Louisville City FC midfielder Andrew Lubahn considers it a sign of a good team that “when you’re not playing well, you get results.” Such was the case last Sunday when LouCity played a man down for 50 minutes, yet still pulled out a 4-3 victory over Orlando City B.
The guys in purple returned home to a light week of training in preparation for their next test, a 7:30 p.m. Saturday matchup with Wilmington Hammerheads FC at Louisville Slugger Field. The game will mark LouCity’s first at Slugger in United Soccer League play since May 14.
“I think for us, it’s about trying to manage that,” coach James O’Connor said of competing shorthanded. “You try to get some rest in. The players deserve enormous credit to play for 50 minutes with 10 men and score three goals.
“That’s something the players have really worked — if you look at the course of the games, I think we’ve had eight away games. If you look at the travel we’ve had as well, the players deserve enormous credit for the way they performed.”
Lubahn in particular impressed against Orlando City B, reserve side of former LouCity affiliate Orlando City SC. He came off the bench in the 56th minute, then promptly assisted a goal and scored one of his own on a header.
Lubahn said that won’t mean a certain start for himself against Wilmington considering LouCity’s depth, especially in the midfield. He’s one of a handful of players rotated there.
“I think it’s important to just keep a level head,” he said. “It’s a long season, and everybody’s going to get chances. James is good about being fair. It’s just making sure when you come in you do your role and make sure you help the team.”
New York Red Bulls II tied LouCity atop the USL’s Eastern Conference standings on Thursday night with a 1-0 victory — their fourth straight result by that score — over the Harrisburg City Islanders.
Wilmington enters the weekend in solid form as well as a winner of two of its past three matches. Hammerheads midfielder Kyle Parker is also the reigning USL Player of the Week after scoring a stoppage-time winner in his club’s last game.
Wilmington will have to deal with some surging Louisville stars. After going four USL matches without a goal, leading scorer Chandler Hoffman netted shots both in LouCity’s U.S. Open Cup defeat last week to the Indy Eleven and in the Orlando showdown.
Also, captain Aodhan Quinn scored on a bending free kick at Orlando in the 68th minute with a boot that resembled the shot that won him 2015’s USL Goal of the Year.
“It’s pretty cool,” Quinn said. “Obviously, I think last year’s is better.”
At the least, Quinn has a candidate for top USL goal for June.
“It was in a really good spot for me — just the right distance from goal, on the preferred side like kind of down the middle where I liked,” he added. “Then I was striking them pretty well, so I was pretty confident stepping up there.”
Quinn’s goal marked the third scored by LouCity after George Davis IV, a University of Kentucky product, picked up a second yellow card and left the game in the first half. Davis must sit out a game for receiving a red card due to USL rules, while the league also saddled defender Ben Newnam with a three-game suspension after determining he “struck OCB’s Harrison Heath from behind.”
It only presents more adversity for a club that continued a 10-game unbeaten streak a man down.
“I think we’ve got tremendous belief in the group we have,” O’Connor said. “For us, the spirit, the togetherness, and I think the quality as well — we’ve got some really good players — and when a situation like that happens I’m always confident we’re capable of going and scoring.
“I think we could have maybe tried to play sharp and sit back, but that’s not who we are right now. I’ve got such belief in the players that I felt we could go and not only go and get something but win the game.”
