LOUISVILLE CITY FC 2
NASHVILLE SC 1
7-6-19
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SPENCER
RASMUSSEN
OWNBY MATSOSO MCCABE
DELPICCOLO
JIMENEZ CRAIG PEAY SOAHY
HUBBARD
SUBS: HOPPENOT JANE TOTSCH
UNUSED: DAVIS IV FRANCIS WILLIAMS DOBROWOLSKI
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On without doubt a pivotal matchday as the club enters the second half of its USL league season, Louisville City overcame hot rivals Nashville SC to catch them for 5th spot in the standings and keep in touch with most of the Championship frontrunners.
After the previous week’s draw in Indianapolis it was the turn of the close competitors from the south to take on the League Champions and aside from the battle for points in the standings came the intrigue of facing 2018’s goal hungry Golden Boot Cameron Lancaster for the very first (official) time after signing an MLS contract for ‘The Boys In Gold’ in the off-season.
John Hackworth’s sole change from his starting eleven at The Eleven was installing Luke Spencer at striker and dropping Brian Ownby into midfield where George Davis IV made way.
After Alexis Souahy welcomed Daniel Rios back to Slugger by unceremoniously dumping him at halfway, the tone for much of the match would set itself as The Boys In Purple took control of possession while ex Colorado Rapids MLS winner Gary Smith had his side sitting tight in the low block, with exceptional strikers Lancaster and his Golden Boot runner up (with North Carolina FC) Rios partnered up top like a pair of scorpions waiting for the opportunity to apply their devastating sting.
And sting the duo indeed did before even 11 minutes were on the board when Justin Davis’ left wing throw was met without conviction by Taylor Peay, his soft header lobbing to Lancaster whose even softer volleyed touch dropped optimally for Rios. Ignoring the advancing patrol of Paco Craig and the semi-recovered Taylor positioning to stand him up, the Mexico City native displayed his catastrophe causing class with a blistering strike that Chris Hubbard in goal could only admire as it cannoned off his left-hand post and into the back of his net.
For the third straight match City had relinquished an opening goal inside of a dozen minutes, and something of a departmental flaw in these breakdowns has become apparent.
Smith’s side had tallied 11 goals in their last 4 matches before being stopped 1-0 at North Carolina the previous week but they appeared to have no pretensions of racking up a hatful on this evening and settled in to challenge Los Morados to come at them and do their worst.
However there wouldn’t be much “bad” about the Morados offensive game for much of the rest of the half as captain Matt Reed tied down the midfield and resident central pivot Liam Doyle kept the visiting rearguard action in lockstep.
In the 24th minute, a sadly familiar sight for City fans as Cam Lancaster broke down and not long after left the game, though his subbing out probably brought quiet glee to Hack after stating during the week he would be just as happy as a coach not to have to face the reigning goal champ.
In replacement Smith sent in burly 21-year-old Ghanaian Ropapa Mensah but little changed in the pattern of play as
NSC relied on the counter, with left wing lurker Taylor Washington causing sporadic speed problems for the City defense and Rios keeping Taylor on his toes while Paco needed to be alert to cover for his partner and blunt the pointy prong that Rios remained. This was after the Mexicano marksman had also gone down injured but returned to the game, though for the final three quarters of the contest he would never quite look himself again.
The Morados first real moment in front of goal was Oscar Jimenez’ 33rd minute foray forward where he cut in from the left toward the perpendicular and turned the ball against the grain through to Brian Ownby, ideally on his strong left foot, but the nimble No.10 continued to search for his first goal in 2019 as he struck his effort straight at Connor Sparrow in the all-gold goal.
Minutes later it was Brian again, this time served by Niall McCabe and for the second time in succession he hit directly at Sparrow.
With Lancaster off, the match had lost one of its most prominent players and now in minute 36 No.36 Paolo DelPiccolo departed after an apparent issue with his left knee, the substitution hopefully for precautionary reasons. But with Speedy being withheld due to having just returned from Jamaica’s pleasingly protracted Gold Cup campaign, recent signing Antoine Hoppenot was presented the opportunity to reprise his rousing replacement performance of a week earlier in Indianapolis.
