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After a lengthy, sometimes frustrating three-game road trip, the boys in purple are headed back to Louisville and will stay in the Derby City throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Few shots and just a 42.1% possession time prevented the club from earning three points against the Rochester Rhinos, but stout defense as seen all year by the back line held the hosts scoreless.

“James (O’Connor) is always talking about covering, always having our teammates back,” said Sean Reynolds, whose strong performance on Saturday earned both the fans’ and the USL’s vote for Man of the Match.

“The way we play, especially with three in the back, us three having to cover each other and cover the back the whole time comes in part from communication and then also knowing the other team and what their game plan is,” Reynolds added.

Along with Reynolds, defender Sean Totsch and goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh played all 90 minutes in each of the LouCity’s five games played over a span of just fifteen days.

“I think the guys deserve an enormous amount of credit,” head coach James O’Connor said of his team. “I think when you look at the amount of games that we’ve had, I think when you look at the travel that’s been involved, for the guys to put so much into a game like that tonight I think it speaks volumes of their character.”

Louisville City FC follows up the last road trip of the season with two more home games and a chance to finish an impressive 11-2-3 record at Slugger Field in 2017.

Here’s more from the match…

–          While Rochester’s pressure poured on for the entire match, the Rhinos looked to capitalize off Louisville City mistakes and convert off counter attacks. Both back lines recovered in excellent fashion as neither side was able to amount more than five total shots on the night.

–          Along with the aforementioned players were Oscar Jimenez and Kyle Smith, who logged over 360 minutes during the five-game stretch. The two have recorded more than 2,500 minutes on the year, good for first and second in the locker room respectively.

–          The boys in purple follow up the scoreless draw against fifth-place Rochester with another key matchup third-place Charlotte Independence. Kickoff is set for 7:30 back at Slugger Field.

For the second time this season, midfielder Devon “Speedy” Williams has been called-up to the Jamaican International squad.

Williams is among 20 of the players named to play a friendly against Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Oct. 7th in Riyadh. 

He joins Louisville City FC team-mates, Greg Ranjitsingh (Trinidad & Tobago) and Mark-Anthony Kaye (Canada) in being called up for International duty this week.

Williams, a Kingston, Jamaican Native, got his first call-up seven years ago when he was still in high school. Back on Aug. 10, 2010 he earned his cap during a 3-1 win over Trinidad and Tobago. A little over a month ago, the 25-year-old Williams, got his second call-up to play a friendly against Canada and his teammate Kaye. 

The former New York Red Bulls II player won the regular-season and USL Cup Playoffs last year before signing with LouCity for the 2017 season.  Proving to be a major asset on the pitch, Williams leads the team in passing accuracy with 86.8% of his 1,024 passes. Since his last call-up he was able to get on the score sheet by knocking in a penalty kick in the 54th minute against Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Sept. 7th. 

Williams will be joining his squad Wednesday and will be out for this Lou City’s October 7 match this Saturday against Charlotte Independence at Slugger Field. 

Along with Williams, Charleston’s Romario Williams, second highest scorer in the USL Eastern Conference, also got his call-up for Jamaica. 

Full squad: Michael Seaton, Ricardo Morris, Ewan Grandison, Ladel Richie, Alex Marshall, Oniel Fisher, Damion Lowe, Dwayne Miller, Damion Hyatt, Romario Williams, Jermaine Taylor, JeVaughn Watson, Shaun Francis, Kemar Lawrence, Marvin Morgan, Jamiel Hardware, Devon Williams, Fabian Reid, Rosario Harriott, and Chevone Marsh.

It wasn’t pretty, but it’s finally over. 

Louisville City FC navigated its way through a stretch of five games in 15 days with a win, a loss, and three draws, a decent enough showing to keep the team solidly in first place. Saturday’s scoreless draw at Rochester provided little in offensive highlights but a point on the road is a solid return. 

The club missed a chance the last three games to clinch first place in the Eastern Conference with a win, but now the boys in purple will get that chance in front of their fans this Saturday when the second-place Charlotte Independence come to The ‘Ville.

“I think the guys deserve an enormous amount of credit,” Louisville City coach James O’Connor said after Saturday’s game. “I think when you look at the amount of games that we’ve had, when you look at the travel that’s been involved, for the guys to put so much into a game like that tonight I think it speaks volumes of their character.” 

Playing so many games in such a short space of time is never easy, but it’s especially difficult down the home stretch of the regular season. During one year of my high school soccer career, we had four games in four days due to rainouts. Our team pushed as hard as we could in those games to pick up wins. I don’t remember the results, but I do remember all the nicks and bruises, how by the last game my legs felt like jello, how I just wanted some pizza and to put my feet up. 

I imagine this is how some of the Louisville City players feel now. 

