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Louisville City FC will hit the pitch Saturday for its final tuneup before the United Soccer League’s playoffs for a meeting with the Charlotte Independence at Slugger Field.

The Fan Appreciation Night game begins at 7:30 p.m. Here’s what to watch for between LouCity and Charlotte.

Team Records

LouCity: 17-4-8 (59 points) in 29 games; 2nd in the USL’s Eastern Conference standings.

Charlotte: 14-8-7 (49 points) in 29 games; 4th in the USL’s Western Conference.

Follow Along

Saturday’s game will air, as with other LouCity games, live on Youtube with Jim Wombwell on play-by-play duty and commentary from Bob Valvano.

For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter and Louisville City FC on Facebook. Find us at louisvillecityfc on Instagram.

Vote for LouCity’s Modelo Man of the Match starting at the 75th minute on Twitter.

Links

• LouCity’s Rasmussen on a roll, enjoying soccer again
• Local ESL students visit practice, interview players
• Know the foe: Read up on the Charlotte Independence
• Video: Coach O’Connor previews Saturday’s game
• Videos: Interviews with Lubahn and Rasmussen
• Red Bulls, LouCity 1-2 in USL’s power rankings

By the Numbers

3 – LouCity has closed this season out better than the last, when the club dropped three straight games going into the playoffs.

4 – But in its other home finale, LouCity piled up four goals in a win over the Harrisburg City Islanders on Sept. 2, 2015.

9 – Throughout the month of September, LouCity has remained unbeaten and in the process collected the maximum amount of points.

Notes

Playoff picture: LouCity has already clinched the USL Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed, as well as a home playoff game set for 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2. The club will host the No. 7 seed still to be determined. Heading into the weekend, the Richmond Kickers have it, but they could move up to as high as fifth with a victory. The Charleston Battery and Rochester Rhinos both sit on 48 points, three ahead of Richmond.

Charlotte’s situation: The Independence are fighting for a top-four finish, the cutoff line to host an opening-round USL playoff game. A victory would guarantee it, though a draw would still help. At 49 points, Charlotte is within reach of Charleston and Rochester. The Battery play Eastern Conference regular-season champion New York Red Bulls II, while the Rhinos have a friendlier matchup with Toronto FC II.

The format: The top-eight teams from both the USL’s Eastern and Western conferences advance this year to the single-elimination playoffs. One round is played per week, and better-seeded advancing clubs host sequential rounds. Last season, LouCity played in the Eastern Conference final, where it fell to eventual champion Rochester. This year’s championship game will be played at 8 p.m. Oct. 23 on ESPNU.

Rules update: While LouCity midfielder George Davis IV sits on four yellow cards, and captain Aodhan Quinn on seven — both one away from serving a suspension due to accumulation — they won’t have to sit if they pick up another caution Saturday. Totals won’t carry over to the playoffs; players would instead only have to pay the league an undisclosed fine. But should a player be sent off in the regular-season finale, he would still be suspended for a postseason game.

LouCity players recognized: Two goal scorers from last Saturday’s 5-1 win over Saint Louis FC were honored Tuesday by the USL. Midfielder Magnus Rasmussen, who recorded a brace with a pair of second half goals, made the USL Team of the Week’s top 11. Winger Kadeem Dacres filled out the reserves thanks to an equalizer in the 38th minute. This marked Rasmussen’s second straight Team of the Week nod.

Scoring outburst: LouCity’s five goals in St. Louis marked the most scored this season by the club, which is also on 2016-best four-game winning streak entering the regular-season finale. LouCity scored five goals in a game last season, when on Aug. 12, 2015, it beat the Harrisburg City Islanders 5-1. A franchise-record six goals were recorded June 27, 2015, in a 6-2 home win over Oklahoma City Energy FC.

Magnus Rasmussen returned to Louisville City FC’s starting lineup four games ago, and the club has won them all since.

Even coach James O’Connor, often hesitant to single out an individual, considers LouCity’s longest winning streak of the season more than coincidence.

“He’s played a role for sure,” O’Connor said of Rasmussen, the club’s leading returning scorer from 2015 who’s on fire again.

Consider Rasmussen the player to watch entering Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Charlotte Independence. The attacking midfielder has netted three shots in two games, looking recovered — and well-conditioned — after recovering from offseason surgery to recover a hip labral tear.

• Video: Rasmussen says LouCity building toward playoffs

The rehab, Rasmussen says, wasn’t easy. And watching his LouCity teammates excel from the stands wasn’t pleasant.

