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Louisville City FC coach James O’Connor was asked Saturday night if his team’s performance in a 3-0 loss to Orlando City B could be written off, at least considering the boys in purple remained atop the USL Eastern Conference standings thanks to other results around the league.

O’Connor was quick to respond.

“That’s the type attitude that will see you drop down the league,” the coach said. “That’s not what we’re about here. That’s not what I look at at all. I didn’t think we got away with anything. There’s a very valuable lesson there for us.”

The defeat rang similar to the two that preceded it, July 15 against FC Cincinnati and Aug. 5 against the Charlotte Independence. LouCity dominated the stat sheet and created more chances than its opponent — but the Lions capitalized when given opportunities, and the boys in purple struggled to find the back of the net.

LouCity controlled 67 percent of possession, out-shot Orlando 19-8 and tried 16 corner kicks. But it was the Lions who scored off their first corner of the night, plus got a first half brace from forward Michael Cox.

“Our mindset is, we have expectations of each other,” O’Connor said. “We like to learn from as many aspects and as many experiences as we possibly can. It’s a really rough experience to try and sit and learn from but, again, that’s how you get better.

“I think that’s how you strive for the standards that we have here. That’s what we keep doing, so that’s exactly what we’ll be doing again.”

Here’s more from the match…

• The aforementioned other results around the league: The Charlotte Independence, who have earned 44 points, same as LouCity, fell by a 3-2 score to Toronto FC II. LouCity remains in fist via a better goal differential. The Charleston Battery, third on the table and just three points back, lost 3-1 to the Richmond Kickers.

• Reigning USL Player of the Week Hadji Barry and goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. did not make the trip with Orlando City B, instead made available as the club’s senior team was in action at the Major League Soccer Level. Barry has eight goals in USL play while Edwards Jr. has nine clean sheets to his name in 2017.

• The 3-0 loss marked just the second time in 11 games this season LouCity failed to earn a point in a home game. The club is 7-2-2 at Slugger Field, however, already surpassing last year’s win total. LouCity went 6-2-7 at home in 2016.

Louisville City FC has the chance to finish a busy stretch in its schedule strong at 7:30 p.m. Saturday as the boys in purple welcome Orlando City B to Slugger Field.

Already, LouCity’s on a three-game winning streak, with two of those victories on Sunday and Wednesday of this week. The run has the club back in first place.

Tickets to Saturday’s game start at just $15 and are available by calling (502) 384-8799 or at www.loucity.com/tickets.

Here’s what to watch for…

Tune In

TV: WBNA TV-21 will air the game live and in high definition locally.

Radio: TJ Walker (play-by-play) and Jeff Milby (color commentary) have the call on NewsRadio 840 WHAS, with pregame coverage starting at 7:15 p.m.

Streaming: Watch live via the USL Match Center or 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. Vote for the Modelo Man of the Match on Twitter starting in the 75th minute.

Links

• Five score as LouCity routs Harrisburg, returns to first
• A year after surgery, McCabe hitting his stride again
• LouCity maintains focus during attacking surge
• Column: O’Connor’s offense on a historic run
• Offensive fireworks continue for the boys in purple

Notes

Atop the Eastern Conference: LouCity (13-4-5, 44 points) took back the first-place Eastern Conference spot on goal differential following Wednesday’s 5-0 home win over the Harrisburg City Islanders. On a three-game winning streak — and having won five of their last six games — the boys in purple host Orlando City B (7-6-11, 32 points). The Lions head into the weekend holding the crucial eighth spot on the table, the playoff cutoff.

LouCity’s recent surge: The boys in purple have out-scored their last three opponents by a combined score of 13-1 and have tallied 20 goals in six games, the most offense by the club in such a span in its history. LouCity’s goal differential on the season of plus-23 is second-best overall in the USL.

Diversified scoring: Continuing a season-long trend, LouCity has continued to feature a variety of goal scorers rather than a single striker as in years past. Nine players have scored in the last three games, with defender Sean Reynolds, defender Sean Totsch and midfielder Paolo DelPiccolo nabbing their first of the season. In all, 14 LouCity players have goals this year.

Last time they met: LouCity followed up a scoreless draw in its 2017 opener with a much more satisfying result at the new Orlando City Stadium, posting a 3-1 win over Orlando City B. Scorers were Cameron Lancaster, George Davis IV and Luke Spencer, who hit the back of the net March 30 for the first time as a professional. LouCity only conceded an own goal.

