As Saturday night’s game dragged into stoppage time, Louisville City FC tied with visiting Oakland Roots SC, Oscar Jimenez was reminded of a saying: “Siempre hay una última oportunidad.”
There’s always one last chance.
The veteran defender Jimenez capitalized on it, volleying in a 98th-minute game winner to complete a thrilling LouCity comeback at Lynn Family Stadium, where the boys in purple prevailed by a 2-1 score.
“We were on top of them there, peppering the goal, and I was just reading the flight of the ball,” Jimenez said while recalling his first goal scored since October of 2021.
On a recycled corner kick, Tyler Gibson played a ball over the top of the Oakland defense. Jimenez called to fellow defender Kyle Adams not to put a head to the cross.
“I had my eye on it, went for the clean strike,” Jimenez said, “and as soon as I hit it I said that’s going in unless this goalie pulls it out of his — you know.”
Roots keeper Paul Blanchette leads the USL Championship in saves, and even he was no match for Jimenez’s strike, which sent a crowd of 10,584 into a frenzy.
LouCity (11-8-7, 40 points) moved to fourth on the Eastern Conference table with the victory — its first rallying win of the season — and dealt a blow to the West’s fourth-place club, Oakland Roots (11-8-7, 40 points).
Earlier Saturday, City winger Brian Ownby had headed in a 71st-minute equalizer, offsetting a frenetic few minutes of first half stoppage time that saw a LouCity goal disallowed at one end before Oakland scored at the other.
“I’ll start with the atmosphere,” said coach Danny Cruz. “When the second goal goes in, it’s incredible. It’s what I’m going to remember for a long time for sure. I think a lot went against us tonight, and I feel the players responded incredibly. I was really happy with the performance. I didn’t feel we deserved to lose that game. I felt we deserved to win that game.”
LouCity registered 2.28 expected goals and put 10 shots on frame, more than tripling its season average of 3.3 per game. In turn, the boys in purple limited Oakland to 11 touches in the box all night.
One of those was Johnny Rodriguez’s headed goal six minutes into first half stoppage time. Rodriguez delivered seconds after the referee disallowed what appeared to be an Oakland own goal for LouCity on a cross in from Jimenez.
“I’m not going say stuff about things that we saw out there on the pitch. I feel like it’s happened a lot this year,” Ownby said. “The reactions, even before we scored the second, I thought the mentality was right. Obviously we got one to tie it back up, and you could just feel the belief.”
LouCity entered Saturday reeling from last weekend’s 2-0 loss at Birmingham Legion FC. Cruz made six lineup changes, plus switched back to a 4-3-3 formation for the first time since July 22, before a three-back shape launched an unbeaten streak for the boys in purple.
City now has an eight-game run to the USL Championship Playoffs — and the chance to build from Jimenez’s heroics.
“I have firm belief that we have the quality in there to do something special,” Cruz said. “Tonight was a special moment. But complacency can’t set in because of this moment. We have to come back to work on Monday and grind and be ready next week against another difficult opponent.”
LouCity travels to play the Western Conference’s Colorado Springs Switchbacks SC next Saturday.
Game Summary: Louisville City FC vs. Oakland Roots SC
Date: August 26, 2023
Venue: Lynn Family Stadium
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET
Weather: 84 degrees, cloudy
Attendance: 10,584
Scoring
Louisville City FC (0, 2, 2)
Oakland Roots SC (1, 0, 1)
Goals
Louisville City FC:
71’ Brian Ownby (Wilson Harris)
90’+8 Oscar Jimenez (Tyler Gibson)
Oakland Roots SC:
45’+6 Johnny Rodriguez (Memo Diaz)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 28 — Oliver Semmle, 6 — Wes Charpie, 4 — Sean Totsch, 8 — Carlos Moguel Jr. (85’ 12 — Tyler Gibson), 15 — Manny Perez (75’ 32 — Kyle Adams), 19 — Oscar Jimenez, 36 — Paolo DelPiccolo (61’ 5 — Rasmus Thellufsen), 23 — Elijah Wynder, 9 — Jorge Gonzalez (61’ 90 — Maarten Pouwels), 7 — Ray Serrano (61’ 10 — Brian Ownby), 14 — Wilson Harris
Subs not used: 18 — Danny Faundez, 17 — Cameron Lancaster
Head coach: Danny Cruz
Oakland Roots SC: 20 — Paul Blanchette, 14 — Danny Barbir, 13 — Neveal Hackshaw, 21 — Emrah Klimenta, 19 — Wolfgang Prentice (69’ 15 — Daniel Gomez), 6 — Tarek Morad, 7 — Napo Matsoso (69’ 8 — Irakoze Donasiyano), 23 — Memo Diaz, 11 — Trayvone Reid (85’ 16 — Ryan Her), 17 — Johnny Rodriguez (81’ 18 — Anuar Pelaez), 10 — Lindo Mfeka (69’ 22 — Jeciel Cedeno)
Subs not used: 47 — Taylor Bailey
Head coach: Noah Delgado
Stats Summary: Louisville City FC / Oakland Roots SC
Shots: 24 / 9
Shots on Goal: 10 / 4
Possession: 52.5% / 47.5%
Fouls: 16 / 12
Offside: 0 / 3
Corner Kicks: 7 / 3
Discipline Summary
Louisville City FC:
45’+7 Danny Cruz (yellow)
Oakland Roots SC:
53’ Tarek Morad (yellow)
82’ Neveal Hackshaw (yellow)
87’ Paul Blanchette (yellow)
Referee: Abdou Ndiaye
