With the Prinx Tires USL Cup trophy still shining brightly as the newest addition to the Louisville City FC trophy case, the club is now looking forward with one focus: earning a home playoff game.
LouCity has just four games to go in the USL Championship campaign. The boys in purple are hoping Sunday’s title-winning performance provides a boost toward their goal of finishing in the Eastern Conference’s top four and earning home-field advantage in the first round of the USL Championship Playoffs.
“Whenever you win something like this, it can go one of two ways, right? You can use it as momentum or you can get complacent,” LouCity interim head coach Simon Bird said. “For sure, the messaging this week is about using it as momentum and using it to end the season well.”
On Saturday, LouCity visits Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to face the Charleston Battery. Kickoff at Patriots Point Soccer Complex is set for 6 p.m.
Entering the weekend’s action, Louisville (10-9-7, 37 points) is just two points out of the top four, but also just three points clear of ninth-place Indy Eleven.
Charleston (14-8-4, 46 points), meanwhile, is right where LouCity hopes to be, in third place with a playoff place clinched and a place in the top four nearly in hand.
“Our goal is to get a home playoff position,” forward Ray Serrano said. “So, we want to go in there carrying the momentum that we had from this past Sunday and get a result in Charleston and carry that momentum leading through the end of the season.”
The two sides last met in April, a 2-0 Charleston win at Lynn Family Stadium. That result marked Charleston’s first win in Louisville in a series that dates to 2015. Neither side has swept the regular-season series since LouCity in 2019.
LouCity cannot jump into the top four this weekend. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds host Hartford Athletic Saturday night, meaning the best LouCity could do is pull even on points with the fourth-place team. But, Louisville could clinch its playoff berth with a win over Charleston and help elsewhere.
A victory would do more than keep LouCity competitive in the top-four chase, though. It would also build momentum heading into the postseason for a team that just proved it can go the distance in a knockout competition.
Follow Along
• Listen locally on the radio, with coverage on ESPN Louisville’s 680 AM and 105.7 FM.
• For streaming, log on to WDRB+WAVE for the Louisville feed, with the Charleston feed on ESPN+.
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Storylines…
Clinching scenario: Louisville City can clinch a playoff berth on Saturday with a win over Charleston and a Miami FC win against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Miami visits Tampa Bay at 7:30 p.m. at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Using his head: Kevon Lambert finished Sunday’s USL Cup Final with 17 clearances, second-most for a LouCity player on record in a game in a USL-sanctioned competition. Only Josh Jones had more, racking up 19 at Indy Eleven in a league game exactly one year prior, Oct. 4, 2025. Of Lambert’s 17 clearances, 11 were headed clearances.
Record in range: With one more assist in league play, Taylor Davila would become the fifth player in LouCity history to tally 10 assists in a league season, joining Bryan Burke (2015), Oscar Jimenez (2018), Ilija Ilić (2018) and Brian Ownby (2021). If he notches two more assists, he would set the LouCity single-season league assist record with 11. Currently, Davila’s nine league assists are tied for the USL Championship lead with Jeremy Kelly (Charleston Battery) and Blaine Ferri (Lexington SC).
Road team woes: In the all-time series between Louisville City and Charleston, the away team has won just three times. Louisville has gone 2-5-4 all time at Charleston, and LouCity leads the all-time series 10-7-5. Louisville’s most recent win at Charleston came in the 2025 season opener, 2-1. It was Louisville’s first win in Charleston since 2019.
Pirmann versus LouCity: Ben Pirmann is in his fourth season as Charleston’s head coach and sixth as a head coach in the USL Championship. He has faced LouCity 16 times in all competitions, between stops at Charleston, Memphis 901 FC and Detroit City FC (NISA), with a 5-7-4 record. Between the USL Championship regular season and playoffs, Pirmann has a losing record against just two clubs he has faced 10 or more times: LouCity and Miami FC (4-5-1). His teams earn an average of 1.20 points per game against LouCity, worst among the clubs he has faced 10 or more times.
