A spot in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference Final is on the line when Louisville City FC hosts Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Lynn Family Stadium.
Fresh off a bye week as the East’s No. 1 seed, the boys in purple are in pursuit of a third USL Championship title following a record regular season. Should LouCity advance out of Saturday’s conference final, it would extend the club’s run of conference final appearances dating back to its inaugural campaign in 2015.
Fifth-seeded Pittsburgh — coached by Bob Lilley, winner of the USL Championship title in 2015 when in charge of the Rochester Rhinos — comes to Louisville off a dramatic conference quarterfinal penalty shootout win over Birmingham Legion FC.
Saturday will mark the third matchup this year between LouCity and the Riverhounds. City topped Pittsburgh by a 2-0 score in April at Lynn Family Stadium thanks to goals from Wilson Harris and Enoch Mushagalusa. The teams later played to a 0-0 draw in September in Pittsburgh.
These clubs will also clash in the playoffs for the third time in four years after seeing one another in 2019 (conference final) and 2020 (conference quarterfinal). Both of those matchups resulted in City wins.
Follow along
- The game will air live locally on WBKI 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
- Jorge Gonzalez (Out)
- Cameron Lancaster (Questionable)
- Niall McCabe (Out)
- Kyle Morton (Questionable)
- Brian Ownby (Questionable)
- Ian Soler (Out)
Story lines…
Moving on: LouCity is perfect in its seven previous playoff openers. The boys in purple have outscored their opponents 17-2 in those matches, including a 2-0 victory over Pittsburgh in 2020.
The streak: LouCity has advanced to at least the Eastern Conference Final for seven seasons running, a league record the boys in purple are looking to extend to eight with a win on Saturday.
What’re the odds: FiveThirtyEight.com projects a LouCity win on Saturday, with the statistical analysis website giving the boys in purple a 70% chance of advancing to the conference final. FiveThirtyEight also gives LouCity a 44% chance to make the USL Championship Final and a 25% chance of winning it, second-best behind the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, San Antonio FC.
Know the foe: Pittsburgh, which went 16-9-9 during the regular season, also sported a 7-6-4 away record. The Riverhounds were the only club to score an upset on the East’s side of the bracket in the conference quarterfinal round.
Up next: If LouCity advances Saturday, it will host the winner of the other Eastern Conference Semifinal kicking off at 8:30 p.m. as second-seeded Memphis 901 faces the third-seeded Tampa Bay Rowdies. City split its regular season series with both of those clubs.
Home turf: Higher-seeded teams host during the playoffs, and City’s in line to play at least twice at Lynn Family Stadium, where the boys in purple are 13-2-2 this year with a +24 goal differential. The club has lost just four times in 28 league games at home since capacity limits were lifted in June of 2021.
High achievers: LouCity’s playoff run will follow a historic regular season. The boys in purple won 22 of their 34 games, reaching 20 victories for the first time in a season. Their 72 points via a 22-6-6 record were also the best in club history and fourth-most all-time in the USL Championship.
Offseason overhaul: Top scorer Wilson Harris (15 goals), distributor Amadou Dia (8 assists) and Golden Glove winner Kyle Morton (0.74 goals against per game) all signed with LouCity as part of a highly productive offseason that also saw regular starters Enoch Mushagalusa and Manny Perez join the club.
Locked in: Veteran center back Sean Totsch has also been at the top of his game this year, ranking at or near to No. 1 on the roster in most defensive categories. Totsch also scored a career-high nine goals, establishing himself as the club’s go-to penalty taker as Cameron Lancaster dealt with injuries.
