Louisville City fell 3-2 to Birmingham Legion FC Sunday morning at Slugger Field. The match, originally scheduled for Saturday night at 7 p.m., had to be postponed due to field conditions after heavy rain. It was played on Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
“No secret now. We’re into this,” Louisville City coach John Hackworth said. “Our defending is woeful. It’s irresponsible. I don’t even know what to call it. It’s just not anywhere close to being good enough for us.”
Louisville City got on the board first on a 30′ strike from Magnus Rasmussen with an assist by Sean Totsch. But City didn’t hold its lead for long as Birmingham Legion struck back just 70 seconds later on a goal by Propser Kasim.
“It was similar to the way we played against North Carolina where we played some excellent soccer at such a high level. To get that goal – excellent service, good runs in the box and [Magnus Rasmussen] finishes fantastically on that,” Hackworth said. “But from letting them have a goal immediately after that, it cancels that out quite quickly.”
It was Birmingham’s first goal in club history after going scoreless in the first two matches. Just five minutes later Birmingham pushed ahead 2-1 on a goal by Chandler Hoffman.
Louisville City evened the score in the 81′ when Abdou Thiam sent a cross into the box that bounced off Birmingham’s Mathieu Laurent and into the goal for the equalizer.
Then in the 87′, Birmingham Legion pushed back ahead on a goal by Brian Wright. Louisville City tried to find an equalizer in the final four minutes or regulation and seven minutes of stoppage time, but they were unable to find the net.
“The only proper response is to come back out and learn from some really hard lessons right now,” Hackworth said. “To get so much of the hard part right and then to give up in little areas where it’s not about the quality of the athlete or the level of professionalism. We just need to do our jobs better.”
Louisville City will play the third game in a three-game homestand Saturday at 7 p.m. vs. the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
Louisville City’s Sunday morning match with Birmingham Legion FC streamed LIVE on YouTube. Here is a replay of the match.
