Just ten days ago, Austin FC was in South Florida.
The Verde and Black, as the team is known, were the guests of honor at the grand opening of Nu Stadium, the glittering new home to Inter Miami CF and its roster of equally shiny stars, including Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest player in the history of the game.
On Tuesday night, that same Austin FC — which scored the opening goal at Nu Stadium and earned a 2-2 draw against the defending Major League Soccer champions — will be in Butchertown, visiting Louisville City FC at Lynn Family Stadium.
Two degrees of separation from Messi? Not bad for Louisville, a club that used to play its home games in a Triple-A baseball stadium.
LouCity hosts Austin in the Round of 32 in the 111th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Kickoff at Lynn Family Stadium is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday.
It is the type of pairing that makes the Open Cup such a treasure for the American soccer fan. Big-budget teams from MLS — where the average roster spend comes in around $20 million — square off with teams from the lower leagues, where spending is less extravagant.
The tournament creates the classic “fairytale matchup,” as LouCity interim head coach Simon Bird put it, “where you’re playing against bigger teams or more established teams.”
For Louisville, this kind of matchup has happened before but has rarely ended in the coveted upset.
Louisville City has faced an MLS opponent eight times in the Open Cup, but has come away with a win just once: in 2018 over the New England Revolution.
Lynn Family Stadium has hosted two MLS opponents since opening in 2020. Both times, though, Louisville came up short: a 2-1 loss to Nashville SC in the 2022 Round of 16 and a 1-0 defeat to Minnesota United FC last season in the Round of 32.
If there was an MLS team ripe to be knocked off by a team from the second-tier, though, it might be Austin. The club has just one win this season — which came on March 1 — and sits in 13th place out of 15 teams in the MLS Western Conference (1-3-3, 6 points).
Contrast that with Louisville, which has suffered just one loss all year in eight games, across league play and two Open Cup matches (6-1-1), and sits in second place in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference (4-1-1, 13 points).
If LouCity can take the win Tuesday, it would be another “cupset” to remember.
Follow Along
• The game be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. ESPN Louisville’s 680 AM and 105.7 FM will carry local radio coverage.
• Paramount+ will stream the television broadcast.
• For starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter. Also, find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram and Louisville City FC on Facebook.
Storylines…
Return of the Golden Gloves: Austin FC’s roster includes goalkeeper Damian Las, who spent the last two seasons on loan with Louisville City. His stay culminated in an award-winning 2025 season in which he won both the USL Championship Goalkeeper of the Year Golden Glove awards, and was named All-League First Team. He led all Golden Glove-eligible goalkeepers with a save percentage of 80% while ranking fifth in the league with 72 saves, an average of 2.79 per game.
Hello again: Louisville City and Austin FC are quite familiar with one another, having played against each other in each of the past six preseasons. Austin won the last three of the last four meetings — 1-0 this season, 3-1 last year and 3-1 in 2023. The two sides played a 2-2 tie in 2024. Scores from the 2021 and 2022 meetings were not made public.
Short turnaround: With a Tuesday Open Cup match, both teams will be coming in on short rest. Louisville City earned a 3-3 road draw on Friday night at Loudoun United FC. Austin suffered a 2-1 loss at home to the LA Galaxy on Saturday afternoon. Both teams return to league play Saturday.
His Cup runneth over: Louisville City FC forward Tola Showunmi is tied for the scoring lead in this season’s U.S. Open Cup with three goals, even with Samuel Owusu of Union Omaha. Showunmi added his first league goal in Friday’s draw at Loudoun, giving him four tallies this season across all competitions.
Oh my Dayes: 17-year-old Louisville defender Brandon Dayes scored his first professional goal in Friday’s draw at Loudoun. It continues what has been a banner start to the season for Dayes, a Louisville native and LouCity Academy product. He also recently joined the U.S. U-18 National Team for a tournament in Portugal, his first call-up to the national team.
