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Yackin' with Hack: Indy's star striker brings goals lead to town

John Hackworth tells his Major League Soccer coaching colleagues, “I do not understand why this kid is playing in the USL Championship.”

That kid is 26-year-old forward Tyler Pasher, Indy Eleven’s starting forward who leads the USL in scoring with six goals.

Louisville City FC hosts Indy at 8 p.m. Saturday inside Lynn Family Stadium, with that the main topic of Hackworth’s weekly conversation with the WDRB sports team.

This edition was filmed on location at Champions Park, site of LouCity’s new training facility that will open in 2021. Ground was broken Monday.

“This is a huge deal,” Hackworth said. :I don’t think you’re going to find many professional soccer clubs that have the kind of facilities that we’re going to have here.”

See Yackin’ with Hack in full above and look for a new edition each Tuesday on WDRB.

LouCity 'setting the benchmark' with new training facility

Soccer Holdings, LLC, parent company of the USL Championship’s Louisville City FC and NWSL’s Racing Louisville, broke ground Tuesday on its new training facility targeted to open in the spring 2021.

Shovels hit dirt just past 1 p.m. at Champions Park off River Road, where the clubs’ operations will be based in the future along with their accompanying youth academies. The training facility site is within two miles of the new Lynn Family Stadium, continuing to enhance owners’ investments in local professional soccer.

“This is an awesome day for us,” said Soccer Holdings’ president, Brad Estes. “It’s hard to believe in 2015 we started out as this little fledging club trying to make pro sports work in a town where pro sports hadn’t been that successful.“…As you pivot away from surviving and sustainability, you want to get to the point to where you’re thinking about flourishing. That’s what this training center’s going to allow us to do.”

Estes, along with Soccer Holdings’ executive vice president of development, James O’Connor; LouCity coach and sporting director John Hackworth; and Mario Sanchez, youth academy director, spoke to a small group limited to media, board members and essential club staff.

“What we’re doing here, I’m telling you clubs around the country — Major League Soccer, NWSL, USL — are taking notice,” Sanchez said. “People are calling us, and we’re setting the benchmark.”

The 30,000 square foot center is being built AML Construction. On the property, three natural grass fields will accompany four turf fields fashioned by The Motz Group. Stadium lighting will allow for play at night, and the club plans to make the facility open to other community events.

In addition to locker room spaces for the pro clubs, the facility will include gym and workout areas, a kitchen, dining hall and media room. The building’s layout also houses Soccer Holdings’ front office staff.

“It’s just going to be a huge advantage for us going forward,” Hackworth said of the facility. “Now we have a youth program as well. It’s going to be incredible to have the vision of boys and girls playing and having professional teams, men’s and women’s, side by side. This is a phenomenal achievement for us, and I’m proud to be part of it.”

“To actually have our own training center — for us to attract elite-level talent on the female side — brings tremendous opportunity for us as an organization,” added O’Connor, who’s overseeing next year’s launch of Racing Louisville FC. “It’s not just for the professional aspect but for the whole community. We’ve got four turf fields we genuinely want the community to use.

“…The commitment from ownership is inspiring and something all of us feel privileged and honored to be a part of.”

4 takeaways: LouCity had 'a little bit of reflection' after rocky restart

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.”

Watch: Hackworth on why Saturday's Indy Eleven game is 'huge'

Listen: 'Soccer City' radio opens the phone lines to LouCity fans

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:

LouCity, new father Rasmussen part ways for 2020 amid pandemic

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.

LouCity striving to translate its 'resiliency' to game day

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.

Highlights: Sporting KC II 2, LouCity 1

Lancaster's goal a beauty, but LouCity falls short of Sporting KC II

This time, some Cameron Lancaster heroics weren’t enough.

The Louisville City FC striker put away a beauty of a free kick Wednesday, but a pair of poor touches led to Sporting KC II goals as the visitors walked away with a 2-1 victory at Lynn Family Stadium.

The result, the first win in 2020 for Sporting KC II (1-3), marked the third loss for LouCity (2-3) in four games since the USL Championship restarted play earlier this month.

Coach and sporting director John Hackworth said after the final whistle that, “We have too much quality to at times put on the performance that we did tonight.

“…“We didn’t play our game, and in the first half you could tell we were tentative,” Hackworth added. “After a real good start, for whatever reason, we played really conservative. We’re a team that doesn’t play backwards a lot, and we went backwards a lot tonight. We didn’t take guys on one versus one when we could have. We didn’t attack them the way that we should have.”

