It wasn’t pretty, but it’s finally over.
Louisville City FC navigated its way through a stretch of five games in 15 days with a win, a loss, and three draws, a decent enough showing to keep the team solidly in first place. Saturday’s scoreless draw at Rochester provided little in offensive highlights but a point on the road is a solid return.
The club missed a chance the last three games to clinch first place in the Eastern Conference with a win, but now the boys in purple will get that chance in front of their fans this Saturday when the second-place Charlotte Independence come to The ‘Ville.
“I think the guys deserve an enormous amount of credit,” Louisville City coach James O’Connor said after Saturday’s game. “I think when you look at the amount of games that we’ve had, when you look at the travel that’s been involved, for the guys to put so much into a game like that tonight I think it speaks volumes of their character.”
Playing so many games in such a short space of time is never easy, but it’s especially difficult down the home stretch of the regular season. During one year of my high school soccer career, we had four games in four days due to rainouts. Our team pushed as hard as we could in those games to pick up wins. I don’t remember the results, but I do remember all the nicks and bruises, how by the last game my legs felt like jello, how I just wanted some pizza and to put my feet up.
I imagine this is how some of the Louisville City players feel now.
Aside from goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh, defenders Sean Reynolds and Sean Totsch played the full 90 minutes in each of the five games. Kyle Smith and Oscar Jimenez each logged major minutes, Jimenez with 373 and Smith with 360 minutes. While O’Connor did his best to rotate the squad, with just 17 field players available and dealing with some injuries, attackers like Luke Spencer and Mark-Anthony Kaye played in each game, whether starting or coming off the bench. George Davis also made four starts.
With that amount of soccer in the team’s legs, the attack suffered. After starting September with eight goals in the team’s first four games, Louisville City scored just one last three games. But while the offense faltered, the backline locked down defensively, allowing just two goals in the three road games from this past week.
“It was an ugly game if I’m being honest,” O’Connor said of the game at Rochester, in which Louisville City finished with 42 percent possession and less than 70 percent in passing accuracy. “It wasn’t very pretty, but I think from our standpoint it shows the guts and the character.
“Hats off to the players for their effort and their character tonight because to go away and have such a long road trip – at the end of the season, so many games in such a short period – they performed with a lot of courage tonight which was great.”
Now, Louisville City moves its focus back home to Louisville Slugger Field, with the Independence coming on Saturday. The Independence, along with the Charleston Battery, has slumped recently, failing to take advantage of Louisville City’s draws. Charlotte has lost its last three games, two of them at home and the last, last Friday at FC Cincinnati by a 1-0 scoreline.
Louisville City’s players will enjoy a full week of training, and preparation for some of the best attackers in the United Soccer League, in Enzo Martinez and Jorge Herrera.
Finally, the long road trip is over.
Opinions expressed in this piece were not subject to club approval. For more insights on LouCity, follow former Courier-Journal reporter Dan Karell on Twitter: @DanKarellPreps.
