I didn’t want to write a Purple Press today. I wanted to write the March to the Match 2020: at Atlanta United II. Unfortunately, that game isn’t happening now. Whether it’s rescheduled for a later date remains to be seen. Louisville City won’t be playing in the Open Cup this year as the USL reportedly intends to prioritize rescheduling its own matches when (not if) the season resumes. That kinda sucks, but I get it.
Really, all of this sucks, but I get it – all of these closures and cancellations. It might not even be enough. It might be too little, too late. We don’t know how bad this COVID-19 thing will get. We don’t even know how bad it already is because of some kind up bureaucratic bottleneck that keeps virus tests from being widely available, though somehow everyone involved with the Utah Jazz got one.
I’d much rather be writing about soccer, y’all. But there won’t be any, as far as I know, played in the US for at least a month. Louisville City’s put on a positive face hoping that the April 11 home opener is still in play. I hope that’s the case, too, but I think it’s exceedingly unlikely. There are reports that play won’t resume until April 18 at the earliest. I honestly wouldn’t hate that. I hope that’s what happens. Just one more week? Great.
That, of course, still assumes everything keeps going swimmingly. You can draw your own conclusions about whether that’s realistic. Is the US response to the virus so far more of an Italian situation or a South Korean one? One slowed things down pretty quick, the other has resulted in something that looks like a Dutch blackout from the Second World War minus the military element.
So, all of that being in play, what are we going to do these next few weeks? Lots of us are going to be working from home. If you’re spending a lot of time on a computer with internet access, and you want to talk Louisville City, I can’t recommend joining the Louisville City subreddit enough. Build some more community there – it’ll help. Find Phil Durbin on Twitter – he’s creating a USL Football Manager community. Play FIFA online with your friends. Home brew. I might actually try that. Wear purple. We’re going to get through this, and the light at the end of the tunnel is Louisville City soccer. That should be enough to get us through.
Vamos Morados.