Louisville City dropped points away on Sunday to Bethlehem Steel in a match that was admittedly odd, but nonetheless disappointing from a results standpoint. Twin ejections in the 37′ for Napo Matsoso and Bethlehem’s Faris Pemi Moumbagna were always going to make things difficult for both sides. However, after going up a second goal early in the second half, City foolishly gave away a penalty moments later and then a defensive error led to an equalizer.
John Hackworth’s game plan on most days is to try and get an early lead and then further exploit the opponent’s spacing when they try and push to equalize. That worked for a little while in this game until City themselves cracked under seemingly minimal pressure from the Steel. This is not the first time this season Morados have surrendered a lead, though Sunday’s match marked the first multi-goal lead that Hackworth’s charges have squandered. Just when we think the ship is headed in the right direction, some new difficulty presents itself.
Hackworth sent out a familiar lineup in this match, much the same as he had done against St. Louis. Morados kept 63% of the ball, won 52% of their duels, and completed nearly 80% of their passes in Bethlehem’s half. They passed for 87% overall, which is incredible. I audibly groaned in the second half as it seemed the game plan turned into “send a long cross in from wide and hope Lucky or Luke get on the end of it,” but to be fair, City were successful with nearly 30% of their 27 crosses, which is a good number. Lucky’s goal was the direct result of one of those.
LouCity out-shot the Steel 17-10 and had seven on target to the Steel’s five. That’s an improvement from City and basically par for the course for Bethlehem. I don’t know if penalties count in shot totals (they probably do). You could argue City probably should have scored one more, but didn’t. One very good number is City won 71.4% of their tackles in the game.
Individually, Alexis had a stellar day, winning eleven of twelve duels and eight of nine in the air. He even created a scoring chance. Paco was less great, giving up four fouls and the penalty, but passed well and had a shot on target. Francis and Oscar were also both very proficient in the passing game and both won well over half their duels. Franno had three successful crosses, four tackles, and created two scoring chances to Oscar’s three.
Napo’s sending off was dumb and deserved. He did well while he was in, creating a chance and completing every pass he took in the Steel’s half, but will need to keep his composure going forward. The good news is he’s still available for the Open Cup game tomorrow. Speedy created two scoring chances of his own and passed for over 90% overall and in the opposing half.
Luke and Lucky barely touched the ball but were dangerous when they did. In addition to his goal, Luke created two scoring chances. Cuatro had three shots on target and created a couple chances himself, and should be given almost all of the credit for Lucky’s goal. Magnus had a good game but did not fare well at all in 1v1s. The subs all played well, especially Totsch, but didn’t have much of a measurable impact on the result overall.
Numbers like these suggest that Louisville City is actually executing their game plan quite well. The problem is the results don’t line up with the statistics. City dominates possession, shots, shots on target, chances created, passing, duels, and tackling in most games, but have only won five times in twelve tries. I’m not ready to write off the game plan by any means because, statistically, this should all be working. It just seems to me that if you’re doing everything right you should win games like this and be higher than eighth in the table. City have taken just eight points in their last five matches. Ottawa, a team Morados thoroughly dominated last month, has taken eleven, and sit a place above City with two games in hand. Yes, there are 22 more matches in the season and things can improve, but Morados can ill-afford to drop points to moribund sides like Birmingham, Swope Park and Bethlehem, which is exactly what they’re doing.
Sigh. Let’s go kick Birmingham’s ass tomorrow at Lynn. That will make me feel better.
