In his third season as a head coach, Louisville City FC’s James O’Connor continues to learn from the club’s first two campaigns in managing a squad heading into the playoffs.
O’Connor said Tuesday at his weekly press conference he’s paying special attention to squad management in training, deciding how hard to work his players — and when it’s appropriate to dial back the intensity.
“Us as a coaching staff, what we always do — we reflect and look how we can improve,” O’Connor said. “We’re always striving for growth. So, there are aspects that play a big part in our culture.”
In 2015, LouCity ended the regular season with three straight losses. Last year, though, O’Connor spoke often of saving his team’s legs for game day. The boys in purple lost just once in their final nine games, that a 1-0 defeat to the eventual league champion New York Red Bulls II.
Now, O’Connor has his club in first place in September for the first time, with LouCity’s next test a 7 p.m. Saturday game away against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
Midfielders Mark-Anthony Kaye (Canada) and Devon “Speedy” Williams (Jamaica) are back from international duty, and Kyle Smith over the weekend finished his three game suspension, the result of a red card back in August.
Most players on the 20-man roster are healthy. Those with issues are playing through them.
“I have to give Cameron (Lancaster) great credit,” O’Connor said. “He’s got a fractured toe for the last few weeks and he’s still been able to roll himself out there. It gives you the indication as the type of character that we have in the changing room.
“So, these are all aspects that play a part in what we are trying to do.”
Here’s more from O’Connor’s press conference…
On patience paying off in Saturday’s win over Charleston: “I think it was a lot of possession — a lot possession in areas we’re trying to get into goal-scoring positions. Sometimes you get there. Sometimes you don’t. The keeper makes a couple of good saves, so you need to make sure you stop the counter attack and keep it in their half, which we did. But equally, I think it was a great example of showing patience and, I would say, tolerance to keep going then obviously break the down and get the goal. It was an important goal for us and a big three points for us.”
On the trend of bouncing back after losses: “We’ve shown through the course of the year the guys have good mentality, good character. I think we’ve spoken a lot about trying to give good performances, strong performances and concentrate really on process — not necessarily getting caught up in things you can’t control. So I think that’s something they’ve really taken on board this year. We’re really pleased with our performance. The guys deserve enormous credit for how they performed throughout course of the season. We just need to keep it going, because Pittsburgh are a dangerous team.”
On the club’s 15th goal scorer and diversity from the offense: “It’s nice. It’s pleasing. For me, as long as we’re scoring goals, it doesn’t really matter to me who is scoring goals as long as someone is scoring. I think from the collective group it shows you the contribution everyone has made this year. I think that’s been the big thing in previous years. We’ve had probably one striker that scored a lot of goals, whereas this year we’ve had multiple players that have pitched in and scored, which is obviously testament to all the guys and how hard they’ve worked throughout the course of the year.”
