Today’s edition covers the International Women’s Cup, LouCity’s preseason win against Greenville Triumph, NWSL disciplinary decisions, and JayTee Kamara’s loan to North Carolina FC.

Bayern Munich and Paris-St. Germain will play Racing Louisville and Chicago Red Stars in the inaugural International Women’s Cup!

We had a feeling Racing Louisville and the International Women’s Cup had big things in mind when they announced that the first ever IWC tournament would be held in Louisville this coming August. They delivered during a press conference today that featured the handsome but rugged Brad Estes, Chicago’s CFO, representatives from PSG and FCBM, and a United Nations ambassador for gender equality in football.

This is awesome news for the IWC, women’s soccer, Racing, and Louisville in general. These are two massive global brands in soccer, and they represent a fabulous opportunity for Racing to develop relationships with personnel and players in both clubs in the future. It has the potential to be a fantastic piece of long term planning by Racing and Soccer Holdings.

Bayern have, since about 2000, begun to invest more time and resources in their women’s team, which was officially founded in 1970 although women had been playing at the club since 1967. They feature four Germany national team players, and have won the Frauen Bundesliga twice in the last ten years.

PSG have played in the top flight in France since 2001. They have never been crowned Division 1 champions, though. French women’s football is generally dominated by Olympique Lyonnais, but PSG are close, having finished league runners-up seven times and reaching the UEFA Women’s Champions League finals twice. PSG features USWNT defender Alana Cook, as well as several France and Germany national team players.

Preseason Result: Greenville Triumph 2, Louisville City 4

Straight from the press release:

With the teams meeting to play at University of the Cumberlands in southeastern Kentucky, a brace from Cameron Lancaster, plus goals by Brian Ownby and George Davis IV, made the difference after LouCity faced early deficits of 1-0 and 2-1.

“We want to thank the University of the Cumberlands for hosting us and the Greenville Triumph this afternoon,” said LouCity coach John Hackworth. “It was a tough game against a good opponent. I was really pleased with our second half performance. We did a better job of controlling the ball and created some good scoring opportunities.”

A back-and-forth first half saw Greenville’s Marios Lomis put his club in front with a pair of goals. Lancaster answered the first one, cleaning up a ball sprung loose by the opposing goalkeeper, before Ownby equalized minutes before the break.

Dominant in the second half, LouCity shut out Greenville from there as Lancaster scored his second goal and Davis IV notched another on an assist from Jorge Gonzalez, who recently arrived on loan from Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers.

HAWT TAKE:

Scoring goals is good, giving up goals to a League One team is not good. Then again, the whole preseason caveat about results and goal tallies applies, i.e., they don’t really matter. Unless it’s FCC and they lose, then it’s totes relevant and newsworthy. This is also the second time Hack has commented on improved performances in the second half of a preseason game. Personally, I want Morados to play well the entire contest, but improvement is better than the alternative. It’s also noteworthy that new City loanee Jorge Gonzalez got in on the scoring, something worth keeping an eye on.

Jorian Baucom suspended for next Challenge Cup match

That tackle that I mentioned in the match recap the other day was apparently as bad as I thought:

While Baucom picked up a yellow shortly after being subbed into Racing’s inaugural tilt against Orlando Pride, the NWSL disciplinary committee decided the offense was worthy of a game suspension:

After review of an incident involving Racing Louisville FC forward Jorian Baucom that occurred in the 83rd minute of the Saturday, April 10, 2021 match against the Orlando Pride, the disciplinary committee has determined Baucom has committed misconduct in violation of Section 12.3.6, “Major Game Misconduct” of the League Operations Manual. As a result, she has been issued a one-game suspension to be served on Friday, April 16, 2021. The disciplinary sanction may not be appealed.

It’s an untimely suspension for Racing, who are already shorthanded for tomorrow’s match against Washington Spirit (PREVIEW COMING TOMORROW MORNING) thanks to a spate of preseason injuries. Christy Holly and the team will definitely have their work cut out for them.

Louisville City loans midfielder JayTee Kamara to North Carolina FC

I totally forgot that North Carolina FC had self-relegated to USL League One for 2021, and so now this move makes a little more sense: Offseason Louisville City FC signing Jay Tee Kamara will join NCFC for 2021 on a season-long loan, the club announced Tuesday.

Former interim USMNT head coach Dave Sarachan left NCFC last fall when they decided to drop a division. That said, Hackworth seems confident in new manager John Bradford’s ability to develop JayTee into a good pro:

“At this time in his development, we feel it is important for Jay Tee to have the chance to get as many game minutes as possible,” said John Hackworth, LouCity’s head coach and sporting director. “While we all loved seeing his ability on the ball, there are other areas he needs to improve in order to represent this club.

“Therefore, we believe Jay Tee has an excellent opportunity at North Carolina FC. Their principles and style of play are similar to ours. Most importantly, the coaches, who we know well, wanted and needed Jay Tee.”

My only remaining comment is that JayTee might want to look into shortening that spelling of his name by a few more letters while keeping the same pronunciation and effect. Just a thought. Good luck to him in Cary!