It wasn’t a pretty win. At this point in the season, though, Louisville City and John Hackworth can afford to put aside style and focus on results. They got one on a rainy night at Dillon Stadium that saw Napo Matsoso pick up his first goal of the season, the return of Brian Ownby, and a lot of yellow cards from referee Matthew Franz.
City set out in a pretty familiar 4-3-3 lineup that included a return start for Speedy Williams in central midfield and Luke Spencer at the nine. City dominated most of the first half in terms of possession and shots, but weren’t able to do very much in the final third. There was a brief spell just after the half hour mark where Chris Hubbard had to do some work, but otherwise it was a pretty uneventful first 45.
Hartford started the second half much more aggressively, forcing Hubbard into a couple of key saves just four or five minutes in, and then putting one off the crossbar about five minutes after that. However, City put things right in the 59′.
Hoppenot made a good run to the endline with the ball from his left wing spot before crossing it back upfield to Oscar. Oscar laid it off to Napo and then pinched in, so Napo sent it back and Oscar quickly returned the favor to the oncoming Matsoso who lashed it in past Cody Cropper, who had no chance.
Brian Ownby, who subbed on just moments later, probably should have doubled the lead in the 62′, but couldn’t get it past Cropper for the insurance goal. City wouldn’t record another shot after 65′ but hung on tight in the midst of a late onslaught by Hartford to keep the clean sheet and the three points. The win marked City’s third away victory in their last four trips, and the seventh straight game unbeaten for Morados.
The numbers look about like I expected: City dominated possession in the opening period with 62% of the ball but really ceded it back after going ahead in the second half and ended the match with 55.8%. City was actually outshot in the game 12-11 and had one fewer shot on target, too, 5-4. Hartford won 56% of the duels, too. City attempted 120 more passes than Hartford did, most of those taking place in the first half.
Thanks in some part to the weather, I think, it was not a game littered with chances. Oscar created four and got the assist on Napo’s goal. Antoine had a couple, too. No LouCity player had more than two shots.
Speedy was excellent again in his central midfield role, and he and Napo completed 93% of their pass attempts. Speedy had about 30 more pass attempts than Napo, too. The back four were all very efficient, though McMahon was slightly less stellar than his three compatriots. He still completed 73% of his attempts, though he seemed to get caught out a few more times on counters than I’d like to see. Fortunately he recovered on just about all of those, and had three tackles to show for it.
Not much happened up front, to be honest. Hoppenot had a pretty good game, with two shots, two chances created, and a tackle. Thiam’s line was about the same.
In the end, it wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done. Let’s take the three points, rest up for the week, and get ready for RB2. Vamos.