Scouting the Lions: Forward Hadji Barry, the reigning USL Player of the Week, enters having scored three goals in Orlando’s last two games. He leads his side with eight total goals this season. Nine of his teammates have also scored. Keeper Earl Edward Jr. has nine clean sheets to keep the Lions in playoff contention. OCB is coached by Anthony Pulis, a former teammate of LouCity’s James O’Connor.

Home field advantage: In years past, LouCity has posted a better record away, thriving on larger pitches. But the boys in purple have figured out how to make Slugger Field friendly confines this season as well, improving their record there to 7-1-2 on Wednesday. Strong fan support helps. An average 9,029 fans have attended the club’s 10 home games, including a record 13,812 Aug. 12 when the boys in purple hosted FC Cincinnati.

Fully healthy: Midfielder George Davis IV returned to the pitch Wednesday, making his first appearance since July 15, and assisted Mark-Anthony Kaye’s first half goal in his first game back from a minor knee injury. In the second half, another attacking midfielder, Brian Ownby, out for four games with a muscle strain and stomach bug, also logged minutes as a substitute.

Spencer’s breakout season: With LouCity amid three games in seven days, striker Luke Spencer earned a rest Wednesday, three days after he registered a first half brace in a 3-1 win at Bethlehem Steel FC. Spencer’s eight goals lead LouCity, and his strong holdup play produced a pair of assists as well Aug. 12 against FC Cincinnati. The former first-round MLS SuperDraft selection is playing true to form.

Set piece specialist: With three assists in LouCity’s last three games, defender Oscar Jimenez has taken the team lead in that category at five on the season. Two of his connections came on set pieces involving Luke Spencer, and another was off a free kick to Cameron Lancaster, who replaced Spencer in the second half of the Bethlehem win. LouCity produced 15 scoring chances last time out, with Jimenez starting seven of those. While not credited with an assist, two of the five goals started with him playing a ball into the box.

Ranjitsingh stands tall in goal: Following a clean sheet Aug. 12 against FC Cincinnati — Greg Ranjitsingh’s first start in nearly a month — the goalkeeper willed LouCity to another win Sunday. He recorded four saves on an afternoon Steel FC tallied eight shots in the box. Ranjitsingh wasn’t pressed Wednesday against Harrisburg, as the City Islanders didn’t manage a shot on goal, resulting in his fifth clean sheet of the year. Counterpart Tim Dobrowolski has three shutout performances as well.

Injuries/discipline: The USL on Wednesday announced a three-game suspension for LouCity defender Kyle Smith — the team’s leader in minutes played — for a stoppage time incident in Bethlehem that saw him sent off for a shove outside the run of play. Aside from Smith, LouCity’s entire roster is available for selection Saturday against Orlando.

It was this time last year that nagging pain led to a difficult decision by Louisville City FC’s Niall McCabe.

With his club in the chase for a United Soccer League championship — and McCabe a regular starter in the midfield — he elected to undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair a hip labral tear on his left side.

As LouCity made a run to the Eastern Conference Final, McCabe first watched, then healed before beginning months of rehab toward a return in 2017.

Because of that, “He’s a man I have tremendous respect for,” said coach James O’Connor. “I think when you look at how he dealt with that, where he was mature enough to admit he needed to have the operation—difficult for him to come out at that time.”

“…So I think he’s earned everybody’s respect with the way he’s handled himself off the pitch.”

Lately, McCabe has reminded how much of a threat he can be on the pitch as well. The third-year LouCity man scored a rocket of a goal Wednesday in the 67th minute before assisting Sean Totsch’s headed corner in stoppage time of a 5-0 win over the Harrisburg City Islanders.

Heading into Saturday’s game against Orlando City B, McCabe has totaled three goals to go with three assists, on pace to set career highs in both statistical categories.

“Some say it’s the rehab that he’s coming back strong, but it’s the fatherhood, you know?” joked Paolo DelPiccolo, LouCity’s captain.

McCabe became the first father on the roster in May, when his son, Luca Emmet McCabe, was born.

But, really, “He’s been really excellent the last few games,” DelPiccolo added. “The goals, the assists — I mean really, really, really effective. It’s someone I’m sure the other teams look at and have problems trying to deal with him, so it’s been huge for us.”

