Louisville City FC had its supporters on the edge of their seats at the end of Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Next time, players would prefer a more comfortable margin of victory when moving ahead by multiple goals.
After Cameron Lancaster scored in the 87th minute to make it 2-0, the Rowdies put themselves on the scoreboard just two minutes later, leaving the result in doubt late at Slugger Field.
Yes, LouCity remained unbeaten, standing as the only team in the USL Eastern Conference who can claim that. But coach James O’Connor called the late goal conceded “a disappointment.”
“It’s definitely avoidable on our part,” added midfielder Niall McCabe, who made his first start of the year on Saturday. “It just causes chaos toward the end — really more difficult than it should have been. We should’ve been able to do a bit better and see the game through.”
LouCity improved to 3-0-1 on the season, good for 10 points. Through four games in 2015, the club tallied 6 points. In 2016, the boys in purple registered 9 points.
Despite the improvement, players still see room for improvement.
“Unfortunately we let them have a goal to get back into the game, but it’s tough,” said midfielder George Davis IV. “They’ve got a lot of quality, and when they’re down they’re gonna push. We’ll keep working and hopefully we can be better at managing the game toward the end — having a more relaxed end of the game as opposed to having to fight for our lives.”
Next up is a trip Saturday to play River Cities Cup rival FC Cincinnati, which topped previously unbeaten Saint Louis FC by a 4-0 score over the weekend in its home opener. Striker Djiby Fall has scored all six of FC Cincinnati’s goals so far in 2017.
O’Connor’s ready for his own players to earn some recognition as well. He cited that while LouCity advanced to the Eastern Conference Final last year and finished with the USL’s second-best record, none of LouCity’s players made the all-league team. This weekend, the likes of Rowdies standouts Joe Cole and Marcel Shafer were highly billed.
“I think for us I’m just incredibly proud, because I felt that there was a lot of hype around Tampa which, don’t get me wrong — they’re a great team and have a great coach,” O’Connor said. “But I felt at times there wasn’t necessarily enough credit given to our guys. I’m delighted that our guys have been able to show how good they are and be able to go win the game, because we have a great team.”
