Louisville City FC claimed two-thirds of the United Soccer League’s midseason awards announced Monday, the latest achievement amid the first-place club’s 16-match unbeaten streak that dates back more than three months.
Fans overwhelmingly voted Chandler Hoffman the USL’s Midseason Most Valuable Player and Kyle Smith the Midseason Rookie of the Year for their contributions to LouCity.
Hoffman, the lone striker up top, registered his team-high 12th goal of the season Saturday in a 1-1 draw with the Charleston Battery. The 25-year-old out of UCLA has Major League Soccer experience having won the MLS Cup while with the LA Galaxy and is this year chasing the USL’s Golden Boot won in 2015 by LouCity’s Matt Fondy, another MVP.
“Chandler, obviously, has come in, he’s been lively, he’s scored a lot of goals,” said coach James O’Connor. “He’s been a threat for us going forward.”
Smith, a Cincinnati native and Transylvania University graduate, made the club as a tryout player and has gone on to solidify a spot at right back following in the footsteps of 2015 star Bryan Burke, the USL’s Defender of the Year. Smith is second in the league in assists with 5.
“If you’d said to me at the start of the season that Kyle was going to play the amount of games that he has, I’d say, ‘Wow, where’s he going to play?’” O’Connor said. “I wouldn’t have seen it. The respect we have for Kyle is tremendous. He’s come in, and really epitomizes what we’re about. We speak and preach about people working hard in training, being the best they can be, and then you’re going to get an opportunity.
“He’s come in, he’s worked really hard, he’s been given an opportunity and he’s taken it.”
Additionally in voting over the last week, fans elected FC Cincinnati’s Mitch Hildebrandt the Midseason Goalkeeper of the Year.
LouCity is back in action Sunday, hitting the road for a 6 p.m. match against Wilmington Hammerheads FC that can be seen live at louisvillecityfc.com.
