Home

Ahead of a massive matchup for Louisville City FC, which hosts Indy Eleven at 8 p.m. Saturday, the Soccer City radio show — presented by Kentuckiana Toyota Dealers — covered the rivalry from all angles.

That includes history, which featured on the “Beat the Beard” trivia show segment matching wits between LouCity’s director of community development, Evan Floyd, and a supporter angling to end Floyd’s unbeaten record.

Hosts Lance McGarvey, Casey Whitfield and Kevin Kernen also analyzed what has ailed LouCity as of late, with the boys in purple 1-3 since the USL Championship restarted last month.

Catch Soccer City live from 9-10 a.m. each Saturday on AM 790 WKRD or via the iHeartRadio app. Saturday’s edition can be heard below:

There’s been a growing sense of urgency this week in training, Louisville City FC coach John Hackworth says, as the boys in purple prepare to host rival Indy Eleven.

“We’re in a position that, if we do what we’re capable of doing this Saturday night, we’re right back in the thick of things,” Hackworth said.

As those in the locker room express a concern transitioning their competitiveness from the training grounds to Lynn Family Stadium on game day, the boys in purple have a new weapon on their roster.

Forward Jason Johnson’s addition was announced July 27. The former Phoenix Rising standout said he’s looking to “add my little spice” to a club that has won two USL titles in the last three years.

What’s the recipe? Said Johnson: “electric play, one verses one ability, taking on players, and just helping my team offensively and defensively overall.”

The striker from Happy News, Jamaica, is a former MLS SuperDraft selection who scored nine goals for Phoenix in 2018, when the season ended with a loss to LouCity in the USL’s championship game.

Following an injury-riddled 2019 campaign, however, Johnson didn’t find his way on to a roster before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down play. A bleak outlook turned brighter upon the USL restart, when Johnson connected with LouCity’s coaching staff.

“I say it’s good timing,” he said. “Definitely the pandemic had a huge part to play on that, but even in a situation like that there are still positives to look at. One of the big ones is me being here.”

LouCity, at 2-3 overall and good for 6 points, sits fourth in the USL’s “Group E” from which the top-two finishers make the playoffs.

Off since July 29, the boys in purple haven’t lost much ground thanks to other results around the pod. Previously unbeaten Indy Eleven (15 points) has lost two of three, while Saint Louis FC (10 points) and Sporting KC (7 points) played to a draw Wednesday night in the latest group game.

Johnson’s available beginning Saturday to help with LouCity’s climb back up the ladder.

“I think it’s just football,” he said of recent results. “Looking from the outside and looking from the inside I think is the same perspective. It’s just trophies and it’s a team that wins and they’re looking to bounce back this week again.

“This year the league has been a bit shortened obviously, because of the pandemic, and that has hastened teams to be a little bit more consistent early on with their performances. I’m sure this week will be a different result.” 

Louisville City FC coach and sporting director John Hackworth met with reporters Monday to preview the week leading up to Saturday’s matchup with Group E-leading Indy Eleven. Ahead of kickoff at 8 p.m. inside Lynn Family Stadium, here’s what we learned from the conversation…

A moment to reflect

Four days after defeating Sporting KC II by a 1-0 score, LouCity was dealt a 2-1 defeat. A weekend without a game followed, allowing time for the boys in purple to more closely scrutinize their performances having going 1-3 since the USL Championship restarted play.

“We just tried to evaluate where we were and work on the things that we felt like we had to, coming into this game versus Indy,” Hackworth said. “Sometimes you want a game right away, but in this case, we used the time wisely to do a little bit of reflection and hard-core looking at ourselves.”

With six points and a -2 goal differential, LouCity sits fourth of four teams in the Group table, with the top two advancing to the playoffs. Both Indy (15 points) and Saint Louis FC (9 points) suffered defeats over LouCity’s weekend off. The boys in purple also have a pair of games in hand on the Eleven.

“Look, you just have to stay steady,” Hackworth said. “Trust your process and reinforce that what we do and how we do it on a daily basis is so important. That’s what we’ve been doing. The guys are mature and experienced players and they know it as well, but it is difficult.”

Praying to the ‘soccer gods’

The boys in purple are frustrated. And that’s understandable for an organization that in five seasons of play has never finished short of the conference final.

“You can’t be the club that we are, and have the results go against us the way they have, and not feel frustration at not only our own performance, but some of the fortune that comes in sports in general,” Hackworth said. “We certainly haven’t had the soccer gods on our side so far and we hope to bring them back.”

Possession and shots taken have leaned heavily LouCity’s way in its recent defeats. The common culprit is some head-scratching turnovers, including one in the 83rd minute of the last Sporting KC II game that led directly to the game-winning goal.

A familiar foe

The Eleven and LouCity have met in friendlies and cup play since their earlier days. Beginning in 2018, the Louisville-Indianapolis Proximity Association Football Contest was born when Indy shifted to the USL, with the rivalry peaking in the 2019 Eastern Conference final won in come-from-behind fashion by LouCity.

All four meetings between LouCity and Indy — two home, two away at Lucas Oil Stadium — will occur between Saturday and Sept. 16 in a key stretch that could determine a playoff spot. It’s a new chapter in LIPAFC lore.

“At the end of the day, we’re all going to all have a really good knowledge of each other and that just makes for tricky tactical contests,” Hackworth said. “Can you make a slight tweak here or there in tactics or do you believe in what you’re doing so strongly that if you do it the right way, you’re going to come out on the positive end of it?”

