Louisville City will travel to WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina Saturday for its 2020 USL Championship regular-season opener against North Carolina FC at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s match will be the first of four consecutive away matches to begin the season for Louisville City.
After posting a 17-8-9 record last year, Louisville City will start their season with 17 returning players from the club’s roster which won the 2019 Eastern Conference Title, and 10 starters from their USL Championship Final team.
North Carolina, who posted a similar record of 16-10-8, yet finished three-spots behind Louisville City, is returning 14 players from last year’s roster. NCFC lost 3-2 against Birmingham Legion FC in the Play-In Round of the USL Championship Playoffs.
Saturday afternoon’s tilt between Louisville City and NCFC is set to bring a high level of intensity throughout the match.
“You’ve been kind of sitting on it for a long time and as much as you try and get it out of your head or whatever, we shouldn’t have lost [The USL Championship],” Louisville City midfielder Niall McCabe said. “We should have had the three-peat or the triple crown, whatever you want to call it. So, to come up short knowing what we have in the dressing room and stuff like that, it burns the fire inside of you so that you can come out next year and hopefully do it again with that added motivation as well.”
Four newcomers and one former Louisville City player have joined the club for the 2019 season in hopes of bringing a third championship to Louisville. Off-season additions to the club consist of defenders Jimmy Ockford, Jonathan Gomez and Wes Charpie, midfielder Corben Bone and 2018 Golden Boot winner, striker Cameron Lancaster.
North Carolina signed four USL Championship veterans in the offseason, defenders Conor Donovan and Akeem Ward, midfielder Pecka and forward Hadji Barry while also inking three USL Championship rookies: defender Malick Mbaye, striker Daniele Proch and goalkeeper Paulo Pita.
Saturday’s match is a rematch of last season’s USL Championship season opener.
HOW TO WATCH
Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. match between North Carolina FC and Louisville City FC will be available for streaming on ESPN+. The match will also be streamed locally on WDRB Now app, which is available on the WDRB.com web site.
HOW TO LISTEN
Saturday’s match will be broadcast locally on 1080 WKJK radio with Howie Lindsey and Heidi Mueller on the call. The live stream link is available here: Talk Radio 1080 LIVE Stream
