Off a rare loss, Louisville City FC faces a quick turnaround to Wednesday’s 7 p.m. kickoff at Indy Eleven, continuing a rivalry series that has become quite contentious over the past year.
When USL Championship clubs returned to play in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, LouCity got the better of Indy Eleven in a shortened, regionalized season with three wins and a draw. So continued a run of meetings that hadn’t resulted in an Indy Eleven win since 2018.
But in 2021, what’s known as the Louisville Indianapolis Proximity Association Football Contest took a turn. The series finished 1-1-1, and earlier this season the clubs played to a draw at Lynn Family Stadium.
Both sides can consider themselves motivated to take ahold of the LIPAFC when it resumes at Carroll Stadium.
LouCity (17-4-4, 55 points) enters after a 1-0 weekend defeat at Miami FC. There was no answer offered to a fourth-minute goal, ending the club’s 10-game unbeaten streak.
Sitting ninth and unlikely to climb into playoff contention, Indy Eleven (7-14-4, 25 points) showed signs of life last out when ending its four-game losing skid with a 1-0 upset of Western Conference leader San Antonio FC.
Here’s more of what to watch for Wednesday…
Follow along
- The game will air live locally on My58 TV and ESPN Louisville’s 680/105.7, with streaming via ESPN+ and the WDRB Now app.
- For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter and Louisville City FC on Facebook. Also find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram.
Injury report
- Cameron Lancaster (Out)
- Niall McCabe (Out)
Story lines…
Playoff push: LouCity’s “magic number” is 1 to clinch a spot in the 2022 USL Championship Playoffs with a win or draw Wednesday enough. Of course, that’s a minimum expectation for a club that has advanced to at least the conference final round every year since starting play in 2015.
The format: LouCity’s also trending toward starting the playoffs at home. No. 1 seeds from the East and West receive byes to the conference semifinals. The No. 2-7 clubs open in the conference quarterfinals, with better-seeded teams to host. City would have to slip out of the top four to start the postseason away from Lynn Family Stadium.
Available for selection: LouCity was shut out last Saturday for just the fifth time this year. That was without leading scorer Wilson Harris in the lineup as he served a one-game suspension stemming from a red card received Aug. 20 at Detroit City FC. Harris has racked up 10 goals so far this season.
No time to rest: Wednesday’s game is the second of five in 15 days for LouCity. Four of those are away matchups, with trips to play at FC Tulsa and Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC on tap after City hosts Sacramento Republic FC this Saturday night.
Road record: LouCity played exclusively outside of Louisville during preseason in hopes of improving away. That appears to have worked. Last year, the club went 6-5-5 outside of Lynn Family Stadium. This season, it’s 8-3-2 on the road.
Tight margins: It’s not often LouCity loses. But when the boys in purple do, they’re almost always going to keep the score close. Of five losses this year across all competitions, four were decided by a single goal.
Stingy defense: LouCity’s 17 goals allowed are five fewer than any other USL Championship club. As a result, goalkeeper Kyle Morton sits in a tie for the league lead in clean sheets with 11. Two more, and he’d tie the club record for shutouts in a season with Greg Ranjitsingh’s 2018 mark. The single-season league record for clean sheets is 15.
Milestone men: Veteran forward Brian Ownby reached 200 career USL Championship appearances last Saturday against Miami, and defender Oscar Jimenez made it 150 showings. Both players signed with LouCity ahead of the 2017 season, becoming key parts of the club’s title runs that year and in 2018.
Play the kids: One bright spot in Saturday’s loss was the standout play of two LouCity Academy signings. Carlos Moguel Jr. – a 78th-minute City substitute – produced three shots, two crosses and 100% passing accuracy, including a dipping free kick that forced a save. Elijah Wynder logged 30 minutes after battling injury throughout the 2021 campaign. He recorded 100% passing accuracy and won three fouls, most out of both teams.