Aside from goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh, defenders Sean Reynolds and Sean Totsch played the full 90 minutes in each of the five games. Kyle Smith and Oscar Jimenez each logged major minutes, Jimenez with 373 and Smith with 360 minutes. While O’Connor did his best to rotate the squad, with just 17 field players available and dealing with some injuries, attackers like Luke Spencer and Mark-Anthony Kaye played in each game, whether starting or coming off the bench. George Davis also made four starts. 

With that amount of soccer in the team’s legs, the attack suffered. After starting September with eight goals in the team’s first four games, Louisville City scored just one last three games. But while the offense faltered, the backline locked down defensively, allowing just two goals in the three road games from this past week. 

“It was an ugly game if I’m being honest,” O’Connor said of the game at Rochester, in which Louisville City finished with 42 percent possession and less than 70 percent in passing accuracy. “It wasn’t very pretty, but I think from our standpoint it shows the guts and the character. 

“Hats off to the players for their effort and their character tonight because to go away and have such a long road trip – at the end of the season, so many games in such a short period – they performed with a lot of courage tonight which was great.”

Now, Louisville City moves its focus back home to Louisville Slugger Field, with the Independence coming on Saturday. The Independence, along with the Charleston Battery, has slumped recently, failing to take advantage of Louisville City’s draws. Charlotte has lost its last three games, two of them at home and the last, last Friday at FC Cincinnati by a 1-0 scoreline. 

Louisville City’s players will enjoy a full week of training, and preparation for some of the best attackers in the United Soccer League, in Enzo Martinez and Jorge Herrera. 

Finally, the long road trip is over. 

Opinions expressed in this piece were not subject to club approval. For more insights on LouCity, follow former Courier-Journal reporter Dan Karell on Twitter: @DanKarellPreps. 

Louisville City FC will host a Round 1 match in the USL Playoffs which is scheduled to take place on Friday, October 20, 2017, kickoff 7:30pm at Louisville Slugger Field.

Tickets are available for LouCity’s two remaining regular season home games at Slugger Field on October 7, and 14, and for the USL Playoff match(es) by calling the LouCity ticket office on (502) 384-8799.

LouCity (16 wins, 6 losses, 8 ties to date) clinched the USL’s Eastern Conference title this past weekend reaching 56 points following a scoreless draw in Rochester. The club previously secured a third-consecutive appearance in USL postseason last week.

LouCity Chairman, John Neace commented: “It’s great to be back in the USL Playoffs, hosting a first round match at Slugger Field. Congratulations to James, his staff, and the players and also to our great supporters who have all got us to this point. We’ve got two vital home games left before the playoffs begin and I urge the whole City to get behind us as we build our push for the post-season.”

Louisville City came one point closer to clinching the Eastern Conference Saturday night. Louisville and Rochester ended in a 0-0 draw at Capelli Sport Stadium. LouCity will at least host the opening round of the playoffs because of tonight’s result.

“We obviously tried to get a win tonight in a very tough battle,” said Coach James O’Connor after the match. He added, “We need to get a lot of recovery into the guys because it’s been a long trip. It’s been a lot of work for the guys so we need to make sure they’re rested up and get the re-energized for Saturday’s game against Charlotte.”

Sean Totsch had the first look of the night for Louisville, with a header that was sent straight to the goalkeeper in the 18th minute. Rochester responded quickly when they earned a corner kick, but sent the ball wide of the goal.

At halftime, Louisville trailed in overall possession time, 53.8% to 46.2%. Louisville was able to get one more shot attempt than Rochester, leading the Rhinos in shots taken at the half 2-1. 

The second half was similar to the first, with LouCity taking the first shot. Luke Spencer fired a shot high of the goal in the 64th minute, and Wal Fall of the Rhinos responded a few minutes later with a shot of his own. 

Oscar Jimenez saved the game for Louisville City. With 15 minutes to go, the Rhinos found their way in the box to make a threat, but Jimenez was able to perfectly time a slide challenge to block the shot by Rochester’s Jordan Dover.

Sean Reynolds put in a stellar defensive shift for the visitors with six interceptions and 12 clearances to lead his side to a shutout on the road. USLSoccer.com awarded him Man of the Match for his efforts.

Louisville City returns to Slugger Field on Saturday, October 7th for one of their final two regular season matches of the season. 

