Savannah DeMelo
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDRB) - Racing Louisville FC star Savannah DeMelo would love to tell you what she saw during and after scoring what she would later say was probably the most dramatic goal of her soccer career. But she understandably needed a moment.

"To be honest, I kind of blacked out a little bit with it all," DeMelo said.

Racing, down 3-2 in stoppage time on the road in a hostile environment against the NWSL's top team in the Kansas City Current, needed a magical moment to leave Kansas City with a point. And that's where the dynamic DeMelo delivered. 

She took the ball a little bit past midfield. DeMelo split two defenders, hitting a turbo boost to get some space entering the box. She had one touch left to go before she had to fire a shot. And the midfielder made magic happen, sending a dart into the far low corner to ensure Louisville left with a 3-3 draw.

"I had no words," DeMelo said. "It was awesome hearing everybody boo. And then just having my teammates close to me, seeing the staff, seeing the girls on the bench, it was just an amazing moment."

"Sav's goal was crazy," Racing Louisville FC forward Emma Sears said. "And I can't even describe that feeling. It was so amazing."

There is not much left to say about the third-year midfielder. She is the club's most dangerous player, tying for the team lead with four goals this year, and demands opponents know where she is at all times, especially when her former United States Women's National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski is leading the opposing side.

Right now, there is an even larger demand on her in the midfield with key players like Ary Borges and Jaelin Howell out due to injuries. But head coach Bev Yanez knows as long as DeMelo is on the field, Racing will benefit from her brilliance.

"I think it shows the confidence," Yanez, who called DeMelo one of the best dribblers in the NWSL, said. "I think it shows her ability. I speak about it all the time in reference to her dribbling. Her ability and quality on the ball in those moments and the speed that she can do it at, I swear that she's just as quick dribbling as she is running. 

"She just doesn't slow down. She's very confident in those moments."

"I'm a dribbler, so I wanted to dribble and get myself in a dangerous spot where they can't foul me," DeMelo said while reliving the goal. "I looked up, I saw the keeper was kind of waiting for my shot and then I'm like, okay, I'm going to shoot it. I just wanted to keep it low because I think I had a shot kind of similar to that in the first half or in the beginning of the second half and kind of put a little bit too high, so I wanted to place it."

This is not exactly the place Louisville wants to be at this early point in the season. But as frustrating as a league-leading six draws can be, Yanez and her group at least continue to show they're going to battle.

"It is a massive point on the road against obviously a very good side," Yanez said. "I think it was an incredibly relentless effort."

Sears gave the visitors an early lead on a goal that you can debate about being an actual shot attempt or cross. What is not debatable is how quickly the rookie is making a case to stay on the field as much as possible. 

"I actually have scored a goal like that in college," Sears pointed out. "I mean, some may say it was lucky. I think that the ball fell my way."

"She meant to do it," DeMelo chimed in. "But she's being humble."

"I think a lot of the attention goes to her pace," Yanez said in praising the rookie. "I've said it a few times now: I believe that she glides. It's an incredible pace that she can get to very quickly in a fashion where you can't read that she's pumping in any way.

"And I think not a lot of people talk about her technical abilities. And I think she's shown she can post up, she can go in behind, she can cut players inside, she can lay off and have combination opportunities with the players around her because she has very good IQ in those moments."

A familiar script followed. The Current cashed in on the next two goals to take a 2-1 lead before Abby Erceg headed in an equalizer off of a corner kick. Kansas City retook the lead in stoppage time, adding to the concerning and long list of late goals Louisville continues to give up. But Racing pulls you back in by refusing to give up.

Racing Louisville FC

"Everyone believed in that moment that we were continuing to fight and that we believed we could get a result out of the game," Yanez said.

To the disappointment of a rowdy crowd in attendance, that's what Louisville did. 

"I think it represents a lot of character in so many different ways, individually and collectively," Yanez said. "I definitely believe that this is a big point for us and I definitely believe that the group feels that it's a big point for us."

"For everybody in the stands to be against you, it's a crazy, crazy experience," DeMelo said. "So, just the fact that we came out and played the way we did, going up a goal, going down a goal, then going up or going down by another goal, and then just coming back, I think it just shows what this team is made of. And it's going to be very, very hard to beat us."

The draws show it, but wins need to appear if a first-ever playoff berth is going to happen in Racing's fourth season. As long as the dynamic DeMelo is there to dribble through the craziness though, Louisville will feel it can be done. 

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