On Wednesday, after the New York Red Bulls II clinched a regular-season United Soccer League title, Louisville City coach James O’Connor emailed John Wolyniec, the Red Bulls’ manager, a congratulatory note.
On Thursday, more praise flowed for New York, which has won seven straight games.
“They’ve been very consistent this season,” O’Connor said. “They went on a great run at the end.”
Now, second-place LouCity’s goals are on the postseason, as well as a strong finish to its its final three regular-season games. O’Connor and players said it’s important the club clinch an opening-round home playoff game — they can do it with a win Saturday over the Richmond Kickers — to enter October in solid form.
“All we can do is control what happens from here on out,” said defender Tarek Morad.
“We have another championship now to focus on winning,” added midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye.
LouCity’s on a decent run of its own, having gone 3-1-2 since the end of July with back-to-back clean sheets in its last two games. One was posted by goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh and the other in rookie Tim Dobrowolski’s debut, which came with Ranjitsingh away on international duty.
At Slugger Field this weekend, LouCity will run into another club on a hot streak. The Kickers, who sit three spots back in fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, haven’t lost since July 2.
“It’ll be a tough game for us when you see certainly how they’ve played the last couple of games,” O’Connor said. “They’ve caused teams problems, and defensively they’re hard to beat. I think the challenge is, can we break them down?”
LouCity is 11-0-2 this season when it scores two or more goals. But Richmond rarely concedes so many; the Kickers’ 20 goals against are second-best in the USL to the Red Bulls II.
Louisville will have more firepower than in last Saturday’s 1-0 win at FC Montreal. Guy Abend, the club’s co-second-leading scorer with 5 goals, is cleared to play after suffering a recent concussion. Paolo DelPiccolo, back from suspension due to yellow card accumulation, could also factor in central midfield.
Lately, O’Connor has also included Magnus Rasmussen as a starter behind striker Chandler Hoffman, who has scored 14 goals up top, among the most in the USL.
“We did want to win the regular-season championship, which we’re disappointed about, but the guys deserve enormous credit,” O’Connor said. “We’ve been very consistent, and we’ve had a very strong season. People need to understand you don’t just make the playoffs by chance. You make it because you’re a really strong team.”
LouCity went 17 games unbeaten in a streak starting in April and running through mid-July. Since suffering back-to-back defeats, the club has lost just once more, in a 1-0 result at New York.
A LouCity team that scored most of its 44 goals in the first half of the year has leaned on defense lately.
“I think we’ve just been focusing on tying up our back line as we get closer to playoffs,” Morad said. “As they say, defense wins championships. Getting shutouts in consecutive games has been big for us.
“We’re looking to carry that momentum into the postseason. Obviously, we’d like to score more goals.”
