Well that was refreshing. Louisville City’s 4-1 win Saturday night against Charlotte Independence helped stop a skid in the team’s fortunes and hold steady in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, just three points out of second. Of course, what we want is first place, but given Morados’ injury predicament, schedule congestion thanks to the Open Cup, and the lack of a head coach, their current position is fine. Plus, it’s not City’s fault no one else can seem to take points off of Cincinnati, who are a comfortable nine points ahead of the nearest competitor.

Back to Charlotte, though. Both teams entered this game having been beaten mid-week. Charlotte, though, looked like the team that was much worse for wear. Look at this heat map for the full 90:

Red in all the right places. Thanks to the suspension of Oscar, Shaun Francis got the start on the left side. More interesting, though, was the switch to a back four for the first time in over a year. Paco Craig and Alexis Souahy started a center halves, with Kyle playing the other right fullback role. The two defensive mids were Paolo and Speedy, of course, and then the four attackers were Ilic, McCabe, Davis IV, and Ownby. You could call it a 4-2-3-1, but with City’s ability to rotate attacking roles it was more of a 4-2-4. To be fair, the four attackers did more or less stay in their starting positions for most of the game. Charlotte tried to take away any width City might have had with a 4-1-4-1 to force play into the middle of the field. That plan ended up biting them back, as fifteen of City’s shots came from the middle of the 18 yard box, three of which scored goals. Morados out-shot Charlotte 27-7, which is crazy, with seven on target for the winners. I’m not a fan of just taking shots for fun, but it certainly tamped down Charlotte’s defense to the point of exhaustion, as three of the four goals came after the 70′ mark.

Morados’ defensive shape really held together, too. Independence only had the ball inside the Purple 18 five times all game. That’s impressive. Only two opposing shots came from inside the box, just one being on target. The Independence goal, which unfortunately ruined a clean sheet, came from inside the D but outside the box.

Individually, Alexis was a monster in defense. He won nine of fourteen duels, seven of nine in the air. His passing, again, needs a bit of work, but overall he did a great job of man-marking Charlotte’s attackers. He even created a scoring chance! Kyle Smith was again sterling. I’m growing concerned about Franno’s role with this team, but he did well enough on the night. Speedy was awesome again, passing for well over 80% in the game and creating two scoring chances and adding an assist on Cam’s goal in the 81′. Paolo didn’t play quite as well, but certainly helped to hold the middle of the field together in front of the back line and had three chances himself. Ownby was a holy terror, winning 12 of 17 duels on the night. I thought Ilic was the best player on the field, with a goal, an assist, and four chances created. McCabe won that honor with a goal of his own to go with two scoring chances created.

Any time you score four goals, it’s a boost. Brad Estes’s statement on Soccer City earlier in the day at the club is zeroing in on a new leader for the squad signals that the rocky interregnum they’ve been going through might be nearing an end soon. If that’s the case, then two wins and two losses by the Triumvirate is, frankly, pretty good. These guys should be pretty proud. They can’t rest on their laurels, of course, because a solid test awaits them this coming Saturday in Ottawa. That said, I really liked the flexibility the guys showed with the formation change and the willingness to try some new things through the four games they’ve played on their own. Now let’s go get another one.