Photo Credit: Russell Lansford-Imagn Images
Friday night in the National Women’s Soccer League provided the epitome of NWSL ‘After Dark’ chaos in two of its four games as late goals, abnormally long VAR checks, and penalty kicks abounded while Utah and San Diego earned narrow victories.
Goals and PKs galore
Where do I even start with the game between the Houston Dash and Racing Louisville? The 4-3 final scoreline or the NWSL-record four penalty kicks awarded?
Racing Louisville first took the lead in the 23rd minute from the penalty spot with Taylor Flint’s first conversion of the night. Houston would earn a game-tying penalty of their own 15 minutes later and see it converted by Kat Rader. Louisville retook the lead mere minutes into the second half, with Sarah Weber pouncing on a ball unfortunately stopped in the six-yard box by a Houston defender.
Kiki Van Zanten equalized the score for the Dash a second time with a low, hard shot from just outside the 18-yard box. Less than 20 minutes later, she gave Houston the lead from nearly the same spot but by following up her own blocked shot rather than slowly dribbling into space.
Then, penalty kicks retook their game-deciding mantel. Racing was awarded their second penalty in the 81st minute, and it was coolly dispatched by Flint for a second time. It looked like Louisville was going to steal a point, but Houston took the fourth penalty kick of the night in the ninth minute of stoppage time to come out on top.
Extra time chaos in Orlando
After 84 scoreless minutes, there were three goals in the matchup between Angel City and Orlando Pride. To kick off the late goalscoring, Haley McCutcheon poked the ball in after it pinged around just beyond the goal line for a while. After a very long VAR check, Orlando avoided having a second goal disallowed.
Angel City got an equalizer in the 92nd minute thanks to a brilliant touch and shot from defender Gisele Thompson that bounced off the crossbar twice.
But Orlando would come out on top with a 98th-minute winner that gave McCutcheon her first career brace. Both her goals were pure effort as the ball bounced around just beyond the goal line for even longer than it did before the first goal before she poked it home.
It is worth harping on the fact that this is Angel City’s first loss of the season, and they scored just one goal after scoring nine in their first three games. This game also accounted for half of their goals allowed so far this season.
Ludmila scores for San Diego
Ludmila scored her first goal as a member of the San Diego Wave since joining in a trade from the Chicago Stars. The 63rd-minute goal against Boston stood up as the game-winner and showed off her ability to get in behind defenses and her talent for finishing.
This is San Diego’s fourth win in five games, good for 12 points and top of the NWSL standings as of Friday night. Meanwhile, expansion team Boston Legacy is still searching for its first-ever win.
Utah wins second straight
Penalty kicks ruled the result in Utah, too, as a 74th-minute spot kick from Mina Tanaka earned the Royals a 1-0 victory over the Chicago Stars. After winning their first game of the season last week, Utah is now unbeaten in three straight.
Going back to mid-August of last season, the Royals have suffered just four defeats in the last 16 regular-season matches, winning seven and drawing five. It is still early, but it is a good start for the team that finished 12th in a 14-team NWSL in 2025.
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