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Louisville City coach John Hackworth spoke with local media after practice Monday about his team’s upcoming showdown with FC Cincinnati.
LouCity travels to Cincinnati Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday night’s clash against their old rival from the USL. FC Cincinnati moved to the MLS after last season. Wednesday’s matchup is only possible through the U.S. Open Cup draw which pits all the best teams in America, regardless of league or affiliation, against each other in a tournament format.
Louisville City notched an early goal by Magnus Rasmussen (1’) and picked up the game-winner from Sean Totsch in the 39’ to beat Loudoun United FC 2-1 Saturday night at Slugger Field in Louisville, Ky.
Louisville City has now won three games in a row, beating Birmingham Legion 1-0, Charleston Battery 4-1 and Loudoun United 2-1. Louisville City’s unbeaten streak now stretches to seven matches, the last loss coming over a month ago, May 6, at Swope Park Rangers.
After the match, Louisville City coach John Hackworth said he’ll take the three points from the win, but he wasn’t satisfied with the level of play from his team.
“It wasn’t a good performance on our part, we had a ton of chances and took a lot of shots, 28-9, the problems is that we didn’t put enough of those on frame,” Hackworth said. “We hit high and wide and not really testing, that was an issue and we had a lot of easy passes and just missed our guy.”
Louisville City dominated the first half. Even after getting the early goal in the first minute, it appeared they would blow the match open with shot after shot in the first 20 minutes. Despite leading in shots 28-9, Louisville City had just seven shots on goal to Loudoun’s four.
“It wasn’t a great performance, but credit to Loudoun,” Hackworth said. “We talked about that it was going to be tough game because of the quality that they have in some guys that I know really well. They are going to be really good as amateurs, and they are already really good at this level. Plus, they have some quality veteran players.
“I give them a lot credit for making it hard, that kid Griffin Yow scores a great goal off a mistake of ours in the second half and made us scramble there for a bit, I felt like we were going to get the third one to put the game away and that just never happened. I felt like we should’ve gotten the second and the third that’s in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the game and it would’ve been a completely different contest. This game is cruel that way and you’ve got to battle through and got to ground out results and that’s what we did this evening.”
Louisville City’s first goal came in the first minute of the match. A cross from Taylor Peay was put into the side of the net by Magnus Rasmussen.
“Yeah, it’s nice,” Rasmussen said of the early goal. “It’s nice to get an early goal. Obviously, that means – like last week – that they have to bring a little bit more instead of sitting in. Credit to them though, I think they kept playing and they gave us some problems at times.”
Despite so many chances early on, Louisville City had to wait until near the end of the first half before a corner kick by Oscar Jimenez was tucked into the side of the net by Sean Totsch.
“It was just my chance to make a near post run,” Totsch said. “We switched it up from game to game and that’s what we drew up for today. You know we have guys making that run every time, so it’s just the ball was in the perfect spot for me and it was put away.”
Louisville City has a quick turn-around before Wednesday night’s Open Cup showdown with FC Cincinnati, LouCity’s old rival from the USL. The match starts at 7:30 and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
With wins last week vs. Birmingham Legion and Charleston Battery, Louisville City looks to keep that momentum rolling Saturday night vs. Loudoun United FC. Kickoff is set for 7:06 p.m.
Louisville City rolled to a 4-1 win last Saturday in a wild matchup that saw LouCity finish with nine players and Charleston Battery play with 10 for 70 minutes. Even so, LouCity’s finishing was strong including a beautiful free kick by Niall McCabe that earned him a spot on the USL Championship Team of the Week.
City’s depth will be tested this week because of a number of different circumstances – Shaun Francis and Speedy Williams were called up to the Jamaican National Team, Red Cards will keep Brian Ownby and Paco Craig on Saturday and a pair of Louisville City players – Abdou Thiam and Pat McMahon – are on the shelf due to injury. Those six players out of availability will necessitate coach John Hackworth moving some pieces around for Saturday.
