Louisville City FC wasn’t immune to a night of upsets around the United Soccer League, as the club saw an end Saturday to its three-game winning streak via a 3-0 loss to Orlando City B at Slugger Field.
Forward Michael Cox recorded a first half brace with goals in the 15th and 27th minutes before the visiting Lions’ Fernando Timbo added another on a set piece in the 53rd. Between the posts, Jake Fenlason saved all eight shots he faced, with the majority of those in the second half.
“There’s two ways of looking at it,” said LouCity coach James O’Connor. “It can become a very valuable moment for us that we sit down and analyze, and we can learn some lessons, or we can come out with a lot of excuses and just say, ‘Oh well. They scored three breakaway goals,’ and say we were unlucky.
“That’s not how I operate. So, we’ll sit and analyze and I’ll use it as a teaching moment and learn as much as I can, both as an individual and as a collective. We’ll go from there.”
One positive: The boys in purple maintained their first-place standing in the USL Eastern Conference despite the defeat. Both the second-place Charlotte Independence and third-place Charleston Battery lost as well, and to teams at the bottom of the table.
O’Connor didn’t offer that as a silver lining to the loss, which followed a string of three games in which his club out-scored opponents 13-1 and featured nine different goal scorers.
LouCity attempted 20 shots to Orlando’s eight and claimed 66.7 percent of the possession — but the few chances the Lions had were converted. On counter attacks, Cox finished at difficult angles, once from right side and then from the left. Timbo’s goal came on a headed corner to build the first three-goal deficit for LouCity at Slugger Field since 2015.
“I think there was a lot more that we could’ve done tonight,” said midfielder — and captain — Paolo DelPiccolo. “We got unlucky on a couple plays offensively and defensively, but overall I think you make your own luck, and we didn’t do that.”
As a result, Orlando lengthened an 11-game unbeaten streak and remained in a playoff position.
LouCity went down fighting, as O’Connor elected to bring on midfielder Brian Ownby at the break, then added forwards Cameron Lancaster and Ilija Ilic to the attack in the 57th minute.
Lancaster put a shot off the post in the 61st minute. Defender Tarek Morad placed a header on goal in the 61st, and Guy Abend followed with a bicycle kick. Nothing got past Orlando’s keeper, Fenlason, as LouCity suffered just its second loss in 11 games this season at Slugger.
“When things weren’t necessarily going our way with passes and crosses — shots hitting the crossbar — I think that we got down on ourselves a tiny bit,” said defender Oscar Jimenez. “You could see it on some of the players — the frustration — which is something we need to get away from, because we have the quality to score goals as you’ve seen in the past few games. So it’s just a little bit of unluckiness there.”
A run of three straight home games continues next weekend when the Battery visit for a 5 p.m. Saturday start.
Game Summary
Match: Louisville City FC vs. Orlando City B
Date: Aug. 26, 2017
Venue: Louisville Slugger Field
Kickoff: 7:35 p.m.
Weather: 79 degrees, Sunny
Attendance: 8,251
LouCity Man of the Match: Oscar Jimenez
Scoring
Louisville City FC (0, 0, 0)
Orlando City B (2, 1, 3)
Goals
Orlando City B:
Michael Cox, assist to Fernando Timbo (15’)
Michael Cox, assist to Jordan Schweitzer (27’)
Fernando Timbo, assist to Rafael Ramos (53’)
Lineups
Louisville City FC: 1 Greg Ranjitsingh, 4 Sean Totsch, 15 Sean Reynolds, 6 Tarek Morad, 19 Oscar Jimenez, 36 Paolo DelPiccolo, 8 Guy Abend, 22 George Davis IV, 7 Mark-Anthony Kaye (10 Brian Ownby – 45’), 12 Luke Spencer (14 Ilija Ilic – 57’), 11 Niall McCabe (9 Cameron Lancaster – 58’)
Subs not used: 28 Tim Dobrowolski, 18 Paco Craig, 23 Richard Ballard, 80 Devon Williams
Head coach: James O’Connor
Orlando City B: 70 Jake Fenlason, 27 Rafael Ramos (71 Zach Carroll – 76’), 94 Victor Giro (42 Zach Hayden – 63’), 3 Seb Hines, 22 Conor Donovan, 24 Lewis Neal, 79 Fernando Timbo, 41 Jordan Schweitzer, 77 Austin Martz, 98 Pierre Da Silva, 99 Michael Cox (90 Albert Dikwa – 45’)
Subs not used: 60 Aaron Smith, 63 Scott Thomsen, 80 Ryley Kraft, 45 Ben Polk
Head coach: Anthony Pulis
Discipline
Louisville:
Sean Reynolds, yellow (14’)
George Davis IV, yellow, (73’)
Oscar Jimenez, yellow, (89’)
Orlando City B:
Fernando Timbo, yellow, (81’)
Lewis Neal, yellow, (90’)
Stats
Louisville City FC / Orlando City B
Shots: 19 / 8
Shots on target: 6 / 5
Possession: 66.8% / 33.2%
Passes: 501/261
Corners: 16 / 2
Fouls: 11 / 11
Officials
Referee: Calin Radosav
Assistant Referee 1: Nait Hegerty
Assistant Referee 2: Justin Guilkey
4th Official: Joshua Brooks
