I’ve never been so pleased with a draw. Louisville City put in what was by far their best performance of the young season so far on Saturday night and got a 1-1 draw against a hot Tampa Bay Rowdies team. There could have been more goals either way, but I’d argue Los Morados were the better team on the night and would have been better rewarded were it not for a fantastic performance out of Rowdies keeper John McCarthy.
Thanks to injuries galore, LouCity started yet another makeshift lineup that the USL thought was a 5-3-2 (which would have been weird) but was actually a 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1 depending on how you wanted to look at it. Paco Craig found his way back into the lineup beside Taylor Peay, with Shaun Francis and Oscar on either wing. Sean Totsch played in deep midfield, Magnus Rasmussen was at the 10, and Speedy Williams sort of played a roaming 8. Lucky Mkosana and Niall McCabe played (nominally) on the wings with Abdou Mbacke Thiam at striker.
Starting Totsch at the 6 had a very calming effect on the game at the back, where he’d slide right between the centerbacks in defense and then immediately get in between City’s lines in possession, similar to Paolo’s role during the playoffs last year. Paco Craig apparently responded well to his benching the week prior and put in an excellent shift, too. We saw Franno play further forward on the left than we’d ever seen before, which is what I’d expected him to do since he was signed last year.
There’s some Twitter criticism, from people who would know, about the idea that there’s still a hole in the Louisville City midfield and the problems the team had passing the ball there. I’m not sure I agree. Morados had nearly 60% of the ball in the game, passed for an excellent 76.2% on the game, and 67.1% in Tampa’s half, easily their best marks all season. The passing charts do show that City tried to move the ball more on the wings than through midfield, but that’s likely by design, to either stretch Tampa’s defense or make them overcommit to one side or the other, leaving space in the opposite field for attack. It almost seems as though City have abandoned trying to move the ball through the center of a defense, and would rather risk a turnover on the wings than in the middle of the field where they could be exploited on the counter. To be fair, Morados had a very good day crossing the ball, completing 30.4% of their 23 attempts. The “average position” chart that USL keeps also indicates that City’s wingers pulled much more centrally as the game went on rather than staying as wide as they could have. I’ll have to keep a better eye on that.
It should also not come as a surprise that Morados excelled in a game against a team that wasn’t trying to bunker, but instead wanted to attack and score goals. It certainly opened up space, though City still wanted a bit in the attacking third in terms of possession, passing and dribbling. It wasn’t bad, it just could have been better. Much improved, though, was getting the ball at players’ feet in dangerous areas. City had 18 touches in the Rowdies’ box, and most of them square to the goal, which is right where you want to be. For their part, Tampa had 19, but could only manage to make two shots on target out of it, a good sign for Louisville against such an adept offensive team.
Morados also had their best game of the season in attack, outshooting TBR 17-13 with eight on target, which is excellent. About half of those shots were almost right at the keeper, but that’s still a good number and on most nights, at least one or two more would go in.
Individually, Paco had a stellar game at the back. He passed for almost 90% on the game, and 91.7% in Tampa’s half. He was 50% on aerials, but just 2-6 in normal duels. That said, his leg save on a cross in the first half was probably the play of the game. Taylor Peay wasn’t quite as good, but he did better in duels, five for nine, two for three in the air, and had four interceptions.
Franno played his best game in purple yet, going for nearly 80% passing, winning half of his duels and going four for six in the air. I’d like to see him cross the ball more on the left, as he only attempted three, with one very good one on target. He generated two scoring chances in the game. Oscar didn’t pass or dribble quite as well as Fight Club, but he was six for eight on crosses, back to his usual awesomeness, and created five chances. Oscar also won three fouls while only conceding one. Quite the rebound from a week ago.
Sean Totsch was probably my man of the match. He led the team in passing at 93%, 89% in Tampa’s half. He won seven of nine duels, had two tackles, and three interceptions. Totsch didn’t contribute anything really offensively, but if he can stay disciplined in the back like he did in this game, he’ll make me a lot more comfortable about City’s defense in the future.
Niall, Speedy and Lucky didn’t do anything particularly remarkable in the game, though they did combine to create four chances, Niall with three of them. Speedy definitely passed the ball much better. Lucky had a couple shots on target but again did poorly in duels and kind of seemed out of place. He’s obviously a talented player but he and the coaching staff need to figure out a way for him to work in this team. I don’t think they’ve figured it out yet.
Magnus was the reason City scored their goal for sure, fighting off three defenders in the box before the ball squirted into Thiam’s path about six or so yards out. He passed for 85% in Tampa’s half, won twelve of his 17 duels (!!!!!!), won four fouls and had a couple successful tackles to boot. MAG RAM is really growing into his role and I have a feeling we’ll see him ensconced at central attacking mid for the foreseeable future. He’s getting better every game and Tampa really had no answer for him. Now all we have to do is give him some more options to pass to for scores.
Thiam played much better this week as the lone striker. No, he didn’t pass the ball great and didn’t do very well in 1v1s, but his positioning was excellent and he was a little unlucky not to have scored the game’s opening goal in the 7′. Thiam led the team in shots with three on target and two off.
Again, that performance was the most encouraged I’ve been about Louisville City soccer since before the season started. There’s still a lot of work to do, especially in terms of figuring out the midfield and doing a better job creating scoring chances, but it’s definitely progress. A point on the road against a good team is never bad. Now let’s move on to Ottawa.