The visitors were still testing City on the counter, particularly via the pacy and tricky Washington up the left side channel but the home defense held.
Just as it seemed City would go into the locker room for another hard halftime Hack haranguing a chance of reprieve came their way as Nigerian defender Boluwatife Akinyode was adjudged by the official to have downed Magnus Rasmussen on the goal line inside the right-hand perpendicular, an innocuous area of the field.
The play had begun with Paco laying the ball up the left for Antoine and his tidy pass had sent Magnus striding into the Nashville area. Akinyode was tracking all the way to the line, standing up his opponent as the Dane looked to check back. Magnus accepted the invitation and went down in the wake of the Nigerian’s relatively minor contact and must have been delighted when the whistle went in his favor. But with no question of a chance on goal being created on the play, it was a harsh call by any objective measure.
Perhaps those omnipresent soccer spirits lent a modern day godly hand to The Boys In Gold as Magnus’ effort would only have been good for a “point after” and looked like it was lucky not to have ended up on Floyd Street.
The squandered opportunity was far from gratifying for John Hackworth who related in the postgame that Luke Spencer was the nominal penalty taker despite the replacement captain having given the ball up to the determined Dane, flushed in light of his goal-getting success thus far in 2019, though he has now gone 5 league and cup games without a sniff.
“We had Luke on there and normally he would have been the guy to take the PK”, lamented the head coach. “Maggie went right to the ball. He’s very confident. He’s very good at those. Those things happen though, so … “
On a side note he commented, “Just a pet peeve of mine is when the guy who gets fouled takes it. I never love that.”
So, the locals went in at the half in a similar predicament to their previous pair of fixtures: behind 0-1 and frustrated, knowing they had not played a particularly strong first 45.
And just as on those two occasions, they would galvanize and rally to turn the tide and wrest a result out of the game.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was The Roadies’ favorites who came out of the tunnel with the most resolve as early on Washington (from Darnell King) and Mensah (from Davis) each pricked the City defense and forced point blank preventions by Chris.
Before long it was Washington creating more difficulty for the defense as his cross was missed by Oscar but Kharlton Belmar could not capitalize on a big opportunity and fired his shot well over.
With his team struggling to gain traction after 56 minutes Hack now played a highly risky card, withdrawing defender Alexis in favor of offensive minded Sunny Jane.
If this was a shot in the arm for the Morados it was almost instantly manifested when Niall McCabe swung over a ball from the right wing that fell to Luke on the 6 yard line and he fended off Bradley Bourgeois as he climbed to head down toward Sparrow’s goal, however the ball ricocheted off the foot of the ‘keeper’s right post and the feeling began to set in that this may not be The Boys In Purple’s day at all.
Play drifted along without anything of the energy that might have been expected from two sides separated by only 3 hours and more critically 3 points in the league standings.
Then, out of the blue, in the 65th minute the entire tenor would change as Oscar won a free kick 30 yards out and, as with Magnus, took his own kick, serving in to Paco stationed outside the 6. The center back rose over no fewer than 5 Nashville defenders and powered his header wide of Sparrow and this time the ball cooperated for his side as it snuck inside the upright.
Whether or not the equalizer was deserved on the run of play is highly debatable, but Oscar and Paco finally connecting for the Londoner’s first goal of the season, and a glorious one at that, was cathartic and an emotional kickstart the Louisville lads had been desperate for, and all of a sudden the swagger was back and the crowd were electrified again.
Lebogang Moloto entered for injured Matt LaGrassa and within seconds was in the referee’s notebook as he terminated Oscar’s upfield progress.
Again Paco was the target of the free kick and his nod back across goal led to Niall getting in a cross which Magnus met and headed just over and onto the roof of the net.
If there was any doubt over the merit of the equalizer there would be none at all about the second Louisville goal. Sunny Jane stripped Moloto in midfield and Luke sent Brian high up the left side. As is one of his strong suits No.10 overlapped King and Bourgeois and looked up to see the incoming Hoppenot a step beyond marker Davis. And the man who is a week short of 29 rewarded himself with an early birthday gift and Antoine with a shot at his debut tally in only his second match for Lou City as the cross split Sparrow and the defender. The Frenchman still had work to do but connected consummately and confidently and his full volley flew in to the rapturous delight of the Scouse’s House end with their bird’s eye vista.