“We will need to have guys step up to help, but that is nothing new,” Hackworth said. “With all the injuries we have dealt with this season, we have had to rely on quite a few players. We try to plan out those lineups as far in advance as we can, and with the Open Cup games going on as well you really have to plan ahead.”
Loudoun United struggled to start the USL Championship season, notching one win in its first seven games. Then coach Richie Williams resigned to become an assistant coach with the MLS’ New England Revolution. Loudoun United’s new coach is Ryan Martin, and Loudoun beat Swope Park Rangers 3-2 on Wednesday.
“I don’t expect Ryan to change too much about the system, but certainly there will be some tweaks,” Hackworth said. “But this match is really more about us and concentrating on what we do well.”
Louisville City moved up to sixth in the Eastern Conference with 21 points after its win on Saturday. Loudoun lost to Hartford and fell to 15th in the Eastern Conference. Loudoun is 2-1-2 in its last five USL Championship matches. Louisville City is 2-2-1.
Louisville City will host Loudoun United Saturday at 7 p.m. at Slugger Field as Louisville City continues its homestand. The game will be broadcast locally on WBKI and streamed on ESPN+. The local radio broadcast will be on 840 WHAS with Kevin Kernen and John Horlander.
Louisville City midfielder Magnus Rasmussen was voted Dr. Mark Lynn and Associates Visionworks Man of the Match for his performance during Monday night’s game in Kansas City vs. the Swope Park Rangers.
Magnus, who scored Louisville City’s first goal of the match on a screamer of a free kick from just beyond the box, garnered a significant portion of the fan vote.
Rasmussen’s shot was a spark for Louisville City when it needed it most, down 2-0. He played well throughout the match.
A pair of early goals put Louisville City up 2-0 during a 4-1 win over Charleston Battery Saturday night at Slugger Field.
The win pushed Louisville City from eighth in the USL Championship Eastern Conference to fifth with 21 points.
“It’s great to get three points, especially against an opponent like Charleston,” Louisville City coach John Hackworth said. “They’re a really tough opponent. I think they’re a team that’s going to be there at the end of the year. Especially here at home, and where we were relative to them in the table, to get a little separation from them and try to build on a good performance on Wednesday was good.”
Louisville City’s scoring started with a goal by George Davis IV just 2:53 into the match. It was a game changer.
“When you get an early goal like that, they have to chase and they have to open up,” LouCity’s Magnus Rasmussen said. “Charleston, they like to sit even counter on most teams and they’re really hard to play against, but when we’re up 1-0, they have to open up and see if they can cheat a little bit. I think it was really important for us to get the first goal. It was a really good first post run by Lucky [Mkosana] and then George [Davis IV], he just finished it perfectly.”
Then, in the 19′ a run into the box by Lucky Mkosana resulted in a red card on Kierron Mason of Charleston Battery. Mason grabbed Mkosana’s jersey to prevent him from scoring a goal, resulting in the card.
LouCity’s Magnus Rasmussen was the designated penalty kick shooter and he buried his shot in the top right corner with his left foot to put Louisville City ahead 2-0.
Now playing up a man, Louisville City searched for a third goal, but it didn’t come in the first half. In the second half, Charleston Battery got a goal from Arthur Bosua on a header from a corner kick to cut LouCity’s lead to 2-1 in the 49′.
“I don’t think we played our best but that’s a weird game,” Hackworth said. “… I thought we played some really good soccer at moments and we didn’t play smart, intelligent soccer, when we were up a man and had opportunities to put the game out of reach. Obviously, coming out of halftime, giving a free kick goal on a defensive corner, that’s unacceptable. We really felt like we should have been up by two at that point and we could really control the game. We had to fight to get the third, glad that we did that. Nice to get a fourth, but it was a strange one.”
In the 74′ minute a corner kick from Oscar Jimenez was crushed by Rasmussen toward the goal. It bounced off a Charleston defender on its way into the goal.
Louisville City got its fourth goal in the 87′ on a beauty of a free kick from Niall McCabe from just outside the box. The final 20 minutes of the match was wild and included three yellow cards and a pair of red cards, sending LouCity players Brian Ownby and Paco Craig off. The match ended with Louisville City playing with just nine players, despite winning 4-1.
