Racing turned in another entertaining match in the Challenge Cup, but North Carolina Courage proved to be good enough to weather the storm and eke out a late victory last night in Louisville. CeCe Kizer scored the opening goal and her second of the Cup in the 24′ on a nice piece of offense started by Emina Ekic against the run of play. NCC equalized about ten minutes later on a corner kick that Kristen Hamilton managed to head to the back post, where it clanged over the goal line.

Debinha put the Courage in front in the second half after a fairly dominant spell of possession by North Carolina for the opening 15 minutes or so. Not long afterwards, Christy Holly subbed on Katie McClure and Julia Ashley for Kizer and Erin Simon, and suddenly Racing looked dangerous again. Jorian Baucom came on for Yuki Nagasato in the 74′ and one minute later managed to finish off a cross to put the hosts back level.

The Courage weren’t daunted, though, and put together a fabulous attacking move in the 84′ from Debinha that Michelle Betos managed to bat away, but directly into Julia Ashley’s path, forcing the own goal that would round out the scoring.

It was another hard-fought and energetic performance from Racing, who probably did enough to at least earn the draw and will be disappointed not to get it. I probably sound a bit like a broken record, but if Racing keeps turning in performances like this and cleans things up a bit, they’ll start finding themselves on the other side of these kinds of results. It’s definitely entertaining to watch, and this team has now given us three performances that we can all be proud of.

One more match is left in the Challenge Cup, even though Racing are eliminated from further contention. We’ll be ready on Sunday. RUN WITH US!