Louisville City FC found itself trailing 11 minutes into its 2024 USL Championship Playoffs opener Saturday — but as has become routine for this squad, the boys in purple didn’t panic
Instead, LouCity scored the game’s next three goals en route to a 3-2 victory at Lynn Family Stadium, advancing to the Eastern Conference Semifinal round.
Top-seeded City will host either No. 4 seed Indy Eleven or No. 5 Rhode Island FC at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 9, as the Players’ Shield holders continue their postseason run.
“I spoke to them a ton this week about the importance of just focusing on the process,” said coach Danny Cruz. “If we continue to do the things we’ve done all season, we’ll put ourselves in the best position possible to advance. There doesn’t need to be added pressure. The reality is, every game was important this year.”
Oalex Anderson punched in a Mike Maldonado corner kick at the back post to open scoring. That put LouCity, which entered the playoffs having earned a league-leading 23 of its 76 points from losing positions, in need of another comeback.
City answered nine minutes later when Taylor Davila looped a cross into the box and found Amadou Dia for a headed strike to mark his second goal in purple. Davila scored a go-ahead goal of his own in the 24th minute, finishing calmly after Adrien Perez played him through.
The boys in purple led from there in route to their 17th home win from 18 USL Championship games this season.
“It’s definitely been a little trend we have to get away from,” Perez said of the early deficit. “I think we’re resilient and we just keep our heads straight. We know what we can do out there.”
“That corner kick that they scored off was my fault, so I had to do something to make up for it,” Dia added. “Luckily Davi played me an amazing ball, and I was able to finish the header.”
Perez added an insurance goal in the 54th minute, receiving a grounded cross from the left side by Ray Serrano. That was a goal LouCity wound up needing, as Bryce Washington pulled one back for North Carolina four minutes into second half stoppage time.
“There’s two main (points) of emphasis we’re going to talk about Tuesday,” Cruz said. “That’s not going down early and making sure we kind of understand the why tonight, and then the second thing that goes with it is set pieces. We talked about it all week. We talked about how championships in this league are decided on set pieces.”
Indy Eleven hosts Rhode Island at 1 p.m. Sunday in their conference quarterfinal for the right to visit Louisville next weekend. On the other half of the Eastern Conference bracket, the second-seeded Charleston Battery and sixth-seeded Tampa Bay Rowdies advanced to set up the other semifinal.
Tickets to LouCity’s next playoff game are available at LouCity.com/playoffs.
Game Summary: Louisville City FC vs. North Carolina FC
Date: November 2, 2024
Venue: Lynn Family Stadium
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET
Weather: 58 degrees, clear
Attendance: 8,875
Scoring
Louisville City FC (2, 1, 3)
North Carolina FC (1, 0, 1)
Goals
Louisville City FC:
20’ Amadou Dia (Taylor Davila)
24’ Taylor Davila (Adrien Perez)
54’ Adrien Perez (Ray Serrano)
North Carolina FC:
11’ Oalex Anderson (Mike Maldonado)
90’+4 Bryce Washington (Mike Maldonado)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 18 – Damian Las, 13 – Amadou Dia (81’ 3 – Jake Morris), 32 – Kyle Adams, 6 – Wes Charpie, 4 – Sean Totsch, 2 – Aiden McFadden (90’ 15 – Manny Perez), 17 – Taylor Davila, 23 – Elijah Wynder, 7 – Ray Serrano (81’ 20 – Sam Gleadle), 14 – Wilson Harris (70’ 9 – Phillip Goodrum), 16 – Adrien Perez (70’ 25 – Jansen Wilson)
Subs not used: 12 – Danny Faundez, 11 – Niall McCabe
Head coach: Danny Cruz
North Carolina FC: 1 — Jake McGuire, 7 — Lamar Batista (87’ 6 — Jacori Hayes), 2 — Paco Craig, 27 — Bryce Washington, 42 — Ezra Armstrong (60’ 28 — Shaft Brewer), 15 — Mike Maldonado, 17 — Collin Martin, 14 — Raja Mentzigen (87’ 10 — Jaden Servania), 8 — Louis Perez, 11 — Evan Conway, 9 — Oalex Anderson
Subs not used: 4 — Justin Malou, 16 — Rodrigo da Costa, 25 — Akira Fitzgerald, 44 — Raheem Somersault
Head coach: John Bradford
Stats Summary: Louisville City FC / North Carolina FC
Shots: 8 / 7
Shots on Goal: 6 / 4
Possession: 37.3% / 62.7%
Fouls: 21 / 13
Offside: 3 / 2
Corner Kicks: 2 / 3
Discipline Summary
Louisville City FC:
90’+4 Kyle Adams (yellow)
North Carolina FC:
60’ Lamar Batista (yellow)
90’+4 Jacori Hayes (yellow)
Referee: Matthew Corrigan
