Ally Brazier's First Denver Summit Goal Sinks Racing Louisville 1-0 Before the June Break

Ally Brazier needed three minutes. Denver Summit FC head coach Nick Cushing sent her on in the 61st minute, and by the 64th she had slipped in behind the Racing Louisville back line, met Yuzuki Yamamoto's pass at the right side of the six-yard box and put it into the middle of the net for her first goal with the club.

That was the entire scoreboard. Denver beat Racing Louisville FC 1-0 on Friday night at Lynn Family Stadium in front of 6,034 fans, with Abby Smith making three saves for the clean sheet. It was both clubs' final match before the league's June break, and they head into the pause in very different moods.

Louisville's Best Half

For 45 minutes, Racing looked like the team that wanted it more. The hosts started two players in their first career NWSL starts, goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska and rookie forward Maja Lardner, and the reshuffled lineup gave the Summit problems. Louisville tallied 32 final-third entries to Denver's 21 in the first half, according to the club, and spent much of the back end of the half camped in Denver territory.

The best of it came in the 21st minute, when Katie O'Kane whipped in a cross and Taylor Flint headed it toward the top left corner, only for Smith to keep it out. Quincy McMahon and Flint had efforts blocked in back-to-back minutes after the half-hour mark, Emma Sears fired high and wide in the 40th, and both Sears and Lardner had shots blocked just before the break.

Denver had chances of its own. Olivia Thomas missed from the center of the box in the third minute after a fast break, Melissa Kössler sent a close-range effort over in the 13th, and Thomas sent a 36th-minute header narrowly wide. Still, it was 0-0 at halftime, and Racing had reason to like how it was going.

"I thought the first half was good," Racing head coach Bev Yanez said. "I thought it felt like a lot more like us."

The Turning Point: Cushing's Bench Wins It

The second half belonged to the visitors, and the substitutions told the story. Prohaska denied Yamamoto in the 52nd minute and Thomas in the 59th, but Cushing kept pulling levers. Carson Pickett and Yuna McCormack came on in the 57th minute, Brazier replaced Thomas in the 61st, and Denver suddenly had numbers everywhere. Pickett had a shot blocked, Delanie Sheehan headed a corner wide, and on the next wave Brazier found the gap.

Yanez credited Denver for raising its intensity after halftime, saying her side could not handle the visitors' higher press. "I think we struggled to surpass their pressure and play beyond their pressure," she said.

Louisville threw on Ellie Jean, Macey Hodge, Taylor White and Rachel Hill looking for an equalizer, and Sears did her best to drag Racing level. She forced Smith into a save with a shot from the right side of the box in the 85th minute and another from the center of the box two minutes later. Smith had answers both times, and Denver saw out the rest.

Star Turns

Ally Brazier took one shot all night and scored with it, three minutes after entering. If you want a definition of an impact substitute, clip this one and send it to the dictionary people.

Abby Smith made three saves, and all of them mattered. The stop on Flint's header kept the first half level, and the pair of late saves on Sears preserved the win.

Yuzuki Yamamoto had the assist, three shots and a yellow card in 74 minutes of work on the left. She was a constant threat before she set up the winner.

Emma Sears was Racing's spark, with four shots and two on target. She was also caught offside four times, which tells you how often she was trying to beat the last defender.

Maddie Prohaska made two saves in her first NWSL start. Lardner, meanwhile, summed up her first pro start simply. "It's so surreal," she said.

Stats That Matter

• Possession: Denver held the ball 60.4 percent of the time.
• Shots: Denver outshot Louisville 14 to 8, though both teams put three on target.
• Corners: Denver earned seven corners. Racing earned none.
• Offsides: Louisville was flagged five times, Denver zero.
• Clearances: Racing made 27 clearances to Denver's 17, a sign of how much of the second half it spent defending.

What It Means

Denver moved to 4-3-4 with 15 points and bounced back from a 2-1 loss at the Utah Royals. The expansion club has now won three of its last four, after beating the Houston Dash 4-1 on the road and the Orlando Pride 3-1 at home earlier in May. The Summit also noted that this was their eighth road game in 11 matches, which the club said ties an NWSL record for road matches to start a season, and that they have yet to lose consecutive away matches. Denver returns home on July 3.

Louisville dropped to 2-1-8 with seven points and has lost three straight, after a 2-1 defeat at Utah and a 2-1 home loss to the North Carolina Courage. According to Racing, it was the eighth one-goal loss of the season and the first time the club had lost consecutive home matches since April of last season. Racing resumes July 5 at the Portland Thorns before hosting Bay FC on July 10.

The mood in the locker room was blunt. "This break can't come soon enough for us," Flint said. "We need to just have a lot of internal conversations and just regroup and start fresh after the break."

Yanez, for her part, refused to sound defeated. "Obviously, we're not sitting where we want to," she said. "I think we can turn this around."

The Closing Take

Racing played a strong half and walked away with nothing, which has been the theme of its season. Denver played one good half, made the right changes and got the winner from a substitute with exactly one shot to her name. Coaches spend all week on game plans. Sometimes the plan is just: send in the fresh legs and let them cook.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes and club notes as reported by Racing Louisville FC and Denver Summit FC.