If Simon Bird felt any nerves Wednesday night, they didn’t show.
Louisville City FC’s new interim head coach led his team in competitive action for the first time in a 2-0 win over Southern Indiana FC in the 111th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The club elevated him to the job on Tuesday following the departure of Danny Cruz.
“I think I need to sit down,” Bird said after standing on the sideline for most of the game. He had been accustomed to sitting in the assistant’s chair. “I think I need a beer and (to) sit down.”
Despite the change on the sideline, LouCity’s performance was steady and familiar, controlling the run of play in the first-round matchup with the semiprofessional squad from across the Ohio River.
“We talked about, ‘business as usual’ and going about our process, and I think we’ve all done that,” Bird said.
A first-half brace from forward Tola Showunmi was all LouCity needed. The 20th and 30th-minute goals were the Englishman’s first competitive tallies since returning to Louisville City in the offseason.
LouCity’s players, though, wanted a little more on the scoreboard.
“These games are always going to be hard. We always expect to win, it’s kind of about how much (we win by),” defender and captain Kyle Adams said.
“I wish we’d scored a bit more, made it a little bit easier on ourselves there at the end, but these games are hard,” Adams added. “They put 10 players, 11 players behind the ball and it’s just about breaking them down.”
LouCity finished with 21 total shots, though just five were on target. The boys in purple had 13 corner kicks and finished with 69.7% possession.
“We need a lot of work in the final third, that’s for sure,” Bird said. “We knew that going into it. The guys know it. We just need to be a bit sharper in that final action.”
Defensively, though, Louisville looked plenty sharp. The boys in purple didn’t concede a shot for over an hour and held Southern Indiana without an effort on target for the night, resulting in a clean sheet for goalkeeper Hugo Fauroux, who made his club debut in the game.
“We’re probably not as happy as we could be, but it’s two goals, a clean sheet — can’t ask for too much more than that,” Adams conceded.
Louisville City advances to the second round of the tournament, to be played on March 31 or April 1. The club’s opponent will be determined in a draw on Friday.
Should LouCity advance from there, a club from Major League Soccer could await in the round of 32.
Louisville City will now turn its attention back to USL Championship play on Saturday, when Rhode Island FC visits Lynn Family Stadium. Kickoff will take place at 4 p.m.
“We’ve got to prepare for Rhode Island, just as we would normally,” Bird said. “But, for sure, tomorrow for the guys that played significant minutes, it will be (about) getting them regenerated, getting them ready to go again … and then Saturday, come out and hopefully put on a show for the crowd.”
For tickets and more information on “Youth Sports Night,” visit LouCity.com/youth.
Game Summary: Louisville City FC vs. Southern Indiana FC
Date: March 18, 2026
Venue: Lynn Family Stadium
Kickoff: 7 p.m. ET
Weather: 51 degrees, sunny
Attendance: 1,780
Scoring
Louisville City FC (2, 0, 2)
Southern Indiana FC (0, 0, 0)
Goals
Louisville City FC:
20′ Tola Showunmi
30′ Tola Showunmi (Ray Serrano)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 1 – Hugo Fauroux; 23 – Sam Gleadle, 16 – Carlos Moguel Jr., 32 – Kyle Adams (c) (3 – Jake Morris, 76′), 5 – Brandon Dayes (27 – Evan Davila, 63′), 15 – Manny Perez (25 – Jansen Wilson, 63′), 19 – Babacar Niang, 6 – Zach Duncan (4 – Sean Totsch, 45′), 21 – Quenzi Huerman, 7 – Ray Serrano (47 – Mukwelle Akale, 63′), 14 – Tola Showunmi
Subs not used: 12 – Danny Faundez; 9 – Chris Donovan
Interim Head Coach: Simon Bird
Southern Indiana FC: 37 – Ethan Drew; 19 – Haji Abdukadir (c) (13 – Jack Kramer, 45′), 3 – Saladi Husseini, 52 – Sacko Konate, 55 – Nils Orywol, 14 – Elias McCloud, 6 – Jedidiah McCloud, 24 – Bowen McCloud (8 – Jake Calderbank, 64′), 10 – Dylan Kurtz (11 – Cory Thomas, 55′), 29 – Sidahmed Mohamed, 7 – Allan Bizoza (77 – Gus Dickman, 64′)
Subs not used: 22 – Oliver Dickman, 32 – Finnegan Railey, 53 – Kotaro Umeda
Head Coach: Joshua Dickman
Stats: Louisville City FC / Southern Indiana FC
Shots: 21 / 4
Shots on Goal: 5 / 0
Expected goals: 2.01 / 0.1
Possession: 69.7% / 30.3%
Fouls: 12 / 14
Offside: 0 / 1
Corner Kicks: 13 / 1
Discipline Summary
Louisville City FC:
37′ Carlos Moguel Jr. (yellow)
54′ Quenzi Huerman (yellow)
Southern Indiana FC:
24′ Sidahmed Mohamed (yellow)
89′ Jack Kramer (yellow)
Referee: Salvador Flores