Game Recap

Match: Rochester Rhinos vs. Louisville City FC 

Date: September 30, 2017 

Venue: Capelli Sport Stadium | Rochester, NY

Kickoff: 6:05pm 

Weather: 54 degrees, partly cloudy

LouCity Man of the Match: Sean Reynolds

Scoring 

Rochester Rhinos (0,0,0)

Louisville City FC (0,0,0) 

Lineups 

Rochester starting lineup: 23 Tomás Gómez, 15 Joseph Farrell, 13 Mike Garzi (5 Jordan Dover – 71’), 4 Bradley Kamdem Fewo, 3 Ryan Felix, 11 Kenardo Forbes (c), 6 Christiano François (9 Stefan Defregger, 86’), 17 Wal Fall, 7 Ryan James, 20 Todd Pratzner, 12 Jochen Graf (21 Darius Madison, 86’)

Rochester subs: 33 Daniel Lynd, 27 Julian Buescher, 10 Sofiane Tergou, 2 Raymond Lee

Rochester head coach: Bob Lilley

Louisville City starting lineup: 1 Gregory Ranjitsingh, 19 Oscar Jimenez, 15 Sean Reynolds, 4 Sean Totsch, 24 Kyle Smith, 6 Tarek Morad, 22 George Davis IV, 36 Paolo DelPiccolo (c) (80 Devon Williams, 79’), 8 Guy Abend, 7 Mark-Anthony Kaye (10 Brian Ownby, 61’), 12 Luke Spencer

Louisville City subs: 11 Niall McCabe, 23 Richard Ballard, 9 Cameron Lancaster, 28 Tim Dobrowolski, 13 Micah Bledsoe

Discipline 

Rochester Rhinos:

71’ – Kenardo Forbes, yellow (foul)

85’ – Ryan Felix, yellow (foul)

Louisville City FC:

67’ – Brian Ownby, yellow (foul)

90’+2 – Tarek Morad, yellow (foul)

Stats

Rochester Rhinos / Louisville City FC 

Shots: 5/5

Shots on target: 0/1

Possession (%): 57.9/42.1

Passes: 602/444

Corners: 4/1

Fouls: 14/12

Officials

Referee: ERIC TATTERSALL

Assistant referee 1: Ryan Trombetta

Assistant referee 2: Antonio Triana

4th official: Christopher Trottier

Tune In

TV: WMYO-TV will air the game live and in high definition locally.

Radio: TJ Walker (play-by-play) and Jeff Milby (color commentary) will voice the action on TalkRadio 1080WKJK with pregame coverage starting at 5:50 p.m.

Streaming: 

LOUISVILLE City FC midfielder, Mark-Anthony Kaye, has been called into the Canadian national team’s 23-man squad to face CONCACAF rivals El Salvador in a friendly match on October 8 in Houston.

He’s the second LouCity player to be selected for international duty in consecutive days after goalkeeper Greg Rantjitsingh was called up for the Trinidad and Tobago squad yesterday. Both players will be unavailable for Louisville’s October 7 showdown at Slugger Field against Charlotte Independence.

Canada head coach, Octavio Zambrano, will assemble his squad for a training camp just north of Toronto before heading south for the friendly tie in Texas.

The Canada-El Salvador match will be broadcast live on canadasoccer.com at 5:00PM ET. The match will be played at Houston Dynamo’s home, BBVA Compass Stadium, with a portion of the net proceeds to be donated to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. 

“This is a timely match for Canada to face El Salvador (and) a perfect fit for our progress,” said Zambrano. “It is an important match as we continue to assess our program and players.”

The October match follows Canada’s recent 2:0 victory over Jamaica in Toronto on 2 September 2017. Anthony Jackson-Hamel and Jonathan Osorio were the goalscorers while Jayson Leutwiler posted the clean sheet in front of 21,724 fans at BMO Field. All three will be in Canada’s lineup for the match in Houston.

Kaye will join a slew of experienced pros in the Canadian squad including Tosaint Ricketts of Toronto FC, Adam Straith of VfL Sportfreunde Lotte in Germany, Dejan Jakovic of New York Cosmos, and Samuel Piette of Impact Montréal FC. Also in the squad are Scott Arfield of Burnley FC, Cyle Larin of Orlando City SC, and Steven Vitoria of Lechia Gdańsk in Poland. Selected goalkeepers are Leutwiler (Blackburn Rovers in England) and Simon Thomas (FK Bodø/Glimt in Norway).

Young players in the squad include Fraser Aird of Dunfermline Athletic in Scotland, Juan Cordova of CD Huachipato in Chile, Raheem Edwards of Toronto FC, and Michael Petrasso of Queens Park Rangers in England. Keven Aleman of CD Saprissa in Costa Rica, meanwhile, has received his first call up to the Men’s National Team since 2014. In all, 15 of the 23 players called into camp are aged 25 or younger.

“We are bringing a young group including some we have not had in our Men’s National Team before, so we want to see how they act and react in the environment,” said Zambrano. “It is important for us to see how the young players embrace the challenge.”

LouCity plays their last game on the road this week against Rochester Rhinos on Saturday, Sept. 30 at 6:05 p.m ET.

