by Taylor Sorrels (@taylorsorrels)
Honk if you’ve heard this one before: friendly cancelled postponed, but hey, look! A new player!
I’m kind of sure the Louisville City front office isn’t actively avoiding playing their preseason schedule, but it is looking more and more like a pattern: every time the weather makes a game unplayable, we get a shiny new toy to play with. Thanks to Winter Storm Thor, playing at Lynn Stadium on Sunday was going to be impossible, so the game will be contested…some time in the future, apparently. We’ll let you know when we know. NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT NEW TOY:
Matt Fondy and his hair finally have a friend at forward: 25 year old Nate Polak! Polak played most of his college ball at Hastings College, and was good enough in NAIA competition to get picked up by Red Bull New York in the supplemental draft in 2012. After failing to earn a contract, Polak signed on with what is now Minnesota United FC in the NASL, where he scored one goal in eight appearances. He seems to have fallen off the radar in 2013, but last year went to Oklahoma City Energy on loan. Polak has been trialing with Louisville City for about a month now, and got the start against IU earlier this week.
It will be interesting to see where O’Connor uses Polak, given his apparent dedication to the 4-2-3-1 with Fondy at center forward. That said, a formation like that is often fairly fluid, and a forward can easily occupy one of the wide attacking midfield roles as long as he can cover the opposing fullback in transition. Whether Polak is that kind of guy, or more of a backup number nine remains to be seen, but we’re always glad to see new faces in the team. Best of luck to Nate!