The Women’s Cup Final: Will Racing Louisville or OL Reign Take Home the Title?

August 19, 2022
By Rohtas Wadera

The Women’s Cup final is set with the two NWSL teams advancing after receiving a free pass into the semifinals. My quarterfinals picks didn’t go very well, 0-2 after Tokyo lost to AC Milan and Tottenham lost to Club America. Both AC Milan and Club America put up a fight in the semifinals.

Racing Louisville’s home-field advantage was too much for AC Milan, who allowed two first-half goals and couldn’t make up the ground. Club America was even closer to beating the OL Reign after Kiana Palacios was the quickest to react off a deflected free kick. However, the OL Reign would turn it up after that and scored two goals in the last 20 minutes from Tziarra King and Olivia van der Jagt to seal the win 2-1. Let’s break down how The Women’s Cup Final will go.

OL Reign vs. Racing Louisville, August 20, 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT, Paramount+

When looking at the regular season matchups in the NWSL, there has been nothing to separate these sides. Both matches were draws at 2-2 and 1-1 but what’s interesting to note is the OL Reign have had more possession in both. This indicates just how good Racing Louisville can be on the counterattack. Both sides came out in a 4-3-3 formation back on August 2, which also shows neither team wants to play it safe and is looking to attack.

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The OL Reign are the deeper team, but it seemed like it took them a full half to get into the match against a tough Club America side. On the flip side, Racing Louisville looked much more cohesive against AC Milan, and once they scored those two goals, they could hold onto their lead without much of a fuss.

Their new signing from China, the first Chinese player in NWSL history, Wang Shuang, scored a nice goal. Plus, Nadia Nadim seems to have recovered well from her ACL injury last year.

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The OL Reign are the favorites and should be favored with their talent level. However, Racing Louisville’s atmosphere and playing in front of their home fans seem to really give them a boost.

Louisville is the defending champions of this competition, and while they are lower than the Reign in the standings, part of it has been a bit of bad luck where the ball just hasn’t bounced their way. With neither team able to separate from the other in the NWSL, I think this is the time that Racing Louisville repeats as champions because their counterattacking style is a good matchup against the OL Reign, who look to possess more often. The Women’s Cup should be staying in Louisville.

Prediction: Racing Louisville Wins 2-1

Featured image via @RacingLouFC on Twitter