Here’s what to watch for…

Tune In

TV: WMYO-TV will air the game live and in high definition locally.

Radio: TJ Walker (play-by-play) and Jeff Milby (color commentary) will voice the action on TalkRadio 1080WKJK with pregame coverage starting at 5:50 p.m.

Streaming: Watch at www.loucity.com.

Follow Along

For Starting XI information and in-game updates, check us out on social media. It’s @loucityfc on Twitter, Louisville City FC on Facebook and louisvillecityfc on Instagram. Live stats are available at the USL Match Center. Vote for the Modelo Man of the Match on Twitter starting in the 75th minute.

Links

• Lancaster pushes through adversity 
• Ranjitsingh named to Trinidad and Tobago 23-man squad to face USA

Notes

Playoff Picture: Louisville City FC has clinched a playoff spot for the third time in three years. A LouCity win on Saturday would guarantee the club playoff hosting privileges for the first two rounds. LouCity is now five points behind Real Monarchs SLC for the overall USL lead. Rochester looks to clinch a playoff spot this weekend, with a win and an Orlando City B loss. 

Eastern Conference Race: LouCity remains in first place in the Eastern Conference, holding a seven-point lead over Charlotte. The boys in purple look to capture the Eastern Conference title Saturday, having come up short in their past two attempts. Rochester currently sits in fifth place, needing six points to clinch a playoff spot. 

Scouting Rochester: Rochester enters Saturday having lost their last two games. Rochester’s defense has not allowed more than two goals per game the entire season. Jochen Graf, the Rhinos scorer last time against LouCity, looks to grab another goal to tie for the lead for most goals scored for Rochester.

Last time against Rochester: 10 days separate Saturday’s match and the last meeting between Louisville and Rochester. LouCity came out of the last match victorious, thanks to a last-minute penalty kick by Luke Spencer. Louisville held the Rhinos from taking a shot for the first 42 minutes of the match at Slugger Field.

Totsch steps up: Sean Totsch has been making himself known as a defensive presence for Louisville City FC. Totsch leads the team in blocked shots on the season, and is tied for second on the team for most clearances. Totsch looks to continue his defensive efficiency for the remainder of the season.

Lancaster back on the pitch: Cameron Lancaster earned the start for the boys in purple Wednesday night, despite having a broken toe. Wednesday night saw Lancaster earn a starting spot, as well as create some of the best scoring chances for LouCity of the night, including a three-shot spree in the span of two minutes.

LouCity bounces back: Over the course of the 2017 season, Louisville City FC has not lost two games in a row. The boys in purple have showed they can fight back to claim at least a point after a loss continually this season, which is their aim Saturday. 

5 games in 15 days: Louisville City will play their fifth game in 15 days Saturday. This stretch of games began September 15 with two consecutive home games at Slugger Field, followed by a three-game road trip set to end Saturday. Coach James O’Connor looks to continue to rotate his squad to keep his players fresh.

Injuries/discipline: Paco Craig will be out Saturday after receiving two yellow cards Wednesday night. Cameron Lancaster continues to play with a broken toe, while the remainder of the team manages minor knocks, according to coach James O’Connor.

With a rigorous schedule wrapping up the end of the 2017 USL regular season, Louisville City FC head coach, James O’Connor, was left with no other option than to rotate his players during this week’s three-game road trip – some ofwhom are still recovering from injury.

Former Tottenham Hotspur forward, Cameron Lancaster, was sidelined earlier in the month with a fractured toe and has spent several weeks battling through pain, helping his team on the pitch when needed.

“He’s still playing with a toe that hasn’t actually healed, so he’s still playing with a fractured toe,” said coach O’Connor. “That shows you what type of lad he is.”

Lancaster signed with Louisville City FC before its inaugural season, impressing in the club’s first ever match after scoring the game-winner against Indiana University.

Unfortunately, no more than two weeks later, the Englishman suffered a torn ACL requiring a ligament replacement and a season’s worth of rehabilitation.

Two years after cutting his 2015 campaign short, another nagging injury has Lancaster approaching games with caution – though this one won’t hold him back from helping his team get results.

“He’s a big physical guy up there. I think we needed to do a better job tonight trying to find him the ball and then playing it off of him,” said midfielder Brian Ownby on his teammate following the 1-0 loss to Toronto FC II on Wednesday.

Tied for second on the roster with six goals this season, Lancaster and fellow LouCity forwards Luke Spencer and Ilija Ilic have combined for 19 total goals heading into Saturday’s match against Rochester.

Lancaster’s return to the starting lineup was the first since late-July in a 2-1 win over New York Red Bulls II but has since made appearances in nearly each game.

“It’s always great to have Cam (Cameron Lancaster) back,” added Ownby. “We have three sharp forwards up there so whoever we put in, we always have faith that they can do the job.”