Y’all. Louisville City plays a real, live soccer game this week! I honestly wasn’t sure we’d get here this calendar year. But here we are, with a real schedule and everything! Let’s talk about it:
- Sunday, July 12: LouCity vs. Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Saturday, July 18: LouCity vs. Saint Louis FC (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Saturday, July 25: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Wednesday, July 29: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Saturday, Aug. 8: LouCity vs. Indy Eleven (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Wednesday, Aug. 12: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Saturday, Aug. 15: Loudon United FC vs. LouCity (Segra Field)
- Wednesday, Aug. 26: LouCity vs. Indy Eleven (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Saturday, Aug. 29: Saint Louis FC vs. LouCity (West Community Stadium)
- Saturday, Sept. 5: Indy Eleven vs. LouCity (Lucas Oil Stadium)
- Saturday, Sept. 12: Saint Louis FC vs. LouCity (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Wednesday, Sept. 16: Indy Eleven vs. LouCity (Lucas Oil Stadium)
- Saturday, Sept. 19: LouCity vs. Memphis 901 FC (Lynn Family Stadium)
- Saturday, Sept. 26: Saint Louis FC vs. LouCity (West Community Stadium)
- Saturday, Oct. 3: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (Lynn Family Stadium)
We’re looking at a sixteen game slate with ten (TEN!) home games. It’s not the 17 we were hoping for back in March but ten is good given the circumstances. Twelve of the matches are split between Indy XI, St. Louis FC, and Sporting KC II. The NCFC game back in March counts, so that’s one out of group match gone. The other three are the Pittsburgh game this coming weekend, Loudoun United (:/) and Memphis 901. Playing Indy four times is probably the best competition we’ll see before the playoffs, and one has to bet that the Elevens will be joining LouCity in the post-season.
I personally would have liked to have a few games against Miami or Tampa Bay, but given the COVID-19 explosion happening in Florida right now, it’s probably best not the play them any time soon.
There’s also a real risk that this whole project gets derailed for those same reasons. What if Florida or Georgia or the Carolinas shut everything down again? Do teams not dealing with increasing positive tests and the trailing deaths still keep playing? That hardly seems fair. Maybe everything works out, but this is 2020 and it’s hard to be optimistic about that.
For now, let’s embrace the fact that we’re playing league soccer again. The opening of Lynn Family Stadium probably won’t be quite the spectacle that anyone had hoped for when the year started thanks to COVID-19, but it’ll still be an amazing experience for those that can and want to go. I’m looking forward to talking about soccer matches again, and I’ll get to do that in less than a week!
Stay safe out there, everyone, wear a dang mask, and VAMOS MORADOS!
