With about 200 season ticket members on hand at Thurman-Hutchins Park, Louisville City FC and One Knoxville SC played to a 2-2 draw Saturday afternoon in LouCity’s lone local preseason game.
The boys in purple raced out to a lead before Knoxville — from USL League One, a division below the USL Championship — rallied to level the score in the 90th minute.
This marked LouCity’s penultimate tuneup for the 2023 regular season. The boys in purple play next weekend at Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC before opening their campaign March 11 at Orange County SC.
“The ideas and executing the game plan were really good in the first half — the first 35 minutes,” said LouCity coach Danny Cruz. “But you can’t leave teams open to get an opportunity, and they took it. When they did that, the momentum changed.
“We’ve talked a lot about that — when the momentum changes, making sure we understand that and continue pushing forward at the level we expect.”
LouCity scored two early goals Saturday, both of them the product of set pieces. First, Wilson Harris flicked in a Niall McCabe free kick from the right side in the seventh minute. Later, in the 20th minute, Harris had his blast from an indirect free kick blocked before Enoch Mushagalusa scored on the rebound.
Knoxville pulled one back in the 34th minute after LouCity turned over possession in the final third as Matthew Vowinkel smoothly finished the visitors’ only shot of the opening half. Derek Waldeck then claimed the late equalizer, with one caveat: Knoxville continued to play with a full 11 after a 70th-minute red card tackle knocked City fullback Manny Perez out of the game.
“I certainly wasn’t happy with the response after halftime, and I’m not happy with the second goal,” Cruz said. “We’ll review it, and we got some answers today which is good for us.”
One Knoxville SC is managed by Mark McKeever, who has long had a connection to LouCity through his former job coaching Division II Young Harris College in Georgia. The school produced, among others, LouCity midfielder Niall McCabe and former City forward Ilija Ilic, now a Knoxville assistant.
Games against Major League Soccer and USL Championship opposition preceded Saturday’s matchup. Following the Pittsburgh friendly, it’s on to a 34-game USL Championship regular season.
“The approach will be to win the game,” Cruz said of the Pittsburgh matchup, “and treat it as close as we can to what it’s going to be like on opening day against Orange County.”
2023 LouCity preseason schedule
Monday, Jan. 30 at Nashville SC (D, 0-0)
Saturday, Feb. 4 vs. Sporting KC (D, 2-2)
Monday, Feb. 6 vs. Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC* (W, 3-0)
Thursday, Feb. 9 vs. New Mexico United* (D, 2-2)
Saturday, Feb. 11 at Austin FC (L, 3-1)
Saturday, Feb 18 at Seattle Sounders FC (L, 2-1)
Saturday, Feb. 25 vs. One Knoxville SC (D, 2-2)
Saturday, March 4 at Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
* = game played as part of FC Tucson’s Desert Showcase
