Louisville City FC hosts the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday afternoon. A major clash between Eastern Conference foes, the match falls at the end of a three-game home stretch.
Postponing the North Carolina FC match last weekend, LouCity is chomping at the bit to hit the pitch. Meanwhile, the Rowdies come in off the back of two straight wins over NCFC and Bethlehem Steel FC.
When & Where
LouCity hosts Tampa Bay for a 3:00 P.M. kickoff at Slugger Field. Winning their first match of the year, the ability to host a second-straight contest in Louisville excites the “Boys in Purple”.
Local station WBNA 21 will air this weekend’s match on your screen while 840 WHAS AM carries the action over the airwaves. Fans can also follow the match live on Twitter & Instagram.
TV: WBNA 21
RADIO: 840 WHAS AM
DOWNLOAD: LouCity app for iOS | LouCity app for Android
READ: Slugger Field A-to-Z
Last Time Out
LouCity earned its first three points of the 2018 campaign on Saturday, March 17, against Nashville SC. Goals from Luke Spencer and Niall McCabe sealed the 2-0 win, while ‘keeper Greg Ranjitsingh kept his first clean sheet.
The first opportunity of the night nine minutes in as forward Luke Spencer tested Nashville ‘keeper Matt Pickens. The monstrous netminder would deny the no. 9, though, holding tight on his line. Spencer and co. would test Nashville a few times in the opening half but the visitors would not relent and the teams sat scoreless at the break.
After 56 minutes, the hosts broke the deadlock. After a cross from midfielder Niall McCabe, who earned Man of the Match, Spencer buried the header to put LouCity one-up. Ten minutes later, the “Boys in Purple” doubled their tally in the 66th minute. McCabe was again involved, tapping home a rolled cross from defender Oscar Jimenez.
Nashville’s attack tested LouCity ‘keeper Greg Ranjitsingh twice through the 90 minutes. Keeping Nashville away, Ranjitsingh produced saves against Lebo Meloto and substitute Tucker Hume.
READ: #LOUvTBR – Talking Points
Visionworks’ What to Look For
#LOUvTBR is quickly approaching on Saturday. A few items to keep an eye on ahead of a big one:
1. Play to the conditions
2. Keep things consistent
3. Serve up Spencer
From the Gaffer
On going again this week:
“Obviously it wasn’t ideal at the weekend, but player safety has to be paramount. I thought the referee made the right decision, so for us, we’ll reassess and now we’re looking forward to a massive game against Tampa Bay on Saturday.”
On the Rowdies:
“We beat them at home and they beat us away. Tampa is one of the strong favorites to go on this year. When you look at the investment that they have there and the depth of their squad and the quality of some of their players, it’ll be a massive test for us this weekend. We’re really looking forward to it. We love the challenge and we’re hoping to get as many supporters as we can into Slugger this Saturday.”
On what he has liked/disliked so far:
“It’s hard to say [what I’ve liked and disliked so far]. Literally, we’ve had one game. It’s now a case of us focusing on Tampa and what they are strong at, what are the areas that we want to be good at and be strong ourselves and be aware of what they’re trying to do to be able to get the level of performance that we’re looking for.”
On the mix of vets/new faces:
“We’ve been really pleased with our players. Even today [Monday] the attitude in training was fantastic–really, really great. We’ve been very pleased with our players, for sure.”
The goal this week:
“For us, it’s trying to manage minutes. Normally for us, Monday’s session isn’t what it normally would’ve been but with the game called off, your week changes and your training load needs to change. We’re mindful of that. Also, we had to do our homework on Tampa and then make sure our players are in the right frame of mind. The challenge again will be the weather. With the training ground out and more rain this week, we’re managing the players on a different surface.”
On the long homestand:
“For us, we love playing at home. The passion our supporters brought at the Nashville game was excellent. We’re very hopeful that we’ll get a big crowd against Tampa on Saturday and get the supporters right behind us because we’ll definitely need it.”
On shutting down the Rowdies:
“We’ll see [how we can stop the Rowdies]. I don’t like to pre-empt things. For us, we try to do our talking on the field. When you look at the caliber of player, I would think at this stage they’re probably the only team that has two players that have played in the Champions League and were two full internationals for England and Germany, which are two huge nations. So again, when you look at the caliber of their players, they’re probably slightly different to most teams in the league.”
On injury concerns:
“We’ve been really pleased with the guys so far; hopefully, we can maintain it. Hopefully, Mother Nature is a bit more kind this week and we don’t get as much rain so we can get out on grass again this week.”
Team News
No injury report
