By Andrew Bell
Louisville City FC traveled to defeat San Diego Loyal by a 5-2 score Saturday night in a wild game featuring two red cards and three penalty kicks.
Offseason signing Wilson Harris netted first and early for the boys in purple when a San Diego defender mishandled the ball at the top of the box in the fourth minute. Harris picked up possession and touched it around San Diego goalkeeper Austin Guerrero. Loyal equalized 10 minutes later in the form of a penalty kick converted by forward Andrew Carleton after Thomas Amang was brought down by City center back Sean Totsch.
LouCity nudged ahead once again four minutes into first half stoppage time as Corben Bone looped in a corner kick, which was fumbled by the goalkeeper and volleyed home by LouCity defender Wes Charpie. Harris won the boys in purple their first penalty of the night when his free kick rocketed into the outstretched arm of a defending San Diego player. Totsch stepped up and finished to the right of the goalkeeper in the 51st minute.
Loyal halved the deficit just a minute later after San Diego forward Kyle Vassel muscled his way to the left side of the box on a breakaway and curled the ball around LouCity keeper Kyle Morton to make it 2-3. Soon after, LouCity went down a man when Sean Totsch was shown his second yellow card of the night.
LouCity’s second penalty was won by winger Brian Ownby in the 82nd minute as his breakaway opportunity ended with a shove in the back by Loyal center back, Grant Stoneman, who was promptly sent off. City veteran Niall McCabe tucked away the try. Just for good measure, in the 94th minute, Ownby headed the ball past San Diego’s keeper off of a Kyle Morton punt from deep to cap the scoring.
A win added to LouCity’s undefeated and best-ever start to a USL Championship campaign this season with the club now 5-0-2. The boys in purple started six games unbeaten in 2018.
In the process, LouCity stunted San Diego’s four-game undefeated record at home this season. Loyal are far from a brush-aside team, still sitting atop the Western Conference exiting Saturday with 16 points from eight games played and the best attacking record in the league.
LouCity performed well against San Diego while playing down a man for more than 20 minutes during the second half and far from home. The boys in purple extended their early Eastern Conference lead to four points over Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC.
“What this group continues to show is the ability to fight for one another and bail our teammates out,” said coach Danny Cruz. “We certainly did that tonight. It was an unbelievable mentality to come here — it’s not easy — and continue the run that we are on.”
Low block luster
After losing Totsch on a pair of yellows, Cruz substituted in two midfielders and defenders and had LouCity commit numbers behind the ball for the remainder of the game. Last season, when Cruz put City into a defensive formation to protect a lead, City tended to be bombarded by shots and crosses, often giving opponents a chance to get back into the game.
But things appear different this season. In the second half against San Diego, the boys in purple held San Diego to just 33% shot accuracy and scored twice while doing so.
“When the red card happened, we had to make some quick decisions,” Cruz said. “We decided to go to a 4-4-1 [formation] just to give us time to make the subs we needed. But most importantly, it was the willingness to get in front of shots, the willingness to win headers, to win our duels, I’m just a really proud manager.”
Potent purple defending resulted in 22 tackles, 19 interceptions, and only 9 fouls conceded (compared to San Diego’s 16). Sixteen-year-old LouCity academy product Josh Wynder put in the most tackles on the field (4), while the center back goalscorer Charpie had the most interceptions of the night (4).
City keeper Kyle Morton came up big against San Diego, prohibiting the Loyal from sneaking back into the game. The LouCity preseason signing had 3 saves and even assisted Brian Ownby’s late, sealing goal with an accurate three-quarter field bomb. While City conceded the most goals of the season against San Diego, it bears reminding that Loyal are so far the best attacking team in the league.
“We have to continue to attack the weeks as they come,” said Cruz. “I’ve made it clear that I’m happy with the growth of the group so far. There are certainly areas that we need to continue to improve. We try to do the best job to prepare these guys week in and week out, but again when you look at a group that can win games that are scrappy, that can win playing good football, that can defend a lead when they need to, we are winning in different ways right now.”
A connection up top
LouCity forwards Ownby and Harris terrorized Loyal defenders all game long. Ownby, who’s been with City since 2017, totalled four shots — all coming from within the box — 13 passes into Loyal’s final third, four fouls won (the most out of any player on the field) and a goal to show for it.
Ownby pressed all night long and was the first to throw himself at the ball after his team went down a man. Harris and Ownby also linked up throughout the match by making overlapping runs and drawing defenders away from each other. Harris’s heatmap shows he spent a large amount of time on Ownby’s right side of the pitch.
Harris has certainly made a name for himself in purple. The 22-year-old — the 2020 USL Championship Young Player of the Year who made a move this year from Sporting KC — now has four goals in seven games this season. Although he only played 73 minutes against San Diego, he also tallied three shots, created the most chances on the field and had 100% dribble success rate (2/2).