Two stellar strikers

The star power starts up top for both LouCity and Indy Eleven as on Saturday, the visitors bring to town the USL’s top scorer, Tyler Pasher, who offers a devastating left foot with six goals already in 2020.

On LouCity’s side is the former Golden Boot winner, Cameron Lancaster, who has accounted for all his club’s scoring in its last two games. A leaping header defeated Sporting KC II in the first meeting, and he buried a beautiful free kick to equalize before the boys in purple conceded in the loss to end the doubleheader.

“They’re different types of goal scorers for sure,” Hackworth said. “Pasher likes to check into the midfield and then looks to get behind. He’s good at combination plays and he’s just been a really good finisher this year… Whereas Cam is more of a goal scorer’s goal scorer. Around the box, he’s deadly.

“…They’re different kinds of goal scorers, but certainly there will be a lot of focus on those players coming into this matchup.”

What’s ailing Louisville City FC, which has a 1-3 record since the USL Championship restarted play in July? The conversation dominated Saturday’s Soccer City radio show presented by Kentuckiana Toyota Dealers.

Host Lance McGarvey was joined by Casey Whitfield and Keith O’Loane from the Lynn Family Stadium radio booth, with the trio also opening the lines to a few LouCity supporters for their thoughts.

Soccer City also touched on some LouCity personnel news this week — the addition of forward Jason Johnson and subtraction of midfielder Magnus Rasmussen from the picture — as the boys in purple prepare for their next game Aug. 8 against Indy Eleven.

Catch Soccer City live from 9-10 a.m. each Saturday on AM 790 WKRD or via the iHeartRadio app. Saturday’s edition can be heard below:

Louisville City FC and Magnus Rasmussen have agreed effective Friday to dissolve their contract for 2020, allowing the midfielder to remain overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rasmussen and his wife, Camilla, earlier this month welcomed new daughter Olivia to their family in Denmark.

“While this was a mutually agreed decision, it was nonetheless a very difficult outcome for both Magnus and our club,” said LouCity coach and sporting director John Hackworth. “Magnus wishes that he could be here playing, and we certainly miss him on and off the field.

“The reality of this COVID-19 pandemic is that it has changed so many things in all of our lives, and this is just another unfortunate example of that. However, our plan is to re-sign Magnus for our 2021 season, reuniting him and his family with LouCity once again.”

The 27-year-old from Copenhagen played in his home nation’s second division before joining LouCity for its inaugural campaign, when he scored the first goal in club history in a victory over Saint Louis FC.

Rasmussen tallied eight goals in 2015 and three more during an injury-riddled 2016 season. After a year playing in Denmark, including for its national futsal team, he returned to LouCity in 2018 for its second straight USL title run.

The midfielder led LouCity’s attack in 2019, pairing 13 goals with three assists. His four postseason goals helped land him on the USL Championship’s All-League First Team.

To buoy its attack in recent days, LouCity earlier this week announced the signing of forward Jason Johnson, a former Phoenix Rising standout eligible for selection down the stretch of the restarted USL Championship season.

The boys in purple are chasing “Group E” rivals Indy Eleven and Saint Louis FC for a playoff spot — the top-two finishers in each pod make the postseason — with their next game Saturday, Aug. 8, against Indy at Lynn Family Stadium.

Competition’s fierce in Louisville City FC’s training sessions, members of the locker room say, and it’s not translating to game day.

“Especially for you guys who have come out to training and see what we look like,” coach John Hackworth told reporters Wednesday night, “we’ll have to try and identify it and go back to the drawing board and fix it.”

Hackworth was speaking after LouCity’s third loss in four games since the USL Championship’s restart. In the second leg of back-to-back games against Sporting KC II, the boys in purple fell by a 2-1 score at Lynn Family Stadium.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it, but it’s my responsibility and we’ll get it right,” Hackworth said. “It doesn’t look how we feel on a daily basis, and that’s the strangest thing to me.”

Defender Jonathan Gomez, the 16-year-old who made his first start Wednesday since signing a professional contract in the spring, echoed Hackworth’s sentiments, noting the gap between practice and games.

“In training, we are super competitive,” Gomez said. “We play small-sided and the team that is losing is extremely disappointed when they lose, and everything is competitive. There is always a team photo of the champions.

“There hasn’t been any lack of resiliency or anything like that, so we just have to translate it onto the field and when we go a goal down we have to fight back to keep alive.”

LouCity tallied nine shots on goal, tripling Sporting KC II’s output. But the boys in purple converted just one of them when Cameron Lancaster curled in a 21st-minute free kick that at the time knotted the score 1-1.

However, there wasn’t an answer in the second half when a turnover in the midfield led to a Sporting KC II goal in the 83rd minute.

“If you look at this team last year, a lot of the same guys, we would go down a goal no problem,” Hackworth said. “There was an answer. There was a feeling. There was a belief you could see. It was the exact opposite after that goal.

“It’s a mistake, and it’s a mistake that we can all live with. It’s how you react to those that are most important.” 

LouCity has this weekend off before a series of three games in eight days begins Saturday, Aug. 8, against Group E-leading Indy Eleven. Indy (15 points) and Saint Louis FC (9 points) currently occupy the pod’s pair of playoff spots with LouCity (6 points) in third; Sporting KC II (3 points) earned its first victory of the season Wednesday in Louisville.