WHO: Loudoun United, 1-1-2, 4 points, 4th place in Group F

WHAT: A regular season, out-of-group USL Championship match

WHEN: Supposedly Saturday, August 15, 2020, 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Lynn Family Stadium, 350 Adams Street, Louisville, KY 40206

WATCH:

TV: WMYO/My TV
Radio: 840 WHAS
Stream: WDRB Now/ESPN+

MARCH: Can’t be doin’ that.

WHO, AGAIN? Loudoun United is in their second USL season. Their inaugural season in 2019 began with a very bad start (which nonetheless included a win against LouCity) but ended with Lil’ DCU wrecking several teams’ playoff chances. That was entertaining!

Loudoun has started 2020 poorly, too. They’ve only played three matches in the re-start, and have only won once, a 1-2 away victory to NYRB II last weekend. They were previously absolutely smashed by Hartford Athletic twice in a row. The NYRB win is a little specious, too, as it featured at 15′ red card on the Baby Bulls. New York clawed a goal back with 15 minutes remaining to keep United’s coaching staff’s butts rather clenched for an extended period before the final whistle blew.

However, if I’ve learned anything about 2020, it’s to expect bad things to happen. Sure, Loudoun seems like one of the worst teams in the entire USL Championship right now. However, their conversion percentage (shots on target resulting in goals) is over 12%, double that of LouCity. 42% of Loudoun’s shots are on target, compared to City’s 33%. They’re scoring a goal per game, which is better than LouCity’s .833 clip.

In more encouraging news, Loudoun’s defense is pretty bad, having given up more shots on target through four matches (24) than LouCity has in six (17). They concede a lot of fouls and have seven yellow cards already. Offensively, they don’t appear to do a very good job attacking from wide areas, having only connected on eight crosses all season, which is kind of insane. They also are just okay in 1v1 situations and on the dribble. If there was another game to trot out Akil Watts and JoGo at fullback, this might be one.

PLAYER(S) TO WATCH: #7 Elvis Amoh leads United in scoring with three goals. #9 Alioune Ndour is the second leading shooter on the team, though he hasn’t yet found the net. #12 Kairou Amoustapha leads the team in chances created, with four. That’s not a lot.

FOR CITY: City could use a win. This is a good chance to get one. An emphatic victory would be even better.

John Hackworth, in his weekly show on WDRB, said that the postponed mid-week match with SKCII had kind of thrown off preparation this week. I’m sure it did! However, and Hack acknowledged as much, all of 2020 has thrown us off. City hasn’t yet shown that they’ve adapted to all of the tumult that COVID-19 has thrown in their path this re-start, but Saturday’s game represents a chance to change that narrative for the better.

I also think we can expect some interesting lineup changes on Saturday. The Speedy-Paolo-Bone midfield a week ago was an interesting experiment that didn’t quite come off in terms of shots on target or scoring goals. However, City created more chances against Indy than they have in any other game all season. At some point, that’s got to pay dividends. I can’t honestly believe that Lancaster isn’t going to begin to convert those chances into goals. The question is “can anyone else?” I don’t know yet. Maybe on Saturday we find out?

SI, SE PUEDE! VAMOS MORADOS!