That sucked. Thanks to Charlotte, Louisville City had what looked to be a good chance to climb back to the top of the table on Sunday night, and they didn’t take it. Injuries played a role again. Shaun Francis subbed on early in the second half but it was plain to see he wasn’t ready. Ilija Ilic came on later and looked to have maybe a hamstring problem midway through his shift. By that point, though, City was already down a goal.

I thought the Purples looked like the better team in the first half. They had more of the ball and were getting into some good areas, but couldn’t put much together once they got there. Things started unraveling in the second period, though, and Nashville’s second goal was a long time coming. This might have been the first game I can remember in a couple of years where City didn’t have more shots on target (4) than the opponent did (7). Nashville had fourteen or fifteen touches in the Purple penalty area, which is almost unheard of. I think that’s a product of a makeshift back line. I don’t know why Totsch came off at halftime, but it makes me worried. Alexis is good at man-marking, but he had a hand in both conceded goals. I really like what I see from the kid at times, but he’s still pretty green.

What was interesting, to me, about this game was Nashville didn’t follow the Indy game plan to get this result. They sat back and didn’t try to press Paolo and Speedy into bad positions. Those two, statistically, had pretty good games, passing at about for well over 80%. Instead, Nashville did a good job closing down space for the attack to work in, and Morados didn’t adjust. Bringing on Spencer was probably an attempt to open some things up on top, but it didn’t work. Luke touched the ball seven times all night, one of which was on a kickoff. The starting front three generated one chance between them all night. This ended up limiting City’s best scoring chances to set plays, something they historically aren’t all that proficient at.

The loss marks City’s first pair of consecutive losses since I don’t know when, maybe the end of 2015? I’m not gonna look it up. City haven’t scored a goal since the 22 minute mark against Bethlehem Steel, 247 minutes, the longest stretch ever, I’m pretty sure. This is a bad stretch. The worst part is, I don’t see it getting better quickly. Games on Wednesday and Saturday, neither of which is likely to be a walk in the park. You can take solace in the fact that I’m usually wrong about these sorts of things, however.

COME ON, CITY!