LOUISVILLE CITY FC 5
NEW YORK RED BULLS ll 1

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On a wild night at Slugger Field, rife with high drama and even higher unpredictability, Louisville City FC emerged with a rousing 5-1 victory over New York Red Bulls 2 to land back-to-back Eastern Conference Titles.

To judge this game by a cursory check of the timeline and the eventual scoreline would be folly. There was much, much more to this challenging affair than might first meet the eye, as the match statistics begin to demonstrate.

The Baby Bulls’ Coach John Wolyniec’s invariable strategy which is to overwhelm you with a high octane, hard pressing, ball possessing brand of football. To prepare for the ravenous, young, ever regenerating unit that the Baby Bulls, you had always better be totally ready for their pressure if you wish to match up.

For City’s part, John Hackworth always aims to play a similar method. Therefore, each team was meeting, if not their exact mirror image, certainly their natural, and indeed actual, nemesis. The outcomes of these last three seasons obviously speak to this.

With each club pipping the other on a penalty kick shootout in those previous two USL Conference Finals, this was as raunchy a collision of big rigs as one could expect and a perfect recipe for a fantastic night of football.

True to their moniker and reputation, Red Bulls came out of the gate, not yet charging, but still head down and horns out. It was immediately clear that this would be a very different style of game to that which City have been accustomed. The Boys in Purple were second best in the opening exchanges.

Energizer bunny and captain Andrew Tinari, leading the midfield as instigator of a fair proportion of Bulls 2’s offense, showed up early and often. Skilled partners Amando Moreno and Jose Aguinaga were looking early to feed major scoring threats Jared Stroud and Tom Barlow.

Well drilled and experienced by now in Wolyniec’s wiles, the home side soaked it all up for 5 minutes and then settled into a counterattacking mode.

Kyle Smith pressed forward and slipped wide to George Davis lV who put his cross right on the head of Cameron Lancaster. However, the record setting striker, goalless in an unimaginable 95 minutes of playing time, was unable to get any purchase on his effort.

Just 2 minutes later, after being sprung by partner Ilija Ilić’s perfect ball through the defense, Cameron was in on his own and looked odds on to open the account as he scooped the ball over New York ‘keeper Evan Louro diving at his feet. Unfortunately, his effort somehow carried wide of the post.

Red Bulls 2 went back to work but again their high line was leaving room in behind. Again Cameron had a through ball to chase, this time shadowed by 6’4 centerback Hassan Ndam. It was a 50/50 situation and with Ndam on the outside the striker thrust up in an attempt to body the Cameroonian off the ball. For all intents and purposes it was just the right play, but not for the Lou City talisman’s left hamstring which gave way under the duress. The Englishman’s evening was sadly over only 8 minutes into the contest.

Here was early adversity and a concern for the coaching staff over what adjustments to enact, in spite of a replacement in the form of Luke Spencer being the obvious initial response.

After the injury delay, play restarted with Red Bulls 2 venturing forward and right fullback Ethan Kutler clipped a tasty left-footer over Kyle, whose attention had been drawn inside, and into the path of the incoming Stroud. George lV was close at hand and attempted to cover but with both players eying the ball the merest of contact to Stroud’s heel encouraged him to crumple. The referee was encouraged, too, and whistled for a New York penalty kick.

It was Kutler whose shootout penalty was crucially saved by Greg Ranjitsingh in the corresponding final 1 year ago and he must have felt a flush of karmic backwash. Unfortunately for him and Bulls 2, the tide rushed out again as Chris Lema lost his planting foot on the notorious “Turf Monster” carpeting and he was left sitting as the ball looped comically up and over Greg’s crossbar.

“Christopher Lema should be disappointed” read the official USL game log, but truthfully City should have felt relieved the defensive mixup didn’t cost them, the veracity of the penalty call notwithstanding.

Stroud again exploited the space allowed him as he turned Kyle on the right of the box and sent in a cross. It was cleared by Paulo Del Piccolo for a corner which was dropped and then recovered by Greg, leaving plenty of Purples fans’ hearts in mouths for a split second.

Ilija, always showing a keen eye for the idiosyncrasies, was seeking his own karma in the Red Bulls 2 area. Unfazed by having an earlier claim dismissed, he saw another opportunity on an Oscar Jimenez short corner along the byline. Ilija came off the near post to meet the ball with Tinari right on his heel. Once again some contact may have occurred and with Ilija folding like a gulf kingdom’s house of cards, the official seemed almost obliged to match his decision at the opposite end 6 minutes earlier.

Ilija has won a string of penalties this season, each of them probably at least worthy of further scrutiny. Never one to spend much time looking over his shoulder, No. 14 stepped forward and, ignoring Ndam’s caution inducing antics in delaying proceedings, confidently sent Louro the wrong way for the surprising reversal and a City 1-0 advantage. The game had been packed with incident and was still barely through its first quarter.

