Louisville City FC coach John Hackworth met with local media on Monday to discuss last weekend’s loss to Saint Louis FC and the lead up to back-to-back meetings with Sporting KC II, both at Lynn Stadium, on Saturday and next Wednesday, July 29.
Check out five takeaways from the conversation:
Soccer is an unforgiving game
“This game is just cruel that way,” Hackworth told reporters.
In this low-scoring style of sport, the final score can be misleading. LouCity dominated the first half against Saint Louis FC, including shots off the post and bar by striker Cameron Lancaster. But the boys in purple conceded a goal six minutes out of the locker room and were unable to come away with a point for the second straight game since the USL Championship restarted play.
“Soccer is a tough sport sometimes because of the low scoring,” Hackworth said. “When some things don’t go your way, the ball doesn’t bounce, the referee doesn’t make the hand ball call — when those kinds of things go against you, usually the better team can still come out on top. It didn’t happen for us on Saturday night.”
There was improvement in defeat
“I still think we played some really good soccer on Saturday night and displayed what we’re capable of doing,” Hackworth said.
The coach commended his players on the overall performance when compared to a 3-1 loss on July 12 to Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. Against Saint Louis, LouCity controlled nearly 59% of possession while consistently building its attack from the back, leading to 19 shots when compared to the visitors’ seven.
“We just didn’t finish the final act in front of the goal when we were attacking,” Hackworth said, “and we made one mistake that allowed them to get their goal.”
Roster depth allows for heavy rotation
“It’s rare to make six changes from the starting lineup,” Hackworth said, comparing his team sheets from the Pittsburgh to Saint Louis FC games. “We made a lot of changes. I don’t want to say that I’ll continue to do that, but we do have this belief that there’s a lot of parity and quality in our locker room.”
Half of those switches came along the back line, where only the left back OscarJimenez remained from the Pittsburgh game. Pat McMahon, one of those new lineup entries, earned Man of the Match honors, while midfielder Napo Matsoso and forward Antoine Hoppenot consistently contributed to the attack.
“We do very much believe that we have a roster in terms of quality and depth where we can sometimes interchange,” Hackworth said. “That’s something that we’re going to have to utilize in this kind of interesting two game series coming up with Sporting Kansas City.”
“We’re going to be OK.”
For just the second time in franchise history, LouCity has lost consecutive regular-season home games. Saint Louis FC, a rival since the clubs’ inaugural game in 2015, also registered its first victory in Louisville.
“We had a team meeting and film review, and we talked about the fact that we’re going to be OK,” Hackworth said, “especially if we play the level of soccer that we displayed on Saturday night.”
Saturday’s tilt was just the first of 12 the boys in purple will play within “Group E,” which also includes Sporting and Indy Eleven. The top-two from the pod advance to the playoffs in October.
“You don’t put a team on the ropes the way we put Saint Louis on the ropes by chance,” Hackworth said. “You don’t move the ball the way we moved it. You don’t press and re-press and create chance after chance. Again, you’ve got to finish those chances. But we just have to remain confident.”
The big-picture mentality remains
“For our club, we think of ourselves as being the champions and being in a position to fight for first place,” Hackworth said.
An announced 4,850 fans have been on hand for both LouCity games since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports in the spring. More certainly would have liked to see the boys in purple play were it not for physical distancing protocols in place at Lynn Family Stadium.
This is a veteran roster with many members of teams that won USL titles in 2017 and 2018, then returned to the final in 2019. A Group E victory Saturday over winless Sporting KC II could even LouCity on the table with Saint Louis FC.
“We still can fight and get back into that second playoff spot without too much trouble,” Hackworth said. “We just have more work to do.”
