Louisville City came one point closer to clinching the Eastern Conference Saturday night. Louisville and Rochester ended in a 0-0 draw at Capelli Sport Stadium. LouCity will at least host the opening round of the playoffs because of tonight’s result.
“We obviously tried to get a win tonight in a very tough battle,” said Coach James O’Connor after the match. He added, “We need to get a lot of recovery into the guys because it’s been a long trip. It’s been a lot of work for the guys so we need to make sure they’re rested up and get the re-energized for Saturday’s game against Charlotte.”
Sean Totsch had the first look of the night for Louisville, with a header that was sent straight to the goalkeeper in the 18th minute. Rochester responded quickly when they earned a corner kick, but sent the ball wide of the goal.
At halftime, Louisville trailed in overall possession time, 53.8% to 46.2%. Louisville was able to get one more shot attempt than Rochester, leading the Rhinos in shots taken at the half 2-1.
The second half was similar to the first, with LouCity taking the first shot. Luke Spencer fired a shot high of the goal in the 64th minute, and Wal Fall of the Rhinos responded a few minutes later with a shot of his own.
Oscar Jimenez saved the game for Louisville City. With 15 minutes to go, the Rhinos found their way in the box to make a threat, but Jimenez was able to perfectly time a slide challenge to block the shot by Rochester’s Jordan Dover.
Sean Reynolds put in a stellar defensive shift for the visitors with six interceptions and 12 clearances to lead his side to a shutout on the road. USLSoccer.com awarded him Man of the Match for his efforts.
Louisville City returns to Slugger Field on Saturday, October 7th for one of their final two regular season matches of the season.
Game Recap
Match: Rochester Rhinos vs. Louisville City FC
Date: September 30, 2017
Venue: Capelli Sport Stadium | Rochester, NY
Kickoff: 6:05pm
Weather: 54 degrees, partly cloudy
LouCity Man of the Match: Sean Reynolds
Scoring
Rochester Rhinos (0,0,0)
Louisville City FC (0,0,0)
Lineups
Rochester starting lineup: 23 Tomás Gómez, 15 Joseph Farrell, 13 Mike Garzi (5 Jordan Dover – 71’), 4 Bradley Kamdem Fewo, 3 Ryan Felix, 11 Kenardo Forbes (c), 6 Christiano François (9 Stefan Defregger, 86’), 17 Wal Fall, 7 Ryan James, 20 Todd Pratzner, 12 Jochen Graf (21 Darius Madison, 86’)
Rochester subs: 33 Daniel Lynd, 27 Julian Buescher, 10 Sofiane Tergou, 2 Raymond Lee
Rochester head coach: Bob Lilley
Louisville City starting lineup: 1 Gregory Ranjitsingh, 19 Oscar Jimenez, 15 Sean Reynolds, 4 Sean Totsch, 24 Kyle Smith, 6 Tarek Morad, 22 George Davis IV, 36 Paolo DelPiccolo (c) (80 Devon Williams, 79’), 8 Guy Abend, 7 Mark-Anthony Kaye (10 Brian Ownby, 61’), 12 Luke Spencer
Louisville City subs: 11 Niall McCabe, 23 Richard Ballard, 9 Cameron Lancaster, 28 Tim Dobrowolski, 13 Micah Bledsoe
Discipline
Rochester Rhinos:
71’ – Kenardo Forbes, yellow (foul)
85’ – Ryan Felix, yellow (foul)
Louisville City FC:
67’ – Brian Ownby, yellow (foul)
90’+2 – Tarek Morad, yellow (foul)
Stats
Rochester Rhinos / Louisville City FC
Shots: 5/5
Shots on target: 0/1
Possession (%): 57.9/42.1
Passes: 602/444
Corners: 4/1
Fouls: 14/12
Officials
Referee: ERIC TATTERSALL
Assistant referee 1: Ryan Trombetta
Assistant referee 2: Antonio Triana
4th official: Christopher Trottier