McCabe has started six straight games in LouCity’s attacking midfield. In addition to his accomplishments in Wednesday’s Harrisburg game, McCabe scored the opening goal Aug. 12 in LouCity’s 5-0 win over FC Cincinnati, with that strike eventually voted USL Goal of the Week.

The 26-year-old stuck with the script — one game at a time — when reflecting on the work done to get here. A native of Ireland, he remained in the United States during the entirety of the offseason, away from friends and family to rehab daily with Baptist Health’s Scott Ritter, LouCity’s athletic trainer.

With LouCity sitting first in the USL Eastern Conference standings, McCabe’s on track to earn a call during this year’s playoffs.

“It’s kind of toward the end of the season and when the season’s over that you can look back and say, ‘Yeah, it was worth it,’” McCabe said. “If we come away with nothing it wasn’t worth it, but if we come away with something, it’s a massive success.

“Just one game at a time. We’ll focus on the next game.”

The boys in purple are on some kind of run. 

Wednesday’s crushing 5-0 victory over the Harrisburg City Islanders set a new record in offensive success for Louisville City FC. With the win, the club has scored 13 goals in its last three games and 20 goals in its last six games. 

Perhaps even more impressive, 11 LouCity players scored in that six-game span (nine in the last three games). 

The run began with LouCity’s 4-1 rout in the searing Fenton, Mo., heat and humidity, running Saint Louis FC off the park in the second half. City followed that with a 2-1 win over New York Red Bulls II before falling 3-1 on the road at the Charlotte Independence. 

But the Charlotte game appears to have been a turning point. Louisville City followed that up with the 5-0 demolition of rival FC Cincinnati before knocking off the Bethlehem Steel comfortably, 3-1 last Sunday. 

“I think the last few games have been really strong performances that we put in,” said midfielder and captain Paolo DelPiccolo. “Even going back to Charlotte, I thought we put in a strong performance at Charlotte. We ended up losing the game, which isn’t what we want, but I think we’re on a strong roll right now.”

The closest Louisville City has come to a scoring run like this was in the club’s inaugural season. From June 27 through August 1, 2015, LouCity tallied 18 goals in six games, all of them wins, three at home and three on the road. Former USL MVP Matt Fondy scored six goals in that span. 

In the team’s current run however, the goals have been spread around. 

Luke Spencer leads the team with five goals in the last six games, while Mark-Anthony Kaye has scored three goals. Niall McCabe, Cameron Lancaster and Paco Craig each have two. Six other players have also chipped in with a goal. 

“I mean, yeah, we have some players that can score goals for sure,” McCabe said. “Like you can see throughout the team, Ilija scoring tonight. Luke’s scoring. Cam’s scoring. Mark’s scoring. Everyone’s chipping in — all kind of chipping in good bunches too. 

“When you have players like that, and the team we have, you’re always capable of scoring goals. We’re scoring quite a lot regularly, and maybe that’s just the ball breaking to whereas maybe early on, that little bit of luck is falling their way. We’ll take the luck when it comes to us.”

Just as impressive as the goals, and arguably more important, is the service into the box. Oscar Jimenez, a converted midfielder playing this season as an outside back, has been in arguably the best form of his Louisville City career. 

The 27-year-old, who leads the team in creating 46 goal-scoring chances to this point in 2017, has created 22 chances on goal, with five assists. And as we addressed earlier this week, Louisville City is becoming much more efficient with their shots, converting the multitude of chances and putting shots on frame. 

With LouCity back in first place with games in hand, the team is looking primed for a run at a No. 1 seed in the USL Cup Playoffs.

Louisville City FC looked like a first-place team Wednesday night, and as the final whistle sounded, the boys in purple officially found themselves atop the USL Eastern Conference standings again with a 5-0 win over the Harrisburg City Islanders.

Mark-Anthony Kaye’s 11th-minute goal started the onslaught before Ilija Ilic, Paolo DelPiccolo, Niall McCabe and Sean Totsch each found the back of the net as well. Defensively, LouCity proved sound, as Harrisburg went without a shot on goal during the game.

Best performance of the season?

“That’s a great question,” said coach James O’Connor. “I don’t know. It’ll be up there. I thought we played some really good stuff against Cincy. So there’ve been games where I think we played well. There’s also things in there that we need to be better at. We’ll touch on that.

