With six games to go in the USL Championship regular season, Louisville City FC’s path to the Eastern Conference’s top four — and a home playoff game — is clear.
Of those six games, four are against teams above LouCity (9-9-5, 33 points) in the standings, while two are currently below Louisville, and out of the playoff places.
Louisville sits seventh in the Eastern Conference, having dropped a place after Indy Eleven’s midweek win over Brooklyn FC.
Here’s the path: Beat those above you to make up ground. Beat the teams below you to keep pace.
The latter group includes Loudoun United FC, who will visit LouCity at Lynn Family Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Loudoun was one of the surprises of the 2025 season — the club earned its first postseason berth with a sixth-place finish — but has slipped out of the playoff picture this year.
Loudoun (3-9-11, 20 points) has lost three straight league games and sits 10th in the standings, needing to make up a 12-point gap in the season’s final seven games in order to make it back-to-back playoff campaigns.
Defeating Loudoun for the first time this season — the two sides contested a 3-3 draw in April in Virginia — would mean LouCity could pull to within a point of Hartford in fourth, depending on other games this weekend.
The game is Noche Latina at Lynn Family Stadium, a celebration of the Latin American community. Promotions include authentic food, exclusive merchandise, and more.
For tickets and more information, visit LouCity.com/nochelatina.
Follow Along
• The game will air locally on MyTV 58, with local radio coverage on ESPN Louisville’s 680 AM and 105.7 FM.
• To watch streaming coverage of the game, log on to ESPN+ or WDRB+WAVE.
• 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…
Impact substitute: The USL Championship named LouCity midfielder Taylor Davila to its Team of the Week this week, including him on the bench. Davila earned the assist on LouCity’s lone goal in the 2-1 loss to El Paso Locomotive FC. It was the 17th time a LouCity player was selected to the team this season.
Sophomore slump: In 2025, Loudoun United’s Abdellatif Aboukoura was a breakout performer, scoring 12 goals and tallying two assists in league play en route to the USL Championship’s Young Player of the Year Award. His encore performance has not quite matched that award-winning season just yet — Aboukoura has registered five league goals this season, without an assist.
Akil’s return: Former Louisville City FC defender Akil Watts now plays for Loudoun United and will make his return to Lynn Family Stadium Saturday. The now 26-year-old signed with LouCity in 2019 when he was just 19. He made his senior professional debut with the club, and made 34 league appearances overall for LouCity, including 16 starts, in 2020 and 2021. This will be Watts second return to Lynn Family Stadium as an opposing player — he faced LouCity with St. Louis CITY SC 2 in the U.S. Open Cup in 2022. Watts joined Loudoun on loan from DC United in August.
Turnover: Since the two teams last met on April 10, Loudoun has made 14 roster transactions, including 11 moves since just July. By comparison, LouCity has made just three. Most notably, Thor Úlfarsson moved to Breiðablik in Iceland for a club-record fee.
Series history: LouCity leads the all-time series with Loudoun United 11-2-1, across all competitions. Loudoun’s two wins: a 3-0 league victory in 2019 and a 2-1 win in the USL Cup last season, both at home. LouCity is 7-0-0 against Loudoun United at home, outscoring the visitors 14-4.
