Louisville City FC welcomes a first-time visitor to Lynn Family Stadium on Saturday night when Brooklyn FC comes to town for an 8 p.m. kickoff.
One of two expansion teams to join the USL Championship this season, Brooklyn (2-7-2, 8 points) has found life in the league a rough go — the Coney Islanders haven’t been victorious in league play since April 11, a run of five games.
Brooklyn, however, is coming off a 5-1 win in the Prinx Tires USL Cup over Portland Hearts of Pine, a USL League One club. The club’s most recent two victories have both come in the interleague competition.
On Saturday, Brooklyn will visit a LouCity (6-5-2, 20 points) team that received an injection of confidence on Wednesday night, thanks to a 2-0 win at Phoenix Rising FC. That result ended a five-game winless streak in league play for Louisville and vaulted the boys in purple back into second place in the Eastern Conference.
Mukwelle Akale and Zach Duncan scored, with Danny Faundez providing five saves in goal. The win was Louisville’s first shutout since April 18.
Though Saturday will be Brooklyn’s first visit to Lynn Family Stadium, the two sides have met once already this season — a 1-0 LouCity win at Maimonides Park, located in the shadows of Coney Island’s iconic Cyclone roller coaster. A Thomas Vancaeyezeele own goal, forced by Louisville’s Ray Serrano, was the lone score on the day.
The game marks LouCity’s only home game this month. The boys in purple won’t play in Butchertown again until Independence Day on July 4.
Louisville enters Saturday on a two-game home losing streak, having not won at Lynn Family Stadium since a 3-1 victory over Fort Wayne FC in the Prinx Tires USL Cup on April 25.
The game is Pride Night at Lynn Family Stadium. The first 2,000 fans will receive a complimentary Pride bandana, courtesy of U.S. Bank.
For tickets and more information, visit LouCity.com/pride.
Follow Along
• The match will air locally on MyTV 58 and ESPN Louisville’s 680 AM and 105.7 FM. For streaming, log on to WDRB+ or ESPN+.
• 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…
Dynamic Duncan: Zach Duncan registered a goal and an assist in Wednesday’s win. It was the first time in his USL Championship career that he had both a goal and an assist in the same game. This is his third season in the league.
Fantastic Faundez: LouCity goalkeeper Danny Faundez made five saves in Wednesday night’s shutout win. It was the most saves a LouCity goalkeeper has made in a clean sheet performance since March 26, 2024, when Damian Las made six saves in a 1-0 win at El Paso Locomotive FC in the season opener.
Big East battle: The familiarity between the two coaches of Saturday’s game — LouCity interim head coach Simon Bird and Marlon LeBlanc of Brooklyn — goes back nearly 17 years to the collegiate game. LeBlanc was the head coach for the West Virginia Mountaineers men’s soccer program from 2006 to 2019, in the Big East Conference. Bird was an assistant coach under Ken Lolla at the University of Louisville from 2009-12, when the Cardinals also competed in the Big East. Bird’s Cardinals defeated LeBlanc’s Mountaineers in the programs’ only two meetings in that span, in 2009 and 2010, both by 2-0 scores.
Philly II reunion: That is not LeBlanc’s only connection to LouCity’s team. Louisville City forward Chris Donovan played under LeBlanc at Philadelphia Union II in MLS Next Pro from 2022 to 2024. Donovan and LeBlanc led the team to the 2024 MLS Next Pro Cup Final, where they fell 3-2 to North Texas SC.