“But again I thought, you know when you look over the course of the 90 minutes how strong the desire was and the movement and the timing of runs, the quality of passing — really really good.”

LouCity’s 44 points equal the Charlotte Independence’s total. But a plus-23 goal differential to Charlotte’s plus-17, breaks the current tie. To add, LouCity has played two games fewer than the Independence with another home game ahead Saturday against Orlando City B.

O’Connor noticed a sharp team in warmups, and that form carried over to a game LouCity controlled from the start. The club out-possessed Harrisburg 55-46 percent, out-shot the City Islanders 19-3 and didn’t receive a card during the run of play.

On the assist from George Davis IV, Kaye switched to his left foot on the wing, fired and put LouCity in front for good. Ilic finished a corner for the second goal, and DelPiccolo cleaned up a ball in the box for the third goal of the half — also his first of the season.

“We’re really kind of clicking offensively, and also, we were really happy to get the shutout tonight,” DelPiccolo said. “I think that was a big goal of ours coming into the game was to make sure we didn’t give up any goals. Doing that puts us in a good spot in the league and (gives us ) good momentum — a good feeling in the locker room.”

LouCity appeared content with its lead — this was a Harrisburg team that forced a 1-0 upset back in June — before adding to the lead in the 67th minute. Ilic flicked a ball forward that McCabe finished with a rocket of a shot. In stoppage time, McCabe’s corner landed to Totsch, who added the final goal.

As a result, LouCity won its third straight game and five of its last six overall.

“It all starts in training,” McCabe said. “You know, training at the really high intensity — everyone knows how James trains — it’s pretty high intensity. So we take that into games and just hope the results will follow.”

The boys in purple have an opportunity to move into sole possession of first place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when Orlando City B visits Slugger Field.

Game Summary

Match: Louisville City FC vs. Harrisburg City Islanders

Date: Aug. 23, 2017

Venue: Louisville Slugger Field

Kickoff: 7:35

Weather: 78 degrees, sunny

Attendance: 6,763

LouCity Man of the Match: Mark-Anthony Kaye

Scoring

Louisville City FC (3,2,5)

Harrisburg City (0,0,0)

Goals

Louisville City FC:

Mark-Anthony Kaye, assist to George Davis IV (11’)

Ilija Ilic, assist to Tarek Morad (13’)

Paolo DelPiccolo (28’)

Niall McCabe (67’)

Sean Totsch, assist to Niall McCabe (90’+1)

Lineups

Louisville City: 1 Greg Ranjitsingh, 4 Sean Totsch, 15 Sean Reynolds, 6 Tarek Morad, 19 Oscar Jimenez (9 Cameron Lancaster – 76’), 36 Paolo DelPiccolo, 80 Devon Williams, 22 George Davis IV (18 Paco Craig – 73’), 11 Niall McCabe, 14 Ilija Ilic, 7 Mark-Anthony Kaye (10 Brian Ownby – 60’)

Subs not used: 28 Tim Dobrowolski, 12 Luke Spencer, 23 Richard Ballard, 8 Guy Abend

Head Coach: James O’Connor

Harrisburg: 33 Brandon Miller, 23 Shawn McLaws, 5 Tiago Calvano, 4 Travis Brent, 18 Abass Mohammad, 14 Danny DiPrima, 22 John Grosh (30 Pedro Ribiero – 69), 10 Paul Wilson (12 Rasheed Olabiyi – 79’), 25 Ropapa Mensah, 9 Johnny Mendoza, 19 Cardel Benbow (7 Monolo Sanchez – 70’)

Subs not used: 21 Sean Lewis, 16 Jacob Bond, 15 Lee Nishanian, 30 Pedro Ribiero, 60 Fredrick Opoku

Head Coach: Bill Becher

Discipline

Harrisburg:

Ropapa Mensah, yellow (29’)

Shawn McLaws, yellow (56’)

Stats

Louisville City/Harrisburg

Shots: 19/3

Shots on target: 7/0

Possession: 55.2/44.8

Passes: 521/420

Corners: 8/3

Fouls: 5/14

Officials

Referee: Aaron Hernandez

Assistant referee 1: Paul Terry

Assistant referee 2: Chad Collins

4th official: Casie Anderson