Louisville City FC’s 17-man Academy Cup team is back from Florida after a successful run at the USL Academy Eastern Conference Event. An all-star group from high schools and clubs around the region, the LouCity Academy Cup team was 2-1 during the event, notching impressive wins over Pittsburgh Riverhounds and FC Miami City.
“Overall, it was fantastic,” Louisville City FC Director of Development Mario Sanchez said. “Everyone got the opportunity to compete, everyone got a chance to start a match, and, most importantly, everyone got a taste of the level of soccer we are hoping to achieve with our Academy program. For our guys to get a taste of professional football was great. I thought the USL did a tremendous job with the facilities and managing the event which gave a great opportunity for these players.”
Louisville City’s team for the U17 event featured teens from Louisville, Shelbyville, Versailles, and Bowling Green. The group came together to train weekly as a team while also training with their club and high school teams.
Louisville City opened the competition with an impressive 7-2 win over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
“We were flying at the start. It was pretty amazing the start we got off to,” Sanchez said. “Our boys came out on fire. The ball movement, the passing, it was everything you would want to see from your First Team and I thought our kids replicated that. It was awesome to see.”
Louisville City got goals from Anthony Cano, Eyob McFarland, Carlos Moguel, Eldin Velic, Nate Traughber, Damir Beganovic, and Zach Schonwetter.
“The best for us is that we got the goals and then stayed relentless,” Sanchez said. “We just never stopped, and I loved seeing that mentality.”
Moguel’s free kick goal in the first half draw high praise from tournament officials and his coaches.
“That free kick is as good of a goal as you will see anywhere in the world,” Sanchez said.
On Saturday night, players, coaches, and families from many clubs made the trip to historic Al Lang Stadium in downtown St. Petersburg to watch two professional preseason matches. Attendees saw Inter Miami’s first-ever public match as the new MLS side faced Philadelphia Union, followed by the Championship’s Tampa Bay Rowdies against Thierry Henry’s Montreal Impact.
Louisville City returned to the field Sunday morning and got off to a fast start as Josh Wynder scored a laser in the first minute against South Georgia Tormenta FC.
“It was the goal of the tournament from Joshua Wynder, who was probably the youngest kid in the tournament,” Sanchez said. “It was from 30 to 35 out and for him to take a half-volley and put it in the upper-V? Wow, you just don’t see that very often.”
But Tormenta stormed back with three goals in the first half and Louisville City’s Academy Cup team couldn’t claw their way back into it in the second half during a 1-3 loss.
“We continued to play well, but we were unfortunate to give up a goal after some mistakes were made and, honestly, it’d be good to credit Tormenta for being a good team,” Sanchez said. “They were a good team, very technical, and they were well-coached. On the flip side for us, we just made a couple of errors on the goals that our kids just have to learn from. We were proud of our response in the second half.”
Louisville City woke up early the next morning to prepare for its match, an 8-0 route of FC Miami City.
Owen Damm opened the scoring for LouCity in the 21′ and Elijah Wynder and Dino Hodzic helped push LouCity to a 3-0 halftime lead. Louisville City scored five goals in the second half with strikes by Eyob McFarland and Carlos Moguel and a hat-trick by Zach Schonwetter, who scored back-to-back-to-back goals to close out the match.
“Miami tied Tormenta and played Pittsburgh well so we were expecting a tough game, but our kids came out flying,” Sanchez said. “We never let down and to me that says a lot about how these kids respect the game and respect their opponent. I thought that was an accumulation of everyone putting it all together.”
To stay up to date with all things USL Academy ahead of the National Event, visit usl-academy.com or search #USLAcademy on social media.
