In a little over a month, Luke Spencer, Paolo DelPiccolo and George Davis IV have gone from professional soccer players to players, coaches, team leaders, and media figureheads.
The change has been one which no player expects when he signs his professional contract, but the triumvirate has handled it with aplomb. LouCity has won two of three matches with the new leadership, including an electrifying 4-1 victory Saturday in their first home match in charge.
Since the player-coaches were appointed, the team has played with noticeably more fluid, with players overlapping and exchanging intricate passes to create moments of magic like the 8,006 fans at rainy Louisville Slugger Field saw time and time again against Charlotte.
“There’s definitely a sense of freedom now in the locker room,” George Davis IV said Monday, “but we have to manage that, and we have to maintain a balance that we stay on track with what is important. Our mentality stays the same. Again, our focus and our concentration are maintained, but yeah there may be a bit more freedom.”
Even though the “Boys in Purple” are playing with a newfound liberation, they’ve tried to maintain a focus on discipline. After three red cards in two matches, Luke Spencer made a point emphasize discipline in the locker room.
“We’re leaving each other out there a man down,” Spencer said. “Two men down, and we can’t do that. It’s hard enough playing 11v11. We have to have more respect for each other and stay disciplined.”
That message resonated with the entire team, and LouCity committed just seven fouls throughout the match, were caught offsides just one time, and not a single player registered a booking.
“Sometimes you got to learn the hard lessons,” Spencer said, “and I think Charleston and Chicago were good lessons for us. We took a lot of weight in those two games, even though we lost them. We learned from them, they allowed us to improve from those games. The guys took that message on board, and it showed in the result.”
