinals.
OL Reign (4-0-2, 14 points) clinched the top seed in the Challenge Cup semifinals with its draw against Portland on Sunday evening, confirming it will have home-field advantage at Lumen Field for the competition’s knockout rounds. The Seattle club did not concede a goal in its group stage matches.
This will be the third meeting between Racing and OL Reign this year, with the teams drawing 2-2 twice in regular-season games. Louisville led both matches – first at home on April 29 and then at OL Reign on July 1 – by two goals only for OL Reign to rally back for ties.
The only time the teams have played each other in a knockout tournament was in The Women’s Cup final last summer, when OL Reign topped Racing, 2-1, in Louisville.
The Challenge Cup, a leaguewide competition, opened with double round-robin play running concurrently with the NWSL regular season and will conclude with the single-elimination playoff. The players from each NWSL team will share the spoils of a $1 million pot for the tournament, with incentives for finishing in the top four and participating in the semifinals and final.
The Challenge Cup final is set for Sept. 9.
