So I just spent about an hour or so poring over statistics for my Midseason Stats Update post and then the Coopers Twitter handle starts blowing up with this: According to Jeff Milby, who is Orlando City blog The Mane Land’s Elsie correspondent, the MLS club is discontinuing its affiliation with Louisville City at the close of this season.
No reason freak out, though. Orlando City has served us well in the limited time we’ve been affiliated with them by way of eventually loaning Sidney Rivera to us. Frankly, the front office has probably had the greatest benefit from the relationship, but given the success the club has had on and off the field so far this season, I think it’s fair to say that training wheels are no longer necessary.
A couple things that this opens up:
- More bullet points!
- I don’t know if O’Connor’s dedication to the 4-2-3-1 was because that’s the formation that Adrian Heath uses at Orlando City, but he’s clearly free to break away from it now if he so chooses. Brian Davis is convinced it’s more of a 4-3-3, anyway, so rock on, mate.
- An affiliation deal with Columbus Crew would be fine with me. They’re fun, even if they are located in Ohio, the Florida of the North.
- Any attempt at a rebrand (which is probably pretty far off, if ever) doesn’t have to be routed through headquarters at Disney World anymore.
Eventually, just about every MLS club aside from maybe Philadelphia (due to their complete lack of organization and willingness to spend money) will have a “2” team in the USL. That’s okay; more championship opportunities for us. I don’t think this in any way jeopardizes Louisville City’s aspirations of jumping up to MLS so long as the club continues to grow, win, make money, and spread its #brand. The “2” phenomenon is going to keep happening. That said, more independent teams in the USL are probably going to keep popping up as soccer continues to explode in this country, and USL is the lowest entry point a pro team can have at this point. This is all good stuff.
So, to borrow from a way-overused trope from England, keep calm and wear your purple. Elsie’s gonna be fine.
