News

Plenty was offered Saturday for those interested in Louisville City FC both on and off the pitch during the latest edition of the the Soccer City radio show presented by Kentuckiana Toyota Dealers.

Host Lance McGarvey, with Casey Whitfield and Keith O’Loane also in the radio box from Lynn Family Stadium, welcome to the show LouCity president Brad Estes. They discussed welcoming fans to the new facility as well as the club’s philosophy behind the recently announced NWSL side Racing Louisville FC beginning play in 2021.

The Soccer City crew also delved into last weekend’s Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC defeat, Saturday’s matchup with Saint Louis FC and visited with Brian Davis, a well-known supporter checking in from his new home in Hawaii.

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:

As Louisville City FC prepares to take to its home pitch again at 8 p.m. Saturday, coach and sporting director John Hackworth continues to reflect on lessons learned from last weekend’s defeat.

The boys in purple allowed three unanswered goals in a 3-1 loss to Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in Lynn Family Stadium’s inaugural game, making for a rocky restart to the USL Championship season.

“What we took away from it is that we can’t play with fear,” Hackworth said. “We were tight, we were nervous, and that showed. Pittsburgh presented us with problems, and we didn’t go through the normal things that we go through to solve those problems.”

But, Hackworth added, “This is a group that’s always had a good response when we do have a setback, and that’s the expectation for us.”

LouCity hosts a familiar rival in Saint Louis FC, which has a new look under first-year coach Steve Trittschuh. Saint Louis also lost its first game back from the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping a 2-0 away decision to Indy Eleven.

“We’re very anxious about setting this right and showing our fans that we are much better team than what we showed this past Sunday,” Hackworth said.

RELATED: Watch pregame interviews with Hackworth, Souahy

Hackworth spoke of LouCity fine-tuning its mental game and fixing simple mistakes from the loss. Twice in the second half’s first five minutes, for example, the boys in purple turned the ball over in their own half leading to opposing goals.

“It’s like a fumble on the 2-yard line,” Hackworth said. “You do not do that. It’s bad tactics.”

LouCity won’t change how it plays but rather reinforce its philosophies.

“It’s just the style that we believe in,” the coach said. “You watch other teams and they won’t even try to play out of the back. We try to play out of the back. We do it so that we bring the opposition to us to create space to play in behind them.”

Third-year defender Alexis Souahy, who was part of that back line last weekend, says he and his teammates are ready to apply what they’ve learned against Saint Louis FC.

“I think the biggest thing for us was reviewing the game with the details and see what we did wrong and what was not right, and how to correct that — always having that problem-solving mindset,” Souahy said. “Obviously we don’t like losing games. We’re a championship team…

“The game is behind us, and now we are just looking forward to the next game and making sure we do the right things.” 

Saturday’s game is the first of four this season — two at home, two away — against Saint Louis FC. That’s because LouCity’s  Kings’ Cup rival is also part of the USL Championship’s “Group E” along with Indy and Sporting KC II.

Hackworth has described occasions such as Saturday’s as “mini-playoff” contests.

“These games, because of the aspect of only the top two advances (to the playoffs), are like six-point games,” Hackworth said. “Especially coming off of Sunday, where we don’t have the kind of result that we want…both teams, having lost on the weekend, are coming into a position playing their first divisional opponent. This game has added importance because of that.”

In his weekly visit with the WDRB sports team, Louisville City FC coach and sporting director John Hackworth emphasized the need for a fast start to this truncated USL Championship season.

The latest “Yackin’ with Hack” segment touched on the start of Group E play, with LouCity to host Saint Louis FC at 8 p.m. Saturday inside Lynn Family Stadium. Four games apiece will be played against Saint Louis FC, Indy Eleven and Sporting KC II.

In that regard, Hackworth said, this weekend’s result could mean more in the playoff push than last Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Pittsburgh Riverhouns SC. He said the boys in purple can essentially make it a “six-point swing” with Group E victories.

“This is a little mini playoff game, if you will,” Hackworth said, “because when you host a team within your division right now, the expectation is that you’ll win that game. And so if you don’t win that game, if you don’t get those three points, those are not only the three points you should’ve won, but you have to think of it as the opposition gaining the three points.”

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

Louisville City FC has set a television and radio schedule for the rest of the USL Championship season that will see the club’s remaining 14 games all broadcast over the air.

In conjunction with TV partner WDRB, 10 games including Saturday’s 8 p.m. meeting with Saint Louis FC at Lynn Family Stadium can be seen on sister station WBKI-TV, also known as The CW, via antenna channel 58.1. Four other games will air on WMYO-TV, channel 58.3.

Radio partner iHeart Media will continue broadcasting LouCity games in 2020 across News Radio 840 WHAS, 790 KRD and Talk Radio 1080 WKJK, all AM stations featuring 15-minute pregame and postgame shows. Four radio assignments will be decided later pending area college football game times.

