Any time you win an away match convincingly on the score line and keep a clean sheet in the process, you’ve done some things right. City’s 0-3 victory over Ottawa Fury on Saturday adds a needed three points and improves Morados to third in the table. While the Boys in Purple were definitely clinical with the chances they had in the match, there were still plenty of areas to improve. That sounds ridiculous, because they scored three times and didn’t let any goals in. But I still think it’s true.

The Triumvirate rolled out the 4-2-3-1 again with Paco Craig and Alexis Souahy at the back, Kyle Smith and Oscar as fullbacks, the usual midfield pair of Paolo DelPiccolo and Speedy Williams, and Magnus Rasmussen, Brian Ownby, George Davis IV, and Ilja Ilic up front. Ottawa came out in a 4-3-3 but generated a lot of their offense on the counterattack.

City won the possession battle 55-45, and had five of seven total shots on target. Ottawa took nine shots, but only two were on target. In fairness, Greg Ranjitsingh had to do some work to deal with those two, and otherwise had a very good performance in goal. Ottawa is a tall, physical team and every one of their six corner kicks felt like it could have been a threat. Ironically, though, it was Louisville City that scored on first from one of the two of the corner kicks they took on the day. Given City’s history of futility with corners, it almost beggared belief that they would be 50% on corner kick attempts against a team that seemingly should be built to easily deal with them.

There isn’t a lot that’s statistically significant from this game from a team-level perspective. Ottawa had 20 interceptions to City’s four, which is weird but largely irrelevant. City did a good job keeping Ottawa from building much of an attack, as they only managed to complete 59% of their passes in the purple half of the field. The Fury did have a lot of touches in City’s 18 yard box, more than I was comfortable with, but couldn’t do anything with any of them. The purple back four had 30 clearances in the game to show for it.

Individually, there are some interesting things to note. Alexis, despite the unfortunate but deserved red card, played his best game yet as a passer, completing over 80% of his 54 passes. He was also immense in 1v1s, winning eight of nine duels, and going four for five in the air. Paco was his usual solid self, and of course added City’s second goal from a free kick after Alexis had earned a foul in a dangerous area. Oscar had two assists on the evening even though he was confined to a more defensive role in this match as a true fullback rather than a winger.

Paolo and Speedy weren’t quite their usual selves in midfield, but they both scored. Both also passed for better than 70% in Ottawa’s half, and were about 50% in duel situations. Paolo had five tackles. The attacking four were fine, but honestly didn’t produce a lot in the way of offense. Just two shots and three chances were produced between Ownby, Davis, MAG RAM, and Ilic. Magnus was pretty busy, but lost 14 of 21 duels on the match.

Again, I don’t think City played all that great, but it’s impossible to complain about a three goal win with a clean sheet on the road. So I won’t. Good job to the boys, and let’s go get some revenge against Indy Eleven on Sunday.