Now Niall McCabe was whistled for a seemingly well placed tackle and the table had been set for an inordinate number of fouls to be called.

In close succession George IV had a decent half chance and a speculative effort blocked away, the latter back over the byline though only a goal kick was given.

The combination of the rather kinetic action along with a few idiosyncratic decisions meant the game was roiling with excitement. Both coaches were hopping and working the officials hard, while Red Bulls were seeking to snatch back a goal with Tinari’s midfield doing their best to reassert themselves.

On another set piece Greg dropped and recovered again and shortly after, recently capped Guatemalan left-back Allen Yanes’ delivery for Stroud was threatening but seen away by the City ‘keeper.

The Purples swung back up the field and Oscar chipped forward to PDP who won his duel and sent Brian Ownby away up the left. He looked up and spotted Luke on the other side of the area and the low cross by No. 10 could not have been more precise, leaving Yanes and Kevin Politz grasping as Luke delayed for Louro to lay himself out then slotted it beyond him for the
2-0 lead after 32 minutes.

In light of the early setbacks it was as much of a turnaround as the Louisville faithful could hope for.

Red Bulls 2 is a very young side – the starters ranging in age between 21-23 – yet a perennial feature of the side is its unrelenting resolve and after overturning a 0-2 deficit on their last visit to LSF – James O’Connor’s swan song game – and likely feeling robbed by Magnus Rasmussen’s equalizer at the death, they were nowhere near to being out of this encounter. When Stroud slid the ball through for Moreno, Greg had to get out and down quickly to thwart at his feet for an important stop.

At the other end an Oscar free kick from the left wing took a nick off a defender and fizzed by the post.

New York came right back and Tinari popped the ball over the defense for Moreno to volley but Greg was down for an excellent save near his left-hand post.

Ilija took an unnecessary yellow card, as his often are, for a foul on Ndam – “that’ll teach you for messing with my penalty kick” – well in the opposition half, and Tinari did likewise for a captain-on-captain (and coincidentally 36-on-36) challenge in midfield that appeared innocuous at first glance. At this point Tinari also probably joined Lema on the “disappointment” register.

In the meantime PDP, whose usual abundance of time and space had been all but choked off by the high pressing, hard working Baby Bulls midfielders, gave a ball away at the edge of the box and City were fortunate to see Stroud become the latest opponent to suffer the Turf Monster curse – on Halloween week, no less – as he received from Aguinaga but muffed his shot wide to Greg’s left. Home advantage had come to Los Morados’ rescue again.

A thoroughly entertaining and at times nerve-wracking 1st half ended with George IV firing back a headed clearance that Louro saved low to his right and then Moreno volleying over and Aguinaga hitting wide on good set-up play from Yanes and Stroud.

City were ahead but not altogether comfortably and both coaching staffs had plenty of fodder to chew on during the break.

Never one to sit on a lead and pack it in, Hack sent his charges out for the 2nd half with a renewed positive mentality. From the kickoff PDP, Brian and Niall worked hard to overturn the possession advantage the Baby Bulls had enjoyed during the 1st 45 minutes and unbalance them somewhat.

Aguinaga set Barlow whose tame shot was collected by Greg but City were doing most of the early attacking led by Brian Ownby working primarily wide on the left and his enterprise led to Niall drawing a nice save by Louro for a corner.

8 minutes in, Moreno and Aguinaga had point man Barlow in with a chance on a header but Alexis Souahy, half of a near sublime duo alongside Paco Craig, covered superbly for a corner.

Tinari then caused Oscar problems in defense to serve Lema who hit his effort high and over.

18-year-old Venezuelan Cristian Cásseres, who has logged time this season on the club’s MLS squad, replaced a deflated Aguinaga and it was a pity for Wolyniec he could not have found a way to keep his talented Spanish midfielder in the mix.

Ilija received a throw, turned to make room for himself and centered for Kyle who blazed his left-footer over the bar.

It was the 60th minute and getting toward crunch time for the Baby Bulls when Kutler received the ball wide and well outside the box. Having dealt more than satisfactorily with aerial threats all evening, the Purple jerseys backed off and Kutler had time to settle and drive in a lovely delivery for Barlow, New York’s greatest danger in front of goal all game. 10 yards out and on the near side, he dipped in ahead of Alexis, using the whip on the ball in glancing his header beyond the outstretched Greg Ranjitsingh and inside his left post. City 2, Red Bulls ll 1, and all of a sudden this was a brand new ball game.

This was a huge psychological boost to Wolyniec’s club and after this point the scales could have tipped in either direction as George IV picked up a yellow card for a foul on Yanes. He might already have been slated for a break, but a minute later on came Speedy Williams and a generally quiet night for Cuatro was over.

