John Hackworth said in a few interviews last week leading into the season opener that getting a good start to the season is important. I can’t imagine many season-starting scenarios that could be worse than City’s 4-1 drubbing at the hands of North Carolina on Saturday night. Injuries or a red card, I guess. Getting completely shut out would have also been worse. In any event, Saturday’s result finds Morados in a place they’ve never been before: DFL in the Eastern Conference table.

The cracks that I willfully ignored in the preseason were laid quite bare by Dave Sarachan and his new-look NCFC team. City played some inspired and progressive soccer in the opening moments of the game, but couldn’t create any very clear scoring chances. Just like in the last two preseason games, trying to force the issue as the minutes ticked by, the back line crept closer and closer to Carolina’s goal, leaving it ripe for exploitation by counter-attack. All four of NCFC’s goals were scored on the counter, as City regularly only had two players defending deep when turned over in Carolina’s half.

While John Hackworth didn’t have much in the way of film to study of his opponent, Dave Sarachan probably had some. Morados played this match in much the same way they played the last seven-to-ten matches of last season. The script wasn’t particularly different from the last two preseason matches, either. In response, NCFC did the same things UK and UofL did but with much more success. They played very compact in the middle defensively, forcing City to try to play the ball in from the wings and looking to strike quick on the counter. They had a lone striker playing between the City centerbacks, and if they could win a header or a second ball off a fruitless Louisville City cross, it was off to the races as Marios Lomis, Thomas McCabe, Ulrich Ewolo, and then Robert Kristo had acres of space to exploit and capitalize on. As both of City’s fullbacks pushed further and further up the field to try and put in service, it forced Alexis and Paco Craig to split ever wider to cover up the space they vacated. Paolo tried to drop in between them after the second goal, but kept getting sucked forward as Speedy Williams and Niall McCabe struggled to complete passes in the crowded midfield.

What was much more concerning was City’s inability to adjust their game plan to stop the bleeding. I can certainly understand trying to push for a goal and pushing numbers forward, but all that did was make the space in NCFC’s penalty area even more compact. It was like the first Cincinnati game last season but the opposite. It was alarmingly like the UofL and UK games, both of which featured Morados conceding before equalizing or winning. The same problems that featured in those matches featured in this one. There’s plenty of blame to go around for this loss, but that might be the worst part.

This is ostensibly a numbers-centered feature on this fair website, so let’s talk about those. Louisville City had nearly 60% of the ball, but obviously didn’t do much with it. North Carolina didn’t even look particularly interested in keeping it themselves. City did not perform particularly well in duels as a team, losing those battles 55% of the time.

I’d talked about Carolina forcing City to try and get Luke Spencer service from the wings. Morados attempted 37 crosses in the game and completed just four of them. That’s bad. City passed the ball fairly well in NC’s half, around 67%, but, as I mentioned earlier, were unable to do anything with it. Morados took 21 shots but only two were on frame. North Carolina took twelve shots, five being on frame, and only missed one of those.

Tim Dobrowolski was mostly hung out to dry on the goals City gave up, so I can’t put too much on him for this game.

Sean Totsch, in his first start as right back, was probably too aggressive in possession. City’s coaching staff must have seen something they liked up the right side for him to play as high as he did, but the problem was no one played deep to cover for him if he lost the ball. He completed 51.6% of his passes in the game, though he did have a fairly successful day in duels. His counterpart, Oscar, had a tough day crossing the ball, going 1-for-12 and losing seven of nine duels. He did pass the ball very well, and also created a couple of scoring chances on a night where those were very few.

Alexis and Paco found themselves stranded three or four times on those counters, but played pretty well in possession. Alexis won just two of eight aerial duels, far below his standard.

Paolo actually played a pretty good game, completing over 75% of his passes in Carolina’s half and going 50% in duels. Not his best, but certainly not bad. Speedy didn’t quite meet his standards in possession, and Niall just had a bad night, completing just 44.7% of his passes in the opposite half. The Irishman did create two scoring chances, however.

Luke Spencer was pretty well starved for service all game. He had just five touches in Carolina’s penalty area in 77 minutes. City will have to do better getting him the ball if he’s going to be the striker. Brian Ownby and Cuatro both put in some furious shifts, but weren’t able to create more than three chances between them.

In the end, it’s just one game, and an away match, to boot. There are 33 more games in the season. However, all of that three-peat, regular season champs talk sounds pretty stupid right now. I know I’ve had to eat a lot of crow the last day or so, and I do not enjoy it. Getting literally blown out in your season opener when you started nine of the same eleven guys that won the USL Cup Final four months ago really sucks.

City also have a short week going into another away match near Atlanta, who picked up three points off Hartford last week. There’s a lot to fix between now and then. Let’s get it.