In addition to live game broadcasts, catch the “Yackin’ with Hack” segment each Tuesday on WDRB with LouCity coach and sporting director John Hackworth. LouCity’s partnership with iHeart Media includes the popular Soccer City radio show, presented by Kentuckiana Toyota Dealers, airing Saturdays from 9-10 a.m. on 790 WKRD.

A full listing of broadcast assignments is available below, with home games in bold, and at www.loucity.com/2020schedule.

• 8 p.m. July 18: LouCity vs. Saint Louis FC (WBKI/840 WHAS)

• 8 p.m. July 25: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (WBKI/840 WHAS)

• 8 p.m. July 29: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (WMYO/790 WKRD)

• 8 p.m. Aug. 8: LouCity vs. Indy Eleven (WBKI/790 WKRD)

• 8 p.m. Aug. 12: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (WMYO/790 WKRD)

• 8 p.m. Aug. 15: LouCity vs. Loudon United FC (WMYO/840 WHAS)

• 8 p.m. Aug. 26: LouCity vs. Indy Eleven (WBKI/790 WKRD)

• 8 p.m. Aug. 29: Saint Louis FC vs. LouCity (WBKI/840 WHAS)

• 7 p.m. Sept. 5: Indy Eleven vs. LouCity (WBKI/790 WKRD)

• 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12: LouCity vs. Saint Louis FC (WBKI/TBD)

• 7 p.m. Sept. 16: Indy Eleven vs. LouCity (WMYO/790 WKRD)

• 7:30 p.m. Sept. 19: LouCity vs. Memphis 901 FC (WBKI/TBD)

• 8 p.m. Sept. 26: Saint Louis FC vs. LouCity (WBKI/TBD)

• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3: LouCity vs. Sporting KC II (WBKI/TBD)

Midfielder Devon “Speedy” Williams provided that long-awaited moment, a first goal in Lynn Family Stadium history to put Louisville City FC ahead 1-0 on Sunday in the 18th minute.

After the final whistle, LouCity coach John Hackworth lamented that the boys in purple — and the 4,850 fans on hand to support them as the USL Championship season restarted — didn’t get to continue the festivities.

“I would have loved for that game to have a much better ending so that we can celebrate, both this building and the opening of it, and the result,” Hackworth said of a 3-1 loss to Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen today.”

LouCity players echoed Hackworth in saying they let up after a flurry of early chances gave them the lead. The Riverhounds, who won the USL’s regular-season Eastern Conference crown in 2019, answered with three goals in six minutes on either side of half.

“I think coming out of halftime, that’s very uncharacteristic of us, to come out that way and make the mistakes,” Hackworth said. “It’s even more uncharacteristic of us to not come out and fight. We had plenty of time to get back in this game despite all the craziness that happened. A lot of added of time there and a lot of stoppages, but it’s on us to do a better job at managing the game and getting ourselves back in.

“Really, I don’t even think we did a great job at creating opportunities. That’s something we will have to fix.”

WATCH: Highlights from the Lynn Family Stadium opener

Statistically speaking, LouCity held 65% of the possession, out-shot the Riverhounds 11-6 and generated 9 corner kicks. Many of those numbers harken back to dominance during the opening few minutes.

In the 45th minute, the equalizer came when Pittsburgh’s Jordan Dover slipped behind the home club’s back line while stabbing in a lob pass from teammate Kenardo Forbes. LouCity then quickly lost grasp of the game out of the locker room when giving up possession twice in its own half led to other Riverhounds goals.

“I think we took our step off,” midfielder Brian Ownby said, “and one little mishap, a nice volley over the top and a good finish, then come out at halftime and give two goals away…it’s frustrating. But the only thing we can do is watch the tape and move on, and I think that is something that our team has done in the past.

“We have had a bad performance and we go on a little streak, so we’re hoping that going forward our team gets back together this week and move on.”

MORE: Full video with LouCity players, coach Hackworth

Hackworth looked for a change of pace, using all of five allotted substitutions, a new rule implemented for a condensed season and with more than 100 days since LouCity’s last game.

“For some reason we couldn’t find it back,” Williams said of LouCity’s momentum, “and that’s what happened.”

Asked of Hackworth’s locker room message, Williams added: “He was disappointed, but he was also positive. He was like, ‘This happened, and now we can look past it and look to next week,’ so that was good to hear.”

Sunday’s game was the first of eight straight for LouCity at Lynn Family Stadium. Next out, at 8 p.m. Saturday, the boys in purple begin “Group E” play against Saint Louis FC. Indy Eleven and Sporting KC II are also in the pod, from which the top two teams will advance to the USL playoffs this fall upon completion of a 16-game regular season.