WHO:

Pittsburgh Riverhounds, 6-7-1, 25 points, 3rd place Eastern Conference

WHAT:

A regular season USL match

WHEN:

Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE:

Louisville Slugger Field, 401 E. Main Street, Louisville, KY 40207

WATCH:

At the game! Or, if you can’t go because you got arrested for throwing feces at the Red Hen, you can still catch the game on:

TV: WBNA-TV 21

RADIO: 1080 WKJK

STREAM: ESPN+

MARCH:

PRE-MATCH TAILGATE

Join us and the Lou City Tailgaters for all your pre-match festivity needs! Tailgating typically starts around four (4) hours prior to kickoff but you may find a few die-hards out there earlier. The tailgate is supporter run and supporter funded. We recommend BYOB and food contributions. If you do partake we ask that you contribute to the general fund. The main tailgate is located at the corner of N Preston St and E Witherspoon St in the Riverside Parking Cobalt Lot. The Coopers are joined here by several other SGs, so come say hello to everyone!

PRE-MATCH MARCH

About 30-40 minutes prior to kickoff we’ll start the March to the Match. Join us as we march around the tailgate lot, up Preston St, and into the east entrance. Flags will be waving, smoke will be popping, and we’ll be chanting and singing the whole way!

POST-MATCH CELEBRATION

After the match concludes, we have beers at Against the Grain which is conveniently located right outside the Slugger Field gate. Make sure you order a pint of the Coopers-inspired Ball Control! $0.50 from every pour (on home match days) of Ball Control goes to Shirley’s Way, a most excellent local charity helping families of those afflicted with cancer.

WHO, AGAIN?

It’s hard to believe Louisville’s been playing league games for more than three months and are just now getting around to playing the Rhinohounds. The Hounds are reborn this season, with a rebrand that finally loses the 90’s minor league hockey vibe but keeps the 90’s minor league hockey name. They literally cut every player that was on contract last season and only re-signed like six of them. The reason behind that was they fired their old coach, Dave Brandt, and hired USL legend Bob Lilley (and his assistant, little-known Mark Pulisic). Lilley’s instilled a totally different culture in the team, and it’s resulted in a lot of draws, but also a lot of wins and just one loss on the season.

Like most Lilley teams, this one doesn’t give up many goals, and leads the league in clean sheets with nine in 14 matches. They’ve only conceded seven goals all season. Also wow. Unlike most Lilley teams, this one can score, too, and has found the back of the net 17 times, all of them coming inside the box. So, as usual, we can expect a very, very tight war of attrition on Wednesday night. A battle of the wills, if you will.

Pittsburgh is coming off short rest, too, though they didn’t have a midweek game last week like City did. In their last three matches, they’ve drawn at Charleston 0-0, beaten RB2 at home 3-0, and beaten Richmond away 1-2. Players to watch are Nico Brett, Kenardo Forbes, Kevin Kerr, and Christian Francois. Apparently, Thomas VanCaeyezeele is really coming on for the Hounds as well, which is too bad for anyone attempting to pronounce his last name. Let’s hope he’s bottled up in this game for Lance McGarvey’s sake.

I can’t remember the last time Louisville City lost to Pittsburgh. It seems like it’s been a while. Then again, I’m pretty sure Bob Lilley’s only lost to Los Morados twice in three seasons, too. Like I said, this will be a tight affair.

Screw it, let’s go get three points. VAMOS MORADOS!