So this is a busy day at the Louisville Coopers dot com. Intrepid Courier-Journal Elsie beat writer Jonathan Lintner dropped this nugget on us in his piece about the Louisville City/Orlando City breakup:
The Louisville City Football Club’s affiliation with the MLS’ Orlando City Soccer Club wound up short-lived. The two franchises’ partnership, though, will continue once they finish sharing players at the end of the 2015 season.
Orlando City SC announced Tuesday it will pursue pursue in-house developmental United Soccer Leagues side, going a route similar to MLS franchises such as the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York Red Bulls.
Former Orlando assistant James O’Connor will remain the coach here. The clubs have also scheduled an Aug. 25 friendly at Louisville Slugger Field.
Way to bury the lead, Lintner! While mid-season friendlies are kind of dumb, they’re also great chances for clubs to make money, which is something Louisville City’s owners would probably like to have. While rumors had always been bubbling that a friendly with the Lions was going to happen this season, nothing was official until today. The timing of the announcement makes me think that the friendly is probably a parting gift coinciding with the termination of Orlando City’s affiliation with LouC, and that’s okay. We’ll speculate about who we might get to see from OCSC closer to August 25 right now: Kaka! Dane Brekken Shea! Earl Edwards, Jr! All on our converted baseball field! It’s bound to be a grand time.