Lancaster’s tally came in the 21st minute. From outside the box, he went right to left with a set piece strike that gave the opposing goalkeeper no chance to save.

The Major League Soccer loanee from Nashville SC has now netted three shots on the season, ranking second in the league behind Indy Eleven forward Tyler Pasher’s five. His other two goals both put LouCity on the better end of 1-0 victories.

At the time Wednesday, Lancaster leveled the score 1-1 after Sporting got on the board in the sixth minute. A cross was deflected but not cleared by the LouCity back line, allowing forward Dominik Resetar the chance to slot his shot in the back of the net.

The game winner followed in the 83rd minute. LouCity was poised to regain possession in the midfield, but a short-footed pass led to a turnover. Jake Davis led the break, assisting Wilson Harris’ goal.

LouCity wasn’t without opportunities during the run of play, particularly during a 13th-minute sequence. The 16-year-old Jonathan Gomez — making his first start on a professional contract — crossed well into Lancaster. LouCity’s initial try was saved, Sporting goalkeeper Remi Prieur managed to gather himself up, then dove to block the putback try by Napo Matsoso.

Later, in the 76th minute, Akil Watts was taken down on a collision in the box. Much to the chagrin of 4,850 fans at Lynn Family Stadium, there was no whistle from the referee — and there was ultimately no late answer from the boys in purple.

“It was a really great experience for me, and obviously the team is the most important and we didn’t get the result,” Gomez said after the start, “so it is an accomplishment for me but we have to build on it, turn it around this week and keep working.”

The stat sheet reads in familiar fashion during this early season skid as LouCity out-shot its opponent 21-9 and held possession the majority of the way, at 53.5%. But the points didn’t follow.

There’s extra time to ponder this outcome with the club off this weekend. Loucity next hosts USL Group E-leading Indy Eleven on Saturday, Aug. 8, at Lynn Family Stadium in what will be a key matchup in the bigger picture.

LouCity’s fighting to finish in the top half of a pod also consisting of Saint Louis FC and Sporting KC II. The No. 1 and 2 clubs advance to the playoffs at the end of a 16-game regular season.

Game Summary

Match: Louisville City FC vs. Sporting KC ll

Date: July 29, 2020

Venue: Lynn Family Stadium

Kickoff: 8 p.m.

Weather: 92 degrees, mostly sunny

Man of the Match: Cameron Lancaster

Attendance: 4,850

Scoring

Louisville City FC (1,0,1)

Sporting KC ll (1,1,2)

Goals

Louisville City: 21’ – Cameron Lancaster from a free kick with a right-footed shot to the top left corner.

Sporting KC ll: 8’ – Dominik Resetar right-footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jaret Townsend. 83’ – Wilson Harris left-footed shot from the center of the box to the center of the goal. Assisted by Jacob Davis.

Lineups

Louisville City FC: 39- Ben Lundt, 8- Akil Watts, 4- Sean Totsch, 5- Jimmy Ockford, 42- Jonathan Gomez, 80- Devon Williams, 27- Napo Matsoso (45’ 13- Corben Bone), 11- Niall McCabe, 29- Antoine Hoppenot (65’ 22- George Davis lll) , 14- Abdou Thiam (45’ 10- Brian Ownby), 17- Cameron Lancaster (65’ 9- Luke Spencer)

Subs not used: 1- Chris Hubbard, 6- Wes Charpie, 19- Oscar Jimenez

Head Coach: John Hackworth

Sporting KC ll: 42- Remi Prieur, 44- Camden Riley (88’ 88- Sam Raben), 48- Kaveh Rad, 33- Danny Barbir, 40- Dillon Serna, 39- Petar Cuic, 35- Duval Wapiwo (55’ 46- Jake Davis), 32- Christian Duke, 99- Jaret Townsend (62’ 96- Wilson Harris), 34- Dominik Rešetar (88’ 84- Jahon Rad), 77- Enoch Mushagalusa (55’ 80- Fredinho Mompremier)

Subs not used: 31- Brooks Thompson, 72- Ryan Fessler

Head Coach: Paulo Nagamura

Discipline

Louisville City FC: 36’ #5 Ockford- yellow card; 93’ #4 Totsch- yellow card

Sporting KC ll: 61’ #34 Rešetar- yellow card

Stats Summary: Louisville/Sporting KC

Shots: 21/9

Shots on Goal: 9/3

Saves: 1/8

Corner Kicks: 5/2

Fouls: 10/19

Offside: 2/3