Sunday Cardinal Couple

A Butchertown Outing

With an unplanned Saturday evening, and Racing Louisville FC in town, I decided to check out my first game at "the other Lynn", Lynn Family Stadium in Butchertown.

Racing Louisville FC hosted the Portland Thorns in a nearly picture perfect day for an outdoor sporting event, so I decided to go catch the game.  A quick jaunt downtown, and I found easy on-street parking on Witherspoon underneath the I-64 and I-71 ramps.  After spending a few minutes navigating the electronic ticket system run by Seatgeek, I did finally manage to get a barcode on my phone and gained entry.  My seat was good with mostly good sight lines from about halfway up the upper deck.  Crucially, for your fair skinned reporter, the seat was on the western side of the stadium, and thus in the evening shade.

I arrived early, circled the interior of the stadium to explore a bit in this my first visit, and picked a place to eat.  The cheeseburger was not gourmet, though the seasoned fries were decent, and the total tally for the burger, fires, and a large bottle of water was $10...definitely not bad for stadium fare.  There were a number of potential options for food, and some of the others hold promise of being more culinarily rewarding, and prices were quite reasonable across the board.

Oh, how did the game go?  Well, the Thorns are good.  They're down about five players who are off playing internationally in the lead-up to the Olympics right now, but they're still good.  The team sits in second in the leagues standings, and even with a depleted roster was able to keep majority control of the game.  Racing put up a good fight, particularly early, but eventually fell to the Thorns 2-0.

Early aggression for Racing didn't work out so well.  A handful of...let's call them "quirky"...calls by the official deflated the energy of the home team.  A first half foul called on Racing in the box was particularly poorly received by the admittedly biased crowd, which resulted in a penalty kick for the Thorns and the first score of the game.

For the second half of the game, I relocated down to the end zone at the open end of the stadium to hang out with a friend has his season tickets in the Waterfront Supporters  Zone.  The second score for the Thorns, then, was at the far end of the field from me, so I didn't get a good view of it.  Regardless, the damage was done.

While the majority of the control in the game went to Portland, it wasn't overwhelming, with Racing have a number of opportunities to attack and challenge the Portland GK, but nothing found its way into the net.

Former Card Emina Ekic did see action, playing 16 minutes at the end of the game.  She got several touches and made some great moves toward goal, but wasn't able to connect.

FC Racing Louisville will be on the road for the next game.  Orlando will be the hosts on Friday with a 7pm start.  Racing returns home for a 3pm game on July 25th where the smart money is on it being hot and humid compared to last night's wonderfully comfortable weather.

NY Liberty and Jones Acrobatics

Jazmine Jones may have the most watched play of the WNBA for the week in the NY Liberty's 82-79 win over the Washington Mystics.

The Liberty got some insignificant leads in the opening minutes of the first quarter before the Mystics would go on a 14-2 run to close out the opening frame 28-15.  The Liberty wouldn't lead again until under four minutes left in the game before going on to the narrow victory.

Jones scored 17 in just over 21 minutes of play.  She went 4-9 from the field, and 2-3 from three point range.  Add a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe, five rebounds, a steal, and a block, and you have a pretty darn good game for the Tallahassee lassie.

The play that's getting everyone's attention was early in the 3rd quarter, with Jones attempting to corral a rebound on what should have been an easy lay-up by Shook.  With her usual energy and over-the-top exuberance, Jones chased it to the sidelines, hurdled the bench seats, and ended up coming to the stop at the behest of a walkway railing to her midriff.  After the flip over the railing and landing in the walkway, Jones popped up as only she can and continued play. 

Here it is: Jazmine's Audition For the Tokyo Olympics gymnastics squad

 The worst part of the whole affair was that she was unable to save the possession.  All was not lost, though.  The next time down the court for the Liberty, she got a nice assist from the top of the key out to the three point line and drained it.

The 17 for Jones didn't top the scoring for the Liberty in the game, Betnijah Laney did that with 19, though it did take her 36 minutes to get to that tally.

Next up for the Liberty, the Dallas Wings come to town tomorrow night at 7pm.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We had a fun show yesterday, with four out of five on the call.  Case was up in Madison watching boats go fast and turn left.

The audio levels are a bit out of whack on this one, so if you wanted to wait for Case to do his magic in the podcast posting, it might be easier listening.

A fun discussion, on everything from traffic woes in Louisville, to basketball and trips to Tokyo, and a great quiz about coaches both here at UofL and others.

JMCA