Louisville City bounced back from a rare two-match losing streak in grand fashion, taking its chances and slotting three second-half goals past visiting Memphis 901 FC on a historic Saturday evening at Lynn Family Stadium.
In front of the stadium’s first-ever capacity crowd, LouCity (3-2-1) played with the urgency it lacked in attacking spaces the past two matches, the boys in purple matching the energy of the crowd of 12,115. Wes Charpie, the deserving man of the match, opened the scoring in the 58th minute, with Cameron Lancaster’s penalty and Brian Ownby’s header 10 and 12 minutes later putting the exclamation points on the win. Thanks to a solid back line performance and his usual area command, Chris Hubbard earned his second clean sheet of the young season.
Here’s what we learned from the all-around performance by Louisville City:
Consistent movement and space exploration makes LouCity so much more dangerous.
When Antoine Hoppenot and Brian Ownby, the inverted wingers in Danny Cruz’s 4-3-3 formation, can find spaces and run into them, LouCity attacks with a different dynamic. It helps having Paolo DelPiccolo and Corben Bone finding half spaces and delivering good service ahead, too.
Hoppenot has done well in recent matches getting into scoring positions, though he’s still looking for that finishing touch. Ownby’s re-insertion into the lineup after his two-match suspension gives LouCity a persistent runner who is constantly trying back-shoulder runs off defenders. Their movement inside and out allows the fullbacks to pick their spots, with Hoppenot tucking inside and Jonathan Gomez giving great overlapping help on the left. That’s exactly what happened Saturday, and LouCity looked much more serious getting forward.
Wes Charpie, in rich form, solidified the defensive lines Saturday night.
Playing confidently alongside Sean Totsch, Charpie’s versatility helps a lot — he can play out left as he did at Atlanta United 2 or at center back — and his ability to switch fields with long passes lets LouCity’s fullbacks advance much higher up the touchlines in possession.
More importantly, as a group, LouCity communicated and organized much better as a defense. The boys in purple tracked runners, marked at the back post and played much cleaner possession when building out of the back. The conceded penalties all came from shaky play out of defense, but there were no moments like that vs. Memphis.
Persistence pays off.
LouCity had its chances in the opening 45 minutes, mixing well-worked moves with threatening long shots but coming up empty. Still, it felt like there were goals to be had. And they came in the second half.
LouCity’s finishing around goal has been a bugaboo, as the team ranked second in the USL Championship in expected goals per match (1.73) but only had six in five matches to show for it. Perhaps all it took to break that spell was seeing the ball ripple the net. Charpie broke the dam with a heads-up redirection of DelPiccolo’s recycled cross off a blocked set piece. It seemed simple, but the cool finish in front of goal is exactly the type of breakthrough LouCity needed after banging on the door. Lancaster left no doubt on his penalty, and Ownby put in the extra effort needed to nod in Gomez’s deflected cross.
What a difference Gomez makes.
This isn’t exactly something we learned Saturday, but the 17-year-old is a game changer on the flanks. He can really get high up the touchline while also allowing Hoppenot to cut inside, and he recovers well in defense, covering a lot of ground. LouCity is a different team with him on the field, and Saturday just added to that argument.
