Louisville City FC had an eight-game undefeated run end with Saturday night’s 2-1 loss at Birmingham Legion FC — and perhaps saw a concerning trend emerge.
Birmingham forward Neco Brett got in behind City’s defense for the opening, 51st-minute goal before team captain Paolo DelPiccolo equalized, looking to salvage a point for his side 11 minutes later. But crushingly, Legion FC’s J.J. Williams doubled his side’s score a minute after being subbed on when he chipped in a driven ball in the 78th minute.
The boys in purple have now lost four games in 2021 — each time they’ve allowed an opposing team to score first.
With the win, Birmingham closed the gap in the USL Championship’s Central Division to four games. Across the league, LouCity benefitted Saturday from an El Paso Locomotive loss. El Paso and Phoenix Rising — which lead the Western Conference’s Mountain and Pacific divisions — sit on 41 points. LouCity is only one behind in the chase for a regular season title.
Some positives can be taken away from the Birmingham game, particularly the play of young defender Josh Wynder, whose heroic second half tackle prevented a larger deficit. Overall, it was a disappointing night for a LouCity side not used to losing.
“It’s obviously really frustrating,” head coach Danny Cruz said. “Not a good performance tonight in pretty much every facet of the game. I thought there were some individual mistakes that hurt us. There’s a lot of frustration in me and in the locker room as well. I felt like we had a good response when they scored a goal to obviously tie it up. But, there were moments that we need to certainly look at and address on Monday.”
What went wrong
LouCity, which entered off a scoreless draw last weekend against OKC Energy FC, carried a sluggish attack into the first half at Birmingham, getting out-shot 5-3 in the first 45 minutes. While business picked up offensively out of the locker room, both goals conceded seemed to stem from poor individual plays — mistaken tackles that led to quality Legion FC chances from good angles.
On paper, LouCity looked itself by the end, numbering 18 crosses and trying 7 corners. But the side wasn’t potent enough in attacking areas, as just under one-third of those chances (crosses plus corners) landed on frame.
Man of the Match: Paolo DelPiccolo
Though DelPiccolo won’t be happy with the score line, he was voted player of the game after netting a career-high fourth goal of the season. DelPiccolo put his other shot on target, too, succeeding against a defensive low-block team like Birmingham.
The midfielder — moved into more of an attacking role as of late — found himself in 13 duels for the ball, second-most for his team. DelPiccolo also numbered the most tackles, cleared the ball twice and tallied an interception.
Formerly a central midfielder by trade, DelPiccolo evidenced why, gaining possession back four times. That was second-most for any midfielder or forward for LouCity in a solid performance that showed his drive.
Road woes
Amid a stretch of seven games away over eight fixtures, LouCity has started by twice dropping points. That makes Friday’s 7:30 p.m. meeting with FC Tulsa at Lynn Family Stadium all the more important, as four more road games follow to end September.
“My belief is that if you want to be the best team in the league, you have to be able to win at home and on the road,” Cruz said. “We’ve had some good performances on the road and we’ve had some tough ones like tonight. I spoke to the group and said we have two options at this point: It’s put your heads down and feel sorry for yourself, or let’s come back to work Monday and get ready to get three points against Tulsa.”