Scoring Summary:
3′ – LOU George Davis IV, 1-0
21′ – LOU Magnus Rasmussen, 2-0
50′ – CHS Arthur Bosua, 2-1
73′ – LOU Magnus Rasmussen/ CHS Own Goal, 3-1
87′ – LOU Niall McCabe, 4-1
Ticket Link >> Louisville City vs. Charleston Battery
Louisville City FC hosts Charleston Battery in a return to the USL Championship schedule Saturday night at Slugger Field. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Battling to move back up into the top of the Eastern Conference table, Louisville City is currently one point ahead of Charleston Battery as both are currently playoff teams.
“We know we’ll have a challenge Saturday night,” Louisville City coach John Hackworth said. “We expect to get everyone’s best because of our success as a club, and we have high standards for our own level of play.”
As for Charleston, the Battery is coming off a big win over Nashville SC in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday night. Charleston Battery is extremely effective on the counter attack, typically giving midfielders fits with how quickly they move in transition.
For Louisville City, the lineup continues to evolve as more players become healthy. The Boys in Purple had a stretch of games in April and May when a half-dozen players were on the shelf due to injuries. Now many of those players – forwards Brian Ownby and Richard Ballard, midfielder Paolo DelPiccolo and goalkeepers Chris Hubbard and Tim Dobrowolski – are returning and starting to compete for starting spots.
Louisville City and Charleston Battery kick off at 7:06 p.m. Saturday at Slugger Field. The game will be broadcast locally on WBKI and streamed nationally on ESPN+. The radio broadcast with Kevin Kernen and Jeff Greer will be on 1080 WKJK locally and on the iHeart Radio app streaming.
Louisville City is completing its final preparation for a visit from Charleston Battery Saturday at Slugger Field. It’ll be Louisville City’s third game in seven days as the club continues to compete in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
“You look ahead and you schedule as much as you can, but any time you have this many games in this short of time it can challenge a roster,” Louisville City coach John Hackworth said. “But we planned for it and we expecr a high level of play for anyone on our roster.”
Louisville City played drastically different lineups between the two matches Sunday vs. Bethlehem Steel and Wednesday vs. Birmingham Legion. Wednesday’s lineup included the first in-game minutes for forward Brian Ownby and midfielder Paolo DelPiccolo since March.
“Tomorrow is a re-gen day for guys that played,” Hackworth said. “I would think that with Paolo and Brian 30 minutes is about what we thought the max would be and they ended up playing 36 so they will probably have a pretty easy day, and try to just get everybody ready. The guys that didn’t play you know they will have a bit of a run a small sided game just cause we like to keep it competitive and they need that. But it will be a day that we have two groups going at it, then we will turn our attention towards Friday and tactical preparations for Charleston.”
Charleston is in a similar position, having played Wednesday night as well. Charleston beat Nashville SC in the third round of the Open Cup and will host MLS juggernaut Atlanta United on June 12.
Louisville City and Charleston Battery are separated by just one spot and one point after the first 12 games of the season with LouCity sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 18 points and Charleston Battery in ninth with 17. Charleston is 1-3-1 in their last five matches while Louisville City is 2-2-1.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast locally on WBKI TV and streamed on ESPN+. The radio broadcast will be carried on WKJK 1080 AM.
Louisville City goalkeeper Chris Hubbard was named Visionworks Man of the Match in a vote by fans during Wednesday night’s 1-0 win over Birmingham Legion FC.
As is custom, Hubbard bought bagels for his teammates for helping him achieve the clean sheet.
“Yeah, everybody’s getting bagels again!” Hubbard said with a laugh. “I’m so excited to buy them. The more times I buy them the happier I’ll be.”
Hubbard said he didn’t mind buying bagels after his teammates made his work fairly light during LouCity’s 1-0 U.S. Open Cup win.
“Everybody gets paid back for helping me because I don’t know why I got Man of the Match,” Hubbard said. “I really didn’t have much to do.”
The match was a defensive battle for 90 minutes.
