Now a midfielder, Mark-Anthony Kaye played earlier in his career along the back line, giving the Louisville City FC star insight into just what happened Saturday night against the Charlotte Independence.
LouCity “completely dominated the game,” coach James O’Connor said, beating out the Independence in nearly every statistical category except the ones that count most — goals scored and allowed.
Final score in Matthews, N.C.: Charlotte 3, LouCity 1.
“I think it’s just that complacency sets in,” Kaye said. “I can see it. I can understand it, because I’ve been a defender. You see the players in front of you dominating the game, you switch off for one second, and then they’re on a breakaway.
“Everyone needs to be tuned in on and off the ball, and I think tonight was a great example of what happens when you’re not.”
LouCity held 58 percent of the possession and didn’t settle on the ball, earning eight corners to Charlotte’s one. Shots were 13-7 in favor of the visitors. Passes ended up 510-379, with LouCity completing 80 percent of its attempts. The Independence weren’t credited with a single cross.
But Charlotte made the most of its chances, converting all three of its shots on goal, while Kaye saw “mental lapses” from LouCity, which was to an extent a victim of its own success controlling the game.
“It looks like they’ve had four attacks and scored three goals,” O’Connor said. “That’s painful, and it’s completely on us. We need to do a much better job than that.”
LouCity surrendered a first half brace to Independence midfielder Enzo Martinez, a 2016 USL MVP candidate, but fought off the shock of a 2-0 deficit with Kaye’s 48th-minute goal. An equalizer felt imminent as well.
Luke Spencer put a shot over the bar in the 51st minute. Kaye’s try from the center off the box went wide right in the 57th. Kyle Smith sailed another nice look high in the 61st.
Then came the 67th minute try that included a diving save by Charlotte’s keeper, who came off his line to stop Kaye’s shot. Cameron Lancaster followed with a header blocked at the last moment.
“How he managed to get that off the line,” O’Connor said of an Independence defender, “I don’t know. You have to capitalize on opportunities like that. Equally, when you give them three goals like we did, it’s difficult to get in a game. That’s the key point.
“You look at how we started the game in the first 10 minutes, we were looking to win the game. We played a huge role in our own downfall, which we need to stop doing.”
On one final counter, Martinez completed his hat trick and in turn received a second yellow card — plus a sending off — for leaving the field to celebrate. O’Connor saw his 11 fail to capitalize against Charlotte’s 10 during the game’s final minutes, saying, “Our intelligence needs to be better than that.”
Add it to the list for this week’s training. Six days remain before LouCity hosts FC Cincinnati in a rematch of a July 15 game at Slugger Field, that one a 3-2 defeat that felt much like Saturday’s loss.
The outlook with 13 games left in the regular season remains positive, as the boys in purple sit fourth in the USL Eastern Conference standings at 10-4-5, good for 35 points. Second (Charleston Battery) and third (Tampa Bay Rowdies) are just two points up with LouCity holding three games in hand, while the Independence are four points cleared with one more game played than LouCity.
