WHO: Nashville SC, 8W-5D-4L, 29 points, 5th place Eastern Conference
WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match
WHEN: Saturday, July 6, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Louisville Slugger Field
WATCH: At the game! Yeah, it’ll probably be hot, but you just sat outside all day yesterday drinking beer, eating grilled meat and watching explosions, so you’re used to it now. Get out there! But if you can’t make it because you got arrested for making homemade fireworks, see if the warden will let you watch the game on TV on WBKI, listen on the radio on 780/840/1080, or stream it on your contraband smartphone on ESPN+.
MARCH:
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!
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!
After the match concludes, we have beers at Against the Grain which is conveniently located right outside the Slugger Field gate. Make sure you ask for a pint of the Coopers rotating charity tap! $0.50 from every pour (on home match days) goes to Shirley’s Way, a most excellent local charity helping families of those afflicted with cancer.
WHO, AGAIN? Nashville is fine. They’ve got some very talented players. They’ve got a thoroughly mediocre manager. Their fans traveled back when they were a NPSL team, but when they sold out to a billionaire for their push for MLS they stopped doing that. Speaking of MLS, this bright yellow construction sign will be their crest when they make the jump:
Daniel Rios is admittedly a scary player. Cameron Lancaster might play. Lebo Moloto and Ropapa Mensah are quite good. But of Nashville’s eight wins on the season thus far, just one has come against a team currently occupying a playoff spot. They’re scoring a lot of goals against small frys. To their credit, NSC’s converting nearly 17% of their shots on target right now, and that’s really good.
They’re not as stingy in defense as Indy was, that’s for sure. Ken Tribbett is a solid defender and Liam Doyle is certainly annoying to play against, but those guys probably aren’t making the MLS squad come November or whenever that happens.
City will likely still be without the services of Shaun Francis and Speedy Williams for this match, so I expect to see Taylor Peay on the right and Oscar in the left in the fullback spots tomorrow. The only other real question mark for me is who plays where up front. I’d like to expect Luke to start, being flanked by Niall and maybe Brian Ownby, but these days it could just as easily be Cuatro or Maggi or someone else I haven’t even considered. Keep an eye out for that, because finding space between Nashville’s center backs is the key to the game I think. Who does it best will hopefully be who starts.
Nashville is just fine. I don’t personally like them or dislike them. That’s honestly more insulting than having an axe to grind: no one in the Championship really cares about Nashville. NSC: they came, they played, they left without doing much of anything worth remembering
VAMOS MORADOS!
