Another loss, and so another brief post. O’Connor trotted out a roster that marked a return to Louisville City’s usual tactical setup, with Adam West at left back and Charlie Adams and Niall McCabe on the outside in the attacking midfield. From the opening kick, City tried to dominate the game, and came away with a couple of good chances to score in the opening minutes. Just after the ten minute mark, Bryan Burke sent a ball from City’s half over the middle to Matt Fondy, who ultimately drove into the right side of the box and passed all the way across goal to a wide open Niall McCabe. McCabe calmly sent the ball in from a tough angle past the near post, and it was 0-1 good guys.
At that point, I was pretty excited and let my guard down a bit, which was a mistake. The game evened out a bit more after that, with St. Louis earning (or not earning) some free kicks in dangerous spots that fortunately came to nothing. It looked like the score line would hold going into halftime, but then Jamiel Hardware beat two Louisville City defenders while running across the middle of Scott Goodwin’s box with the ball and put the ball in the net with his left foot to even the score in the 41st minute.
The second half was mostly a repeat of the first. O’Connor subbed on Enrique Montano and Kadeem Dacres late for West and Adams, but they weren’t able to create the magic that showed up so often earlier this season. Dacres didn’t look like he was 100% fit yet, as he made some good diagonal runs but couldn’t keep the ball. Scott Goodwin came up huge in goal on a few occasions, but couldn’t stop an unmarked Kingsley Bryce in the 77th minute when he got on the receiving end of a nice Jordan Roberts assist after a long goal kick. City tried to pick up the equalizer in the closing minutes but it was to no avail.
It was a disappointing performance, but City didn’t really lose anything in the grand scheme of things. The score was good enough to allow the Purples to hold on to the Kings’ Cup! Yay! And no one in the West managed to earn more than 47 points, so City gets to host any playoff match not featuring Rochester! Another yay! But we lost and didn’t look all that good after the opening 15 minutes of the game, so I’m slightly nonplussed.
Anyway, enjoy drinking out of the Kings’ Cup with us on October 3 at Slugger Field when we host our first ever playoff game! Be there, be loud! I feel like the team might need it.
NOTES:
- This match was City’s fourth in its last five matches. Not the way you want to end the season.
- Second game in a row that City got outshot – 14-12, 7-4 on goal. That’s not like our team. Hoping a couple weeks rest before the playoffs means there’s time to shore up our defense.
- Speaking of playoffs, we know who we’re going to play! It’ll be the winner of the Battery vs. Kickers match played next weekend at MUSC Health Stadium. Keep your eyes on that one.
- Rob Vincent didn’t score yesterday, so Matt Fondy wins the Golden Boot! Huge congratulations to him.
