By Andrew Bell
Louisville City FC was defeated by Tampa Bay Rowdies, 3-2, on Saturday night at Lynn Family Stadium in a game where late life in LouCity wasn’t enough to get a result against the visitors.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring within 30 seconds when a mistake at the back for City gave Rowdies forward JJ Williams a free shot on goal from within the box.
LouCity equalized in the 19th minute when Rasmus Thellufsen’s cross, heading for Manny Perez, put Rowdies defender Freddy Kleeman in an awkward position facing his own net and forced the center back into an own goal.
In the 33rd minute, Tampa Bay won a penalty kick after Kyle Adams pulled down Williams on an incoming corner kick. Williams skied the attempt, but he assisted Cal Jennings’ go-ahead goal three minutes later after Jennings got on the end of a through ball and slid it past LouCity from a tight angle.
Jennings doubled his team’s lead in the 38th minute after a ball through the middle of the pitch found the forward, who took it on his right foot and fired past Semmle.
LouCity scored its second goal in the 92nd minute when Manny Perez weaved through defenders and left it for substitute Cameron Lancaster, who whipped a curling shot into the top right corner from outside the box. The late effort wasn’t enough, though, as Tampa Bay saw out the win, landing LouCity fifth in the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference standings heading into playoffs.
“The atmosphere tonight was incredible,” head coach Danny Cruz said about the more than 12,000 supporters in attendance on Saturday. “The guys felt it, and unfortunately we couldn’t reward that atmosphere with a result. At this point, it can’t be us feeling sorry for ourselves. When we’re going to be on the road for the first game of the playoffs, I know that everybody’s going to be watching. For us, it’s about making sure that they’re able to watch something and be proud of it.”
The loss is LouCity’s second of the year against Tampa Bay, a team City defeated in the Eastern Conference final last season to advance to the USL Championship final. City’s fifth-place finish and 50 point season are both the lowest in club history, a stark contrast to the team’s record 72 points last year in a season where LouCity finished first in the East.
On Saturday, City looked defensively disorganized and offensively tame. City, hoping to flip its fortune next week, travels to face a strong Memphis 901 FC side in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal round of the 2023 USL Championship Playoffs.
Lacking potency
On Saturday, LouCity garnered over 70% possession in the first half and 55% in the second. In the same match, City placed just one of 12 shots on target, with that try on frame coming two minutes into second half stoppage time on Lancaster’s long-range goal.
Against Tampa Bay, City’s usual dangermen were less than quiet. Veteran winger Brian Ownby didn’t attempt a shot and had just one touch in the Rowdies’ box. Forward Wilson Harris and midfielder Dylan Mares combined for six shots but could only translate those into 0.17 expected goals.
At times throughout the season, LouCity has been efficient