That was better. City scored in both halves and kept a clean sheet to pick up a 2-0 win over Loudoun United on Saturday to keep pace with the rest of Group E over the weekend. Cameron Lancaster scored in the first half, Napo Matsoso picked one up in the second, and Ben Lundt came up big on a couple of occasions in the match.
Hackworth sent out a similar lineup to the one that played against Indy XI a week prior, but with a couple of interesting changes. Sean Totsch has begun to cement his spot as starting center back for this team, and he was joined by Alexis Soahy. Pat McMahon started at right back, while Jonathan Gomez got the nod on the left. Speedy Williams played the six, while Paolo DelPiccolo and Corben Bone again sort of played a double-pivot higher up the field, similar to the midfield a week ago. Lancaster was up top, joined by Napo Matsoso, and Antoine Hoppenot started on the left over Brian Ownby, who did not make the team sheet.
City dominated possession, corners and crosses, and felt in control of the entire match. That said, the numbers aren’t all good. City took 18 shots but only put three on frame. Fortunately, two went in. Several shots that looked like they might have had some promise were blocked. Both teams completed passes at about the same clip, with City attempting about 85 more passes than Loudoun. Morados tried 35 crosses but only completed two of them.
Totsch and Alexis played great games in central defense, and Souahy even had the assist on Lancaster’s goal (sort of, they counted it as one). This being the second week playing a sort of 4-1-2-3 in possession, the midfield functioned a lot better against worse opposition. Corben Bone played a bit more like a box-to-box role, but was very efficient with the ball
Paolo really carried the water from a creativity standpoint in this game, which is good. I like to think of him kind of playing a Pirlo role, though he doesn’t seem to enjoy quite the same amount of space. PdP created six chances in the match and had the assist on Napo’s goal in the second half.
Gomez really started getting loose after the first 20 or 30 minutes and it was awesome to see flashes of what could make him a real star in the future. McMahon’s tendency to stay home a bit more gave the youngster a lot more license to get forward, and he ended up using it well. JoGo routinely roasted the poor winger tasked with guarding him, winning 13 of 16 duels on the night. He could still use some work on his crossing, though, as all eleven attempts went wanting. Still, he was fun to watch.
Napo had a nice game, but Lancaster really made the most of his limited touches. His opener was a really nice display of pace, skill, and decision making. More of that!
This was the first match Hack used all five subs, and a few were more than notable:
Elijah Wynder got his first professional appearance, which is awesome. He played pretty well in his 25 minutes! That said, toward the end of the match, he had a pretty golden opportunity to go 1v1 against the keeper and didn’t take it. I suppose taking the ball to the corner was the smarter play, but I’m of the opinion that if you have a chance to score, you ought to take it, game state be damned.
Oscar subbed on for Speedy at defensive midfield for the last, say, fifteen minutes of the game, which I thought was really surprising. Oscar didn’t come up as a fullback, to be fair, and played several midfield positions before arriving in Louisville four years ago. He did a great job spelling for Speedy, in my book. He completed all of his eight passes and even created a scoring chance!
Jason Johnson logged his second substitute appearance in as many games. He made a couple of key passes, but didn’t look much like scoring himself. Still waiting to see what he can really do.
Overall, it was a good performance. It’s nice to get three points and walk out without any injuries. City is back in action on Wednesday night, though, against a team they really need to beat to keep pace in the group. Let’s go remind everyone who Nope Park Rangers are. VAMOS.
