That was a forgettable game, but you generally can’t complain about a draw on the road. Louisville City got out of Bethlehem with a 0-0 draw on Saturday. City had most of the ball, nearly 65%, but Steel had the better scoring chances. Emergency defending and a couple of really clutch saves from Greg Ranjitsingh are why the score wasn’t worse. City had eleven shots, but just two on target. Steel had twelve and three, and should feel pretty unlucky about one or two of them.

The match also saw Cameron Lancaster leave early in the first half after a tough challenge from Josh Yaro. We learned mid-match that Cam was taken to a local hospital, which was scary. Lancaster later tweeted that he had separated his left shoulder and was experiencing concussion-like symptoms. We wish Cam a speedy and safe recovery, and hope to see him on the field again soon.

Luke Spencer didn’t make the trip because of a leg injury of some kind, so Mag Ram came on for Lancaster and switched places with Ilija Ilic. It didn’t matter a whole lot because Bethlehem’s entire game plan from the opening whistle was to keep City’s midfield from linking up with their attack. It worked pretty well. Morados’ attacking three only had seven touches in the Steel 18 yard box all game, and not one inside the goal area.

Just like the first meeting between these two teams, Bethlehem’s game plan centered around pressing the daylights out of Speedy Williams and Paolo DelPiccolo whenever they touched the ball. While the pair combined for nearly 150 passes and both completing over 80%, most of them were back toward a centerback rather than out to a winger to carry the ball to the forwards. I’ve got no complaints about either performance; they did the best they could under the circumstances. It bothered me, though, that there never really was an adjustment for the tactic aside from some hopeful long balls for Oscar or eventually Ownby to run on to.

City’s back line were probably busier than they’ve been all season, and deserve a ton of credit for keeping a clean sheet. It could not have been easy for any of Craig, Totsch and McMahon, as all three had played a full 90 on Tuesday. City attempted nearly 650 passes on Saturday, which is a ton, but Sean Totsch had 99 of them himself. The rest of the defensive unit weren’t far behind. Souahy played pretty well in his substitute appearance at the 59 minute mark.

Personally, I’m fine with a point. I’d have liked to have had three, of course, but when Bethlehem’s entire ethos is win the midfield and hope City makes a mistake on defense, you get games like the one we had. Take it and move along…to what’s sure to be a very different game against Penn this coming Saturday.