WHO: St. Louis FC, 5-3-1, 18 points, 3rd place Eastern Conference
WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match
WHEN: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Louisville Slugger Field, 401 E. Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202
WATCH: Live and in person! Tickets really are going fast for this one, so get yours and get down there. If you can’t make it because you’re worried about becoming a werewolf power forward mid-match, you can still watch it on WBKI-58, stream it on ESPN+, and listen on 790 WKRD probably.
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 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? Our good old frenemies St. Louis FC. STL, you’ll recall, joined the league the same season Louisville City did. In fact, both clubs’ first ever real matches were against each other at Slugger way back in 2015. Matt Fondy had a brace and we won and were off to the races, titles, trophies, etc.
St. Louis’s journey was much rockier. They fired their first manager midway through their second season and are now on their fourth, former Orlando City B manager Anthony Pulis. They’ve switched conferences every year of their existence. Last season was their first ever making the playoffs, but didn’t make it past their opening match, getting pasted 4-0 by Orange County.
However, that upward trend nonetheless extended into 2019, as St. Louis has either been at the top of the Eastern Conference table or close to it for all ten-ish weeks of the league season. They’ve only lost once (to Birmingham of all clubs) and have a goal difference of +6, which is pretty good. And their early schedule was a tough one, with Indy, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Charleston all already in their pocket.
What’s turned the STL tide? Well, probably Pulis for a start, along with a much better defense. They’re also getting a helping hand from Guy Abend, who’s earned six starts and eight appearances in nine games, plus former Morados Kadeem Dacres and Sean Reynolds. Russell Cicerone and STL original Sam Fink lead the club in scoring with three goals apiece, while Lewis Hilton does a lot of their creation from the left wing.
One thing St. Louis has done really well this season is convert their chances, as they’re on a 15.8% conversion rate right now. That’s obscenely high, and not likely to last forever, but it just goes to show what clinical finishing looks like.
Jake Fenlason is their keeper and averages two saves per game and has five clean sheets in nine matches.
STL averages 45% possession and about 375 passes per 90 minutes. 40% of those passes are forward. What that, plus their very good defensive record should tell you is this is a very solid defensive team that takes care of the chances they get. That sounds a lot like some of the teams that City struggled with early in the season. The confines at Slugger Field make counter-attacking a little more difficult, but certainly not impossible. City will have to be patient offensively if they want to break down this Louisan side, and exceptionally wary of counters and set plays. Five of STL’s goals this season are off of headers.
It’s always a good time when St. Louis comes to town. This might be the first time I’ve felt overly nervous about losing the Kings Cup in five years. It could happen! But City’s slowly getting veteran players’ legs back under them, and have six goals for, zero against in their last two matches. Let’s hope that trend continues for another weekend.
VAMOS MORADOS!