Two goals in ten minutes had purged any dire sensations felt by the Slugger faithful and Sean Totsch came on for Magnus in his familiar “cleanup” role when the team has the one goal lead.
Shortly beforehand, City had looked certain to extend their lead when Antoine received a Niall throw and with deft footwork managed to turn both Washington and Davis inside out before feeding Luke 10 yards out with Sparrow at his mercy. The man who took over Lancaster’s No.9 jersey side-footed first-time past the goalie only to be blocked on the goal line by the retreating King.
It proved to be superfluous garbage time stuff however as the gold shirts failed to muster much in order to threaten the Louisville lead and Los Morados bravos safely saw out the remaining minutes to claim their 8th victory of the year and set themselves up nicely to climb into the upper reaches of the Eastern standings.
Being asked if he expected to make a difference this early in his City career, deciding goal hero and obvious Man of the Match candidate Antoine Hoppenot was full of verve.
“When your number’s called you’ve got to expect to make a difference. Obviously, I’m always ready”, asserted the winger.
As well as being thrilled over his winner the new No.29 was grateful for the assist.
“Unbelievable cross by Brian Ownby. He just put it in and all I really have to do is hit it clean. That’s probably one of my top goals that I’ve scored. It feels so good to finally get out there and do my job.”
After a handy 4 points in eight days versus two tough rivals, the Purple juggernaut faces a tricky trip north of the border to meet Ottawa Fury, Sunday at 2 pm.
Vamos Morados!
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@LouCityKiwi’s PLAYER RATINGS OUT OF 10:
Chris Hubbard: 7
Not called upon to make much in the way of crucial saves and certainly not given a chance by Rios on the goal.
Oscar Jimenez: 7 1/2
Fortunate after one defensive gaffe but registered an assist with his perfect free kick to Paco.
Paco Craig: 8
Misjudged Rios’ striking ability on the goal against allowing the ball a third bounce in front of him, but otherwise marshaled his defense well and made up for his earlier error with that huge headed equalizer.
Taylor Peay: 6
Charged with the mistake leading to the goal against and sometimes looking less commanding than needing to be, particularly being back in his preferred central role.
Alexis Souahy: 7
Tactical withdrawal in the 2nd after doing reasonably well in the unnatural right back spot.
Paolo Delpiccolo: 7
Unfortunate to bow out to injury in the 1st half after a decent 35 minutes of football.
Brian Ownby: 7
Quiet day generally, missing one good opportunity and not the dominant presence that was the Ownby of old. However, the play of the game was his setup ball for Antoine’s winner and this is what makes the Virginian so valuable.
Napo Matsoso: 7 1/2
Succeeded in holding the middle after the premature departure of senior partner PDP.
Niall McCabe: 7 1/2
Kept things ticking in the midfield and a post away from a 2nd half assist.
Magnus Rasmussen: 6
Not finding the pockets to dominate the middle nor the seams to create in the box. Worse still, won the penalty but missed on the conversion when his team badly needed a goal. Best player on the park the previous week, not his day on this occasion.
Luke Spencer: 7 1/2
Unfortunate to have a fine header thwarted by the woodwork and a goalbound strike kicked off the goal line, however will be called upon as the season goes on to be putting away such chances. Extra credit for his superb lead pass for Brian’s assist on the winner.
Sunny Jane: 7
Perhaps the unsung addition after which the game turned in City’s favor. Also instrumental in the buildup to the winning goal.
Sean Totsch: N/A
Cleanup sub again.
“LOS MORADOS NO. 1 ⭐️ OF THE GAME”
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Antoine Hoppenot⭐️⭐️⭐️: 8 1/2
Magnificent volleyed finish to win the match, not to mention also delivering key passes leading to Magnus winning the penalty and when Luke’s effort was cleared off the line. Aside from all that, a solid 60 odd minutes from the 1st half substitute, and looks well on the way to weighing the Lucky trade well in Lou City’s favor.
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