This one came a bit out of left field! Louisville City just announced the club’s 18th signing for 2019, Zimbabwean striker Lucky Mkosana! My initial impression is that this is a very good get for John Hackworth. Mkosana was basically the only good thing Penn FC had going for it last season, and, given the club’s self-relegation to League One, Lucky probably had several teams looking to obtain his services. Mkosana is a very athletic and pacy player with an excellent work rate up top. For a team like Louisville City that likes to defend from the front, this is a very good fit.

Mkosana (pronounced with a silent M) logged 24 starts in 29 appearances for Penn FC in 2018, with the third most minutes played on the team. He scored eleven goals on 22 shots on target, which is actually quite good, and had 52 shots total. That’s not a lot of shots, obviously, but given the few scoring chances Penn even generated last season (or ever, really), it’s fairly impressive.

At 31 years old, we pretty much know what we’re getting from this signing. Between Lucky and Taylor Peay, these roster moves are a bit counterintuitive to what we might have expected when City first signed Hackworth to be coach. I kind of expected Morados to start trending a bit younger, as JH has a lot more experience with younger players. It’s equally fair, though, to say he’s been all over the spectrum in the US. Perhaps I was a bit preemptive on pigeonholing our personnel strategy.

In any event, this is going to be a quality signing for City, a guy who can start right away and compete with Luke Spencer for minutes or even work in tandem depending on the tactic City uses. Welcome to Louisville, Lucky Mkosana!