Over the years, Louisville City FC has made a habit of sitting near the top of the USL Championship standings. On Saturday, the club could stake an early claim to the Eastern Conference summit by moving into sole possession of first place with a win.
LouCity (2-0-1, 7 points) hosts Detroit City FC (2-0-1, 7 points) for a 4 p.m. kickoff at Lynn Family Stadium between teams tied for first on the East table.
Louisville is coming off of its best performance so far in 2025, a 2-0 shutout win over Loudoun United before a crowd of 9,673 in last weekend’s home opener. LouCity racked up 18 shots in the game, seven on target. Goalkeeper Damian Las made three saves to keep the clean sheet, the first for City since a 3-0 win over Miami FC on October 2, 2024.
Head coach Danny Cruz’s press was on full display in the victory as his side won possession in the final third nine times against Loudoun, the most of any team in the USL Championship this season.
Detroit City drew with Birmingham Legion FC last week, 2-2, in its own home opener. Detroit had previously defeated Miami FC and Colorado Springs Switchbacks, the 2024 league champion, in the season’s first two weeks.
A familiar back line leads Le Rouge, as Saturday’s foe is known. Defenders Michael Bryant, Stephen Carroll and Rhys Williams have been mainstays for Detroit since the club joined the USL Championship in 2022 with a combined 292 appearances between them.
Detroit has had a changing of the guard behind that group, though. Longtime goalkeeper Nate Steinwascher hung up his gloves in the offseason, announcing his retirement in December. The-32 year-old had started regularly for the club from 2016 to 2024 in the NPSL, NISA and the USL. Former Sacramento keeper Carlos Saldaña has inherited the job, after starting 12 games as Steinwascher’s understudy in 2024.
Either Louisville or Detroit would move to the top of the standings with a win. Should they tie, Loudoun United could take over first with a victory over Rhode Island on Saturday.
LouCity-Detroit will take place on Kentucky Derby 151 Day at Lynn Family Stadium. Festivities in partnership with Churchill Downs include:
- A photo op with the Kentucky Derby trophy in the BlueOval SK Fan Zone
- Official bugler Steve Buttleman will offer a live “Call to the Post”
- Legendary jockey Pat Day will serve as honorary captain
- The track’s “Churchill Charlie” mascot will roam the stadium
- Derby week ticket giveaways from Churchill Downs
Gates open at 2:30 p.m. for fans to enjoy a $2 happy hour featuring beer, Pepsi products and bottled water at various bars around Lynn Family Stadium.
Visit LouCity.com/Derby151 for tickets and more information.
Follow Along
• The game will air live locally on MyTV 58 and ESPN Louisville’s AM 680/FM 105.7.
• If streaming, download the free WDRB+ app to watch the local feed in Louisville or ESPN+ for national coverage.
• For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter. Also, find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram and Louisville City FC on Facebook.
Story Lines…
Ravishing Ray: A 2024 USL Championship Young Player of the Year finalist, Ray Serrano has opened 2025 in fine form. Serrano has scored in two of LouCity’s three games to open the 2025 season, included a headed opener in last weekend’s win over Loudoun. The 22-year-old has now scored 20 goals in his USL Championship career, including 13 for Louisville City.
Dynamic Davila: Taylor Davila, who was in the running for league Player of the Year last season, tallied his first goal of 2025 in the win over Loudoun. Davila guided his effort into the bottom corner after a free kick was deflected back to him. The 24-year-old All-League midfielder also provided 10 recoveries, six accurate long balls and won 4 of 7 ground duels. Davila was named to the most recent USL Championship Team of the Week.
Laudable Las: Goalkeeper Damian Las made three saves in the Loudoun win — most for him in a shutout in 16 games since August 3, 2024, when the Austin FC loanee made four stops in a 1-0 win at New Mexico United. Las led all USL Championship goalkeepers in goals prevented (-0.73) last week. It was his 10th shutout for LouCity. Like Davila, Las was named to the USL Championship Team of the Week for the performance.
Timeless Totsch: Last week, Sean Totsch became just the second player in USL Championship history to surpass 22,000 career minutes. He also played part in his 71st regular season shutout, most by any outfield player in league history. Totsch is approaching recently retired Kenardo Forbes’ league record for minutes at 22,224.
Winning ways: LouCity has now won 10-consecutive regular season home games dating back to a July 19, 2024, victory over Colorado Springs. That’s the longest such streak in club history an the fifth-longest in USL Championship history. Previously, City won eight straight regular season games at home from September 2017 to May 2018.
Motor City madness: Louisville’s games with Detroit have frequently been high-energy, emotional affairs — and that’s just for the referees. Over nine all-time meetings across competitions, the series has seen an average of 4.78 bookings in each game. In six of the nine meetings, there were five or more bookings including three games that saw at least one red card. In total, there have been five red cards in the series.
