Saturday’s Louisville City FC game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies, an early season meeting between the USL Eastern Conference’s top two teams, is big enough that it has coach James O’Connor wishing to end his retirement.
“We’re looking forward to it,” O’Connor said at his weekly press conference. “These are the types of games we all want to play in, and it’s one I wish I could actually play in.”
Big names on the Rowdies’ roster predicate that.
Members of their squad have totaled 112 full international appearances, with returners Joe Cole and Georgi Hristov accounting for half of Tampa Bay’s goals last year. Then, before its first year in the USL, the Rowdies added former Bundesliga champion Marcel Schäfer, who spent 10 seasons with VfL Wolfsburg.
The Rowdies have won all three of their games so far by an aggregate score of 6-0.
“You go right through the team and they’ve got players who have played at a high level and achieved at a high level — really good players,” O’Connor said.
• VIDEO | Watch Coach’s weekly press conference
Cole previously suited up for the English Premier League’s Chelsea FC, West Ham United and Liverpool FC and played for the English national team in three World Cups. With Botev Plovdiv, Hristov was a leading goal scorer and league Footballer of the Year in the Bulgarian First Division before coming to the United States.
Yes, the Rowdies have plenty of resources at their disposal. O’Connor credited his counterpart, coach Stuart Campbell, for using them correctly.
“People get caught up in the amount of money, and it’s so much, but he’s been clever in how he’s spent it,” O’Connor said. “…They’re a tough team, they’ve got good players, good experience, so it’ll be a big test for us.”
LouCity is also unbeaten after topping the Richmond Kickers by a 1-0 score over the weekend. The club will don its new third kits for the first time Saturday in a “blackout” game at Louisville Slugger Field. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
More from Coach’s meeting with the media…
• Further reflection on the victory in Richmond: “Well, we knew it was going to be a very difficult game. I think Richmond’s formation in the games previous were very hard to break down. Statistically we didn’t give up a lot of shots. I was very pleased with the amount of shots we were able to get. We showed a lot of patience, at times I felt our game could’ve been a little bit better but all-in-all very pleased.”
• Injury updates on forward Cameron Lancaster and goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh: “Cameron we’re hoping should join us this week. We’re still waiting to see if that’s going to be OK. Greg had a meeting with the doctor. I believe he’s going to get an injection, so we’re still monitoring the length on that. I think Cameron is definitely in contention for the weekend. With Greg we’ll have to wait and see.”
• On the availability of defender Sean Reynolds following red card suspension: “It’s obviously very early in the week, so we’ll start to look at that toward the end of the week.”
