Louisville City FC returns to USL Championship action at 4 p.m. Sunday with road tilt at Loudoun United FC in suburban Washington.
With three wins and two draws through the early stages of the season, LouCity is off to one of its best starts in club history, sitting atop the Eastern Conference standings with a one-point advantage over Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC.
City travels to the Washington metro area coming off a 1-0 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup victory over Chattanooga Red Wolves, with Wilson Harris scoring the 75th-minute winner. Harris has now scored three times in six appearances for LouCity, and City has posted five clean sheets in those six games.
Loudoun United, the USL Championship affiliate of Major League Soccer club DC United, is off to a strong start, too, holding fifth place with seven points from four matches. Tyler Freeman, a former teammate of Harris and City winger Enoch Mushagalusa at Sporting KC II, is Loudoun’s leading scorer, with two goals.
The two teams didn’t play each other last season after regular matches in previous years. City beat Loudoun United, 2-0, in 2020, with goals from striker Cameron Lancaster and midfielder Napo Matsoso, who is suspended for Sunday’s match after receiving a red card in the 0-0 draw at Birmingham Legion this past Saturday.
Follow along…
• For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @LouCityFC on Twitter and Louisville City FC on Facebook. Also find us at @louisvillecityfc on Instagram.
• Sunday’s game will air on WBKI and stream via ESPN+ and the WDRB Now app. Listen to live radio coverage from Jeff Milby and Casey Whitfield on ESPN 680/105.7 or at ESPNLouisville.com.
Story lines…
Hot start: A win or draw on Sunday would secure LouCity’s best-ever start through seven competitions in a season after the 2018 team went six games without a defeat. At 3-0-2 in league play, City currently sits atop the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference standings with 11 points and is one of just four teams remaining in the USL Championship to have not lost a game. Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, Tampa Bay Rowdies and New Mexico United are also unbeaten.
Return of The Cup: As for that sixth game LouCity has played, the boys in purple posted a 1-0 win Wednesday over Chattanooga Red Wolves SC in a Second Round U.S. Open Cup fixture. Striker Wilson Harris’s 75th minute-goal made the difference for City as goalkeeper Kyle Morton and City’s back line recorded a fifth shutout on the season. LouCity advanced to the Third Round where it’ll meet St. Louis CITY SC 2 in a game set to be played between April 19-21, with dates and kickoff times to follow later.
Locking down: The boys in purple continue to be the hardest team to score on in the USL Championship, having conceded just one goal in their five league games. As a result, City leads the league in both clean sheets and goals allowed. Morton hasn’t been called upon often, however, needing to make just 13 saves — and that’s after the club played the second half of last weekend’s scoreless draw at Birmingham Legion FC down a man.
Showing fight: While LouCity didn’t leave Birmingham with all three points, coach Danny Cruz couldn’t have spoken more highly of his team’s performance after it battled to a draw after Napo Matsoso was shown a straight red card in the 42nd minute. Out of halftime, LouCity switched to a 5-3-1 formation and made a pair of defensive substitutions. After holding Birmingham scoreless, Cruz said, “It takes a lot of work, a lot of desire, a lot of heart, a lot of fight to do what those boys just did. I sit here feeling extremely proud to be their coach.”
Fear the beard: Tactical changes at halftime included Brian Ownby’s shift from the right wing to the top of the formation, where he waited for midfield work to be done and attempted to stretch the opposing defense. It often work as Ownby took Legion FC members on two and three at a time. With a Man of the Match performance, he totaled 6 fouls earned and won possession 9 times.
Youth movement: LouCity’s path to pro is paying off for the first team after a record three academy products — Josh Wynder, Carlos Moguel Jr. and Hunter Sekelsky — found themselves on the pitch together to end the Birmingham game. It marked Sekelsky’s first pro appearance days before Moguel Jr. earned his first start, going a full 90 minutes in LouCity’s Open Cup win.
Winner Wilson: Harris, the 2020 USL Championship Young Player of the Year, has been a hugely important addition for LouCity, especially in the wake of a preseason injury to LouCity’s 2021 leading scorer Cameron Lancaster. With three goals scored across all competitions, Harris also has to his credit a pair of game winners in LouCity’s season opener and again in the midweek Open Cup victory.
A mainstay returns: With the win on Wednesday, the boys in purple saw their all-time leader in games played, Niall McCabe, take the pitch for the first time this season. McCabe, who currently boasts 175 league games played for City, is the only member of its inaugural team in 2015 to stay with the club through all eight campaigns. The Irishman missed the start of the season while recovering from a non-COVID-19-related illness before making his 2022 debut as a 76th-minute sub.
First pro minutes: As a preseason trialist who played his way into a first team contract, Jan-Erik Leinhos earned his much-anticipated LouCity debut on Wednesday night at right back. The Felgsburg, Germany, native put in a 63-minute shift while leading his side with 4 interceptions. Leinhos arrived after a Marshall University career that included a victory in the 2020 College Cup, the NCAA Division I national title.
