Soccer Takes on Miami -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Look for Third ACC Win

As Paulie wrote in his column yesterday, Louisville women's soccer is off to a great start, but the road gets very tough soon. The Cards will work to stay on track when they take on the Miami Hurricanes tonight at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium. It's Throwback Night tonight, so who knows what exactly that promotion will mean, but it should be a nice night to take in a match if you haven't had the opportunity to get out to the stadium yet. Louisville has just two regular season home matches after this one, so you're getting into now or never territory. 

Miami is having a fairly strong season themselves, currently sitting at 6-3-1. Their biggest head scratcher is a 1-0 loss at App State in their second match of the season, but the opening conference losses to #17 Wake Forest (away) and #2 Duke (home) aren't terrible. The Canes lost that Duke match just 1-0. Miami's draw came against Princeton to open their September slate. 

The Cards and Canes are both coming off of a Sunday bye, but Miami is actually more rested than Louisville, having played on Thursday instead of Friday last week. Miami also hasn't played a conference game since the Duke match on Sunday the 14th. Their Thursday match last week was on the road against VCU; they won it 2-0. 

Miami has already surpassed their win total from last season, as they finished the year 5-8-4, and they were just 1-6-3 in conference play. Their lone conference win in 2024 came against Syracuse, who finished last in the conference at 0-9-1. Miami's improvements must be compared against Louisville's, though, as the Cards seem to be a completely different team than last season. Louisville didn't play Miami or Syracuse last season, but they picked up wins against NC State and Cal, and closed the year on a 1-1-3 run in which they allowed just one goal each to Stanford and Cal. The Cards would likely win some of those draws last year if they had the offensive performance that we've seen so far this season, as evidenced by turning last year's 0-0 draw at Clemson into a 1-0 victory this season. 

Louisville and Miami have faced off in women's soccer 10 times, all coming since Louisville joined the ACC. The Cards hold a 7-2-1 advantage in those meetings, with the draw coming in the first game they played back in 2014. Miami took their second win over the Cards in 2023. All three results earned by Miami have been in Coral Gables, with the Cards sitting at 4-0 against Miami at home. As such, tonight's match will see Louisville trying to maintain two home undefeated records: the one against the Canes and the one for the 2025 season overall. 

Miami has give up just nine goals on the season, and six of those came against Princeton, Wake Forest, and Duke. The Canes have earned clean sheets in every win except for a 3-2 victory over Lipscomb. They've scored 16 goals overall. Miami's offense can be a bit one dimensional, though, and their defense can be broken down. Of nine opponent goals, nine have been assisted. On 16 Miami goals, they've earned just seven assists. Louisville, on the other hand, has 45 assists on 39 goals, with opponents earning three assists on six goals. (Louisville is a bit more generous with second assist scoring.) Two of Louisville's six conceded goals have come on penalties and all six of their goals have been given up in just three games. We'll look for the defense to continue to be stout tonight. 

Action is scheduled to begin at 7PM, and the weather currently looks like it will cooperate. I'll be keeping tabs on this one virtually, unfortunately, as other obligations will keep me away from the stadium. You can tune into ACC Network Extra to watch it for yourself. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case