The introduction of the Jamming Jamaican looked like a savvy defensive tactical adjustment –Speedy to fuse with Captain PDP to hold down and steady central midfield for the final 25 minutes.

Luke reentered the fray for a pair of opportunities when he ran at Ndam in the area and forced a corner from which he met a ball from Oscar he could not get above and from point blank range his header cleared the crossbar.

Paco and then Brian joined Ilia and GDlV in the referee’s book in short order, all 4 infractions committed in the New Yorker territory.

Then, out of the cool, dark night came a double-strike of lightning – not from the heavens but out of the slightly more earthly realm of Kingston, Jamaica whence hails City’s Devon “Speedy” Williams.

With Speedy’s advent Niall had shifted out to the right. On 72 minutes, he cut inside with the ball as the substitute ventured forward behind Lema and into the area and Niall surprised the defense by changing the angle and slipping it into No. 80’s path. With Louro taking care of the near post Speedy made the most of what he was given and lashed the ball to the ‘keeper’s right and into the Red Bulls’ net.

After finding his playing time limited as other midfielders (Niall, Brian) emerged as more productive offensive options this was an excellent way to reannounce himself. It was either bonus time for Hack and his side or a clever tactical wrinkle to push Speedy forward and outmaneuver Wolyniec’s Baby Bulls.

As if to answer the question with an exclamation, barely 2 minutes on Oscar on left wing nudged a ball inside to Brian who made ground and turned it inside, right to where Speedy was pleading for the feed. In the process of extending for the ball it bobbled just enough to turn Speedy’s shot into a volley which he absolutely ripped inside the post, leaving Louro flailing in its wake. 4-1 Louisville.

Speedy had notched 1 goal all of the regular season, in Ottawa over 3 months earlier, and this 2 minute breakout blew a tightly wound one-goal game into a runaway victory and turned Hack’s installation of him into an apparent masterstroke.

Anatole Abang replaced Lema but it was too late now for the Cameroon international to make a difference.

Oscar took a pass from Speedy and, as if inspired by the sudden star of the evening, launched a decent long attempt that cleared the Bulls’ bar.

With the positional adjustment and play opening up, Niall had enjoyed a busier 2nd half and shortly after picking up The Purples’ 5th yellow card of the game he collected the ball on right wing, clipping it in for Kyle pinching high and inside and No. 24 turned it across the top of the area for Ilija. With two deft touches City’s 2018 provider-in-chief moved it along ideally for Brian whose initial drive was blocked but he diligently followed up and slammed the ball home with his lucky left for a Louisville 5th.

Brian’s recent return to full capacity has given Hack a valuable extra attacking dimension which in turn takes some of the scoring pressure off the shoulders of Cameron – and perhaps just in the nick of time, depending on No. 9’s hamstring healing timeline.

Sean Totsch replaced Niall, and Oscar and Speedy helped Ilija work into an area where he nearly (and should have) made it a 1/2 dozen, his chipped attempt bearpawed away by an extended Louro for a corner and that was the last meaningful action of the game.

New York will feel a sense of injustice at the 5-1 scoreline and for Los Morados it was a slightly flattering one on the strength of the run of play – remember the crucial missed penalty at the beginning of the match – but at the same time was earned for the resilience and tactical innovation that was tasked on them by the Baby Bulls.

For Red Bulls 2 Tinari, Aguinaga and Barlow stood out, and credit Wolyniec for being possibly the most entertaining coach in the USL, for not only his team’s upbeat, stylish play but also his melodramatic sideline antics.

For City, Speedy’s timely and revelational game clinching display netted him the MOTM, and aside from his goals he was most creative whenever pushing forward. Oscar and especially Kyle got up the wings well considering the constant threat of their defensive marks Moreno and Stroud. Paco and Alexis were nearly impeccable as an entity guarding the gate for Greg who backed up well when called upon. Paolo and Niall persisted in the face of Red Bulls 2’s heavy press and battled hard in the confines available, No. 11 Yet again a critical component in the team’s transitional play. Playoff pinup Brian Ownby continued his rise with another goal and 2 fine assists though George lV was less impactful on the opposite wing. Cameron was unfortunate and barring injury would almost certainly have got his chances in a game like this. Ilija was good value again as the supporting forward and Luke coming in for Cameron bagged the eventual game winner to emphasize his own worth.

Strong plaudits to Hack and Danny Cruz whose gameplan and in-game adjustments were orchestrated to perfection.

The team celebrated briefly at the presentation of the Conference Trophy – which Cameron thankfully didn’t quite drop as it would have been a heart-stopping event for the superstitious among the fan base – but will not fool themselves into believing they have achieved a thing until the job is completed next Thursday at Lynn Field vs Didier Drogba’s Phoenix Rising, 2-1 victors at fancied favorites Orange County SC in the Western Conference Final.

Go City!