Written while very hungover.

Well, folks, that’s it for the 2015 Louisville City FC season. It was the first one, it was a great one, and we’ll never forget it. I’ll spend time later this week talking about what all this means, but let’s get through this brutal hangover last night’s game first.

City set out in a new formation, a 3-5-2 of sorts, with the emphasis clearly on winning the midfield. Sean Reynolds, Conor Shanosky, and Tarek Morad all started in defense, while Bryan Burke and Kadeem Dacres flanked the defensive midfield made up of Juan Guzman, Aodhan Quinn, and Guy Abend with Matt Fondy and Magnus Rasmussen up top.

While the idea behind the deployment was well-conceived, it proved to be irrelevant. Once Rochester went up a goal in the 23^rd minute off a missed clearance from a corner kick, City had to press to get an equalizer it would never see. Rochester owned possession throughout the match, and City barely got a sniff of the goal until the dying seconds when they were ruled offside.

We saw almost none of the Royals’ usual attacking verve, but not for lack of trying. The Rhinos constantly pressured every purple player with the ball, cut out passes, and suffocated the crowded City midfield. In short, City tried to do something a little different than usual, the Rhinos did not, and the result was the same.

Rochester was the better team in this match and deserved to win. I still would have liked to see Louisville play their own game, but we’ll get more chances to try and crack the Rhino defense next season. It was a less than fun end to a dream season for City, but it was a fair result, and we can’t be too upset to lose like we did. Carry on, y’all, we’ll do it even better next year.