“They kind of took off – sat back a little bit and let us come to them and it was tough for us to break them down,” Hubbard said. “Whenever a team let’s you dictate the play sometimes it’s difficult to break that down. Then they had a lot of success in transition. They’re good about that – getting it out and switching the point of attack and then on the weakside, especially in transition, that’s when we’re vulnerable. They found that a lot but we did well. They really only got in behind us a few times but I think we did well to keep them in front of us at least.”
before a run by Brian Ownby and a takedown in the Birmingham Legion box led to a penalty kick by Sean Totsch to win the game. Hubbard has faced Totsch hundreds of times in practice as the pair practice penalty kicks.
“I felt great that he was walking up there,” Hubbard said. “There’s always a handful of guys on the team that no matter who we put up on the spot, they’re going to put it away. I have faith in pretty much everybody.”
Hubbard and Louisville City will take on Charleston Battery Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Slugger Field in a return to the USL Championship portion of the schedule.
After beating Birmingham Legion FC 1-0 Wednesday night in the 3rd Round of the U.S. Open Cup, Louisville City had to wait until Thursday morning to learn who their next foe would be.
Through a live-tweeted draw from the U.S. Open Cup, Louisville City found out they will play at longtime rival FC Cincinnati in the 4th Round on June 12.
The matchup is part of a round of 16 games pitting the winners from the first three rounds of the Open Cup with a group of MLS clubs who join the competition annually in Round 4.
Louisville City will update fans via social media channels as time, date and ticket information becomes available.
Louisville City and FC Cincinnati fans created a rivalry quickly when the two teams began to play each other regularly as part of the United Soccer League schedule.
The rivalry was intensified during several skirmishes during matches and was spurred along by former coach James O’Connor’s distaste for FC Cincinnati. While the rivalry won’t renew fully given FC Cincinnati’s move to the MLS, the two teams meeting on the pitch again is cause for celebration for many fans.
A penalty kick in the 90′ by Sean Totsch sent Louisville City FC into the 4th Round of the U.S. Open Cup Wednesday night. The Boys in Purple defeated Birmingham Legion 1-0 in a battle of USL Championship squads.
Louisville City will find out which MLS team they will play (and where) at 11 a.m. Thursday in the U.S. Open Cup 4th Round Draw, which will be live tweeted by @OpenCup and U.S. Soccer.
Totsch’s game winner came about when super-sub Brian Ownby made a run to the box and was undercut by Birmingham goalkeeper Matt VanOekel, resulting in a Yellow Card for Van Oekel.
Knowing that coach John Hackworth had tabbed him to take the Penalty Kicks in this match, Totsch stepped up to the line and buried it into the back of the net.
“I have the confidence,” Totsch said. “You go up there and not much changes. The ball is stopped at the same distance every time. They were saying some things to me there. They tried like putting the ball and messing with me. It’s kind of funny when they start messing with you, it turns from being a little nervous to being angry at them. I was like, ‘alright I got to get them back now.’ I knew I was like, ‘alright I got to get this guy back from trying to mess with me before my (penalty kick).’”
Hackworth said he knew Totsch would make the kick.
“We always take PK’s at times leading up to matches like this and we always chart every single one that’s made and Sean is really good at them, he makes the majority so out of those guys that started tonight we always say hey if we get a PK – and look we haven’t gotten one all year so this is kind of interesting – you are taking it.”
Hackworth joked that Totsch nearly lost that role in practice yesterday.
“Ironically, I turned around in practice yesterday and I see Totsch taking a PK and he misses,” Hackworth explained. “And I say, ‘OK, you’re out that’s it’ and he came running over ‘No No No, I was trying to hit a flag in the corner’ so I said “OK, fair enough” and it was a little joke, and then at the end there when we were congratulating each other he says, ‘I made it’ and I said yeah I had total faith in you never lost it.”
Louisville City ran out the remaining minutes of extra time and carried away the 1-0 victory in the rubber match between these two foes. Birmingham Legion won 3-2 in the first meeting at Slugger Field. Louisville City won the second meeting 3-0, this time in Birmingham.
