These things are way easier to write when you’ve got data of any kind about the teams playing in the matches. This same problem will rear its head next week when Louisville City journeys to Raleigh to play an almost-totally-new North Carolina FC team. Who’s good on the other team? How will they play? How will Morados play? How long will the starters stay in? Which team will Geoffrey Dee play for? That last one is actually a neat question.

Adding to the confusion for this game is the fact that UofL’s got a new coach in John Michael Hayden. Hayden seems like a smart guy who doesn’t want to fix what isn’t broken. However, it’s usually human nature to try and put your own imprint or identity as a coach onto your team and club. How that manifests itself on Floyd Street is still an open question, and probably will be for a while.

Let’s talk numbers, such as they are. UofL’s leading goalscorer, Tate Schmitt, is no longer with the team, having been drafted by Real Salt Lake in MLS in January. Cherif Dieye, the senior midfielder with five goals in 2018, should be available, but after that the Cards have lost a lot of returning scoring production. One for us locals to watch, though, is Haji Abdikadir, a freshman from Collegiate, plus Jack Fasteen from Manual. I honestly don’t know how the Cards set up generally, but from the few times I watched them last season, they seem to at least try to possess the ball as much as they can by college soccer standards. I certainly hope they won’t adopt a “bunker and counter” approach in this game the way Kentucky did last week. It’s effective, but not fun to watch.

For Louisville City’s part, I think we can expect to see the same starting eleven we’ve seen the past three or four games: Dobrowolski, Totsch, Craig, Souahy, Oscar, Paolo, Speedy, Niall, Ownby, Cuatro and Luke. How they set up for this game is up for debate, as they’ve played 4-3-3, 3-5-2, 4-4-2, and 4-2-3-1 by the accounts I’ve seen over this preseason. Formation doesn’t matter quite as much as assigned roles and style do, of course. That means we shouldn’t be surprised to see the guys playing the way we’re accustomed to: trying to win the ball high up the field, playing compact in defense, and using the ball to open up gaps in the defense to create scoring opportunities.

More than anything, I’m excited to finally see Louisville City playing in Louisville. It seems like an age since we were last at Lynn Stadium lifting the USL Cup. I’ll be glad to watch them play there again, and hopefully going back to that well leads us to the same place this November for the third straight time.

VAMOS MORADOS, VAMOS A GANAR