“Obviously it’s very fun for me right now,” he said. “It’s been a tough season watching the guys play, and they were playing really well. It’s been hard to come back into the team, and now that I’m back, I’m just enjoying it.”

Rasmussen first hit from distance Sept. 10, in LouCity’s last game at Slugger Field. His shot grazed off the hands of the Kickers’ goalkeeper and into the net, going down as a USL Goal of the Week candidate. The Dane added two more in the second half of last week’s 5-1, blowout win over Saint Louis FC.

“He’s just enjoying his football,” O’Connor said. “I think when you play with that sense of enjoyment, it allows you to play free. Equally, his confidence has risen because he’s scored some goals. He’s looking a lot fitter, which is great.

“We’re really pleased with where he is at the moment.”

• Two straight Team of the Week nods for Rasmussen

The 23-year-old is playing much like the guy who plunged straight into the record books, scoring the first goal in LouCity history on March 28, 2015. In all, he tallied 8 goals in the club’s inaugural season, second only to USL MVP and purple-clad teammate Matt Fondy’s league record 22.

That, Rasmussen accomplished while learning English and acclimating to American culture. He spent 2012-2015 with Danish second division side BK Søllerød-Vedbæk before catching O’Connor’s attention.

Those hurdles haven’t impeded the No. 10’s obvious talent.

“I think, first, he’s got a great soccer brain,” said LouCity winger Andrew Lubahn. “As an attacking player especially, he knows where you’re going to run. He knows how to play the ball through to you. Just playing with him is a joy.

“I think he deserves a lot of credit. A lot of people don’t see the amount of work he did to come back from his injury. That’s not an easy thing to do. We’re happy he’s getting all the rewards after his hard work.”

With kickoff against the Independence set for 7:30 p.m., Rasmussen said it’s not only about winning for LouCity. He’ll worry about how the club goes about it with an Oct. 2 USL playoff opener looming.

“We played good before they got the man sent off,” Rasmussen said, alluding to Saint Louis FC’s first half red card, “but we just kind of want to build to play as good as we did against 10 men against 11.”

Normally standing in front of a handful of local TV cameras and voice recorders, Louisville City FC players took a knee after training Thursday morning, sitting level with a group of Fairdale Elementary School students wearing their own press credentials.

More than 30 kids from the English as a Second Language program arrived with notepads and tablets in tow, executing a class assignment that involved getting to know the pros. Assistant coach Daniel Byrd, whose sister, Kathy, teaches in the ESL program, organized the visit.

“They can look at these professional soccer players who learned to speak English as their second language, and stay focused on that and see that as very important and see that it helps provide a better future for them,” Byrd told The Courier-Journal.

The conversations started with Ireland native Niall McCabe and England’s Paco Craig, both products of Georgia’s Division II Young Harris College who came to the United States to play soccer.

• Read more about the visit in The Courier-Journal

One student asked the duo what the guys in the yellow shirts were doing. Goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh ran through drills in the background.

“When Paco doesn’t do his job, then Greg has to do his job,” McCabe joked about Craig, a defender.

Others, including Denmark’s Magnus Rasmussen, Serbia’s Ilija Ilic, Israel’s Guy Abend and Enrique Montano, a son of Mexican immigrants, fielded questions.

Rasmussen hoped the students learned something Thursday other than English.

“That it’s important to continue doing what you want to do,” he said. “Believe in your dreams. They visited a professional soccer team today and everyone here, their dream was to be a professional. Obviously they can maybe get their eyes open to that and maybe they can see, ‘OK, it can happen to me as well if I work hard and stay focused.'”

Louisville City FC’s players all seem to have their superstitions, whether it’s eating the same pregame meal, putting one boot on before the other or listening to a standard game day playlist.

Ben Newnam recently added to his routine amid a breakout season at defender. He doesn’t step on the pitch at Louisville Slugger Field without first greeting his biggest fan, 8-year-old Aspen Stucky.

“If you’re a little kid, that’s a big deal,” said Aspen’s mother, Brandi. “They see these big, professional players out playing soccer, and when one comes over to talk to you, that makes you feel special.”

Aspen’s hard to miss. She sits next to the tunnel leading out to the field and wears a white and gold LouCity kit; on the back is Newnam’s number, 2, and the words “good luck.”

She’ll be there again Saturday as LouCity hosts the Charlotte Independence at 7:30 p.m. The club’s regular-season finale is also Fan Appreciation Night, on which LouCity will crack 100,000 in attendance this year.

“To be able to be so welcomed by the fans and have special relationships with certain ones is really cool,” said Newnam, a North Carolina native. “It makes it like a home away from home.”

Newnam’s not alone in getting to know LouCity supporters. Before leaving for medical school, goalkeeper Scott Goodwin spoke of eating dinner with fans. Others, like defender Sean Reynolds, have forged similar bonds with families who attend the games.

A Wake Forest product, Newnam just last week went for ice cream with Aspen and her older brother, Max. Earlier this summer, they zip lined and, one other weekend, he attended both of the Stucky kids’ baptisms.

“We all like him — me, my husband and my son, but Aspen is definitely most attached to him,” Brandi Stucky said. “I don’t know any other sport where that happens, when outside the game players can become your friend. Soccer brings people together like that.”

The support, in turn, is quite the motivator. Reynolds has been told stories of people walking or driving by Slugger Field during a LouCity home game, only to hear the crowd noise inside.

The club ranks third of 29 United Soccer League teams this year in average home attendance.

“I think we have some of the best fans in the league,” he said. “They’re always loud, always supporting us and always have our backs, especially when we’re defending. I can always hear them.”

Newnam played briefly for Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids but has mostly grown up in his home state, last season appearing in 11 games on loan to the Charlotte Independence. Coming to Kentucky, where he knew nobody, aside from a few teammates, meant making new friends.

Newnam connected with the Stuckys while working a youth soccer clinic over the summer.

“He’s just a good mentor for both of them, really,” Brandi Stucky said. “The things that matter to us matter to him.

“For my kids to have a role model like that is just great.”

Supporters chanted and drums boomed Saturday as Louisville City FC fans filled the stadium with noise — for a road win, no less, in St. Louis. The showing only continued a year highlighted by increased attendance off the field and another second-place USL finish on it.

In conjunction with LouCity’s final regular-season home game, set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday against the Charlotte Independence, the club is hosting a Fan Appreciation Night complete with giveaways and merchandise discounts.

• From Tuesday through Friday, all items in LouCity’s Team Store will sell at a 15 percent discount. The sale continues Saturday at the merchandise booth inside Slugger Field.
   
• During the game, LouCity will give away a pair of game-worn, signed uniforms from the 2015 season — one in purple (Tarek Morad) and another in white (Guy Abend).  Listen at halftime for winners, and present your ticket at the merchandise booth to redeem prizes.
   
• LouCity will eclipse 100,000 in home attendance this season on Saturday night. The fan who puts the club over the top will win free tickets to the Oct. 2 opening-round playoff game at Slugger Field as well as to other potential LouCity postseason contests this year.
   
• Season ticket holders who have renewed for 2017 are eligible for a pregame on-field experience. Check in no later than 6:15 p.m. at the table in the West Ticket Booth Lobby at Slugger to be on the pitch for warmups. One person per seat renewed can go.
   
• Two supporters — Brian McGill and Christopher Hardt — were selected as winners of drawings after renewing their season tickets. McGill will serve as honorary captain on Saturday, participating in the pregame coin toss. Hardt won a jersey signed by LouCity players.
   
• LouCity’s Clean Your Books promotion continues Saturday. Season ticket holders with unused tickets can stop by ticket booths starting two hours before kickoff for free replacements to Saturday’s game. Bring a friend!

Louisville City has locked up a No. 2 playoff seed heading into the weekend. The club will play the No. 7 seed in an Eastern Conference quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2. If the club advances, it would next meet the winner of a 3 vs. 6 game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, in an Eastern Conference semifinal.

LouCity sits at 17-4-8 and on a four-game winning streak, its longest of the year.

Louisville City FC will start its pursuit of a USL Cup with an opening-round playoff game set for 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2 at Louisville Slugger Field, the club announced Wednesday.

Seeding and an opponent are still to be determined, though with one more victory, LouCity would lock up the USL Eastern Conference’s No. 2 spot and face the No. 7 finisher on the table.

“Being able to host at least one playoff match again this season is a testament to the quality of our team and desire to bring USL championships to Louisville,” said LouCity president Amanda Duffy. “Due to stadium availability as well as consideration of other historical events in the Louisville community, our first-round playoff match will be played on Sunday evening.

“We are thrilled to have another opportunity to play in front of our fans, who continue to show the best support in USL.”

Tickets to the Oct. 2 game are on sale now for LouCity season ticket holders and package buyers only through Sunday. Seats remaining after that will then open to the general public, with admission starting at $15.

For tickets, visit this link, call (502) 384-8799 (option 3) or email tickets@louisvillecityfc.com. College students with a valid ID are also eligible for a $5 ticket at the door or the LouCity office, 127 S. 6th Street, starting Monday.

LouCity sports a short but successful home playoff tradition. Former striker Matt Fondy scored twice in overtime last year — the club’s inaugural season — to register a 2-0 win over the Charleston Battery. A crowd of more than 8,500 rooted on the boys in purple.

Currently on a three-game winning streak, this year’s LouCity team sits at 16-4-8, already having registered more points (56) than the 2015 team (48).

Should LouCity claim the No. 2 seed, it would also be in line to play a second-round game at home. The New York Red Bulls II, the USL Eastern Conference’s regular-season champion, have locked up the top seed.

Eight teams from the Eastern and Western conferences advance to the single-elimination playoffs. This year, 29 teams are playing in the USL.

The postseason opener will mark the first time LouCity has played a home game on a Sunday. Before the playoffs, the club travels to meet rival Saint Louis FC at 8:30 p.m. Saturday before hosting the Charlotte Independence at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 24.

Renewals remain underway for 2017 LouCity season tickets, with a number of benefits available to those who re-up with the club. Representatives are also accepting new season ticket accounts for next year.

Second-year Louisville City FC player Niall McCabe underwent successful arthroscopic surgery Wednesday afternoon to repair a hip labral tear on his left side. The midfielder is expected to make a full recovery and, after rehab and recovery, return to the field in 2017.

“We were obviously very disappointed to lose Niall, as he was having a consistent season for us,” said LouCity coach James O’Connor. “The surgery will alleviate the pain he has been getting, and by taking a proactive approach, we will hopefully have him ready for the start of preseason.

“I would also like to thank Scott Ritter, our head athletic trainer, and Baptist Health Sports Medicine, which has been a great partner for us.”

McCabe, who last appeared in a game Aug. 10 as his injury became bothersome, tallied 2 goals and 4 assists this season playing mostly as a central attacking midfielder. The native of Ireland also scored 3 goals in 2015 as a key contributor to LouCity’s inaugural campaign.

Ritter likened McCabe’s ailment to fellow midfielder Magnus Rasmussen’s labral tear suffered in 2015.

“It’s not as severe,” Ritter said. “We’re also a good two months ahead of where we were with Magnus last year. Niall should be better after this. The operation is going to give him more hip range of motion, power and mobility.”

Rasmussen made his first start of the year Aug. 27, filling in at the No. 10 spot occupied most of the season by McCabe. Back to full strength, Rasmussen returned to the scoring column in Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Richmond Kickers with a 55th-minute strike from distance.

Along with defender Paco Craig and forward Ilija Ilic, McCabe is one of three players on LouCity’s roster out of Young Harris College, a Division II program in Georgia. There, he played four years and was named an All-Peach Belt Conference first team performer in 2012.

In a tweet after surgery, McCabe wrote, “Wanna say a BIG thank you to everyone who wished me well. It means a lot. Obviously I’m disappointed I can’t help the team during a crucial time in the season, but I’m 100% confident that the lads will do the business over these final few weeks.

“I will be supporting them all the way and have no doubt that the boys will do the team, staff and the supporters proud.”

Two games remain in LouCity’s regular season before the club returns home Oct. 2 to Louisville Slugger Field for a 7 p.m. opener to the United Soccer League’s playoffs. First, LouCity travels to play rival Saint Louis FC on Saturday before hosting the Charlotte Independence on Sept. 24.

The St. Matthews Boombozz Craft Pizza & Taphouse, 3939 Shelbyville Road, has added multiple TVs equipped to live stream Louisville City FC games in preparation for the club’s official watch party there Saturday night.

Boombozz will again offer food and drink specials to supporters in LouCity gear as the club hits the road to play Saint Louis FC. Kickoff in the final King’s Cup rivalry meeting this year is set for 8:30 p.m. ET.

With a victory, LouCity would lock up the USL Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed in the playoffs. Already, the club is guaranteed a top-four finish and home opener in the postseason.

While rooting on the boys in purple, LouCity fans can score the following deals at Boombozz:

• $30 – 1 large Famous Creation pizza, 1 full pretzel and beer chesse and 1 order of wings
   
• $4 Local draft flights
   
• $4 el Jimador and Old Forester drinks
   
• $4 LouCity Crush, purple, team-inspired cocktail