Photo via @400NMedia

by Taylor Sorrels (@taylorsorrels)

Louisville City FC managed a 1-1 draw away at Richmond Kickers on Saturday for their first ever match on the road. The game was a tale of two halves, as Louisville City clearly controlled the game in the first half, and Richmond dominated the second.

For long stretches in the first 45′, Louisville City turned Richmond over in midfield, and slowly and methodically built possession out of the back. However, Elsie would open the scoring on a set piece instead of from the run of play. Austen King, a defender on loan to City from NASL’s Charlotte Railhawks, subbed on in the 27′ for midfielder Guy Abend after the Israeli suffered a brutal tackle from Richmond’s Mike Callahan (O’Connor later called the tackle “disgraceful”). Elsie shortly earned a free kick from about 40 yards taken by Juan Guzman, and King headed Guzman’s cross past the Richmond keeper on his first touch of the game to put Louisville in the lead. City continued to dominate possession for the rest of the half and Nate Polak is probably kicking himself today for missing a few good chances to put LCFC up one or two more on setups from Matt “It’s not Fundy, jerks” Fondy.

The second half was almost a complete reversal from the first. Richmond decided it might be a good idea to keep the ball on the ground since they couldn’t just lob it over the purple back line, and it resulted in some dangerous attacks. The Kickers finally broke through in the 51′ when Matthew Delicate scored a very workmanlike goal from close range after taking down a high lob from Sascha Goerres, turning around a defender and ripping it past Goodwin to level the match. Elsie tried hard to equalize in the following ten or so minutes, but nothing came of it and the game settled into a fairly physical affair with several fouls and yellow cards but not many shots on goal from either team. When the whistle finally blew, Louisville walked away with a point, and that’s about all you could have asked for going into your first road game against a very experienced and dangerous team like Richmond.

Lineups
Richmond: GK Travis Worra, William Yomby, Owusu Sekyere (Ricky Burke), Michael Callahan (George Davis IV), Matthew Delicate, Yudai Imura (Eli Garner), Jason Yeisley, Jalen Robinson, Sascha Goerres, Samuel Asante, Luke Mishu
Louisville City: GK Scott Goodwin, Bryan Burke, Adam West, Conor Shanosky, Terek Morad, Kadeem Dacres (Niall McCabe), Juan Guzman, Matt Fondy (Matt Fondy), Magnus Rasmussen (Cameron Lancaster), Nate Polak, Guy Abend (Austen King)

Good news about Guy Abend, by the way:

NEXT UP: April 16. Thursday. Rochester Rhinos. Slugger Field. 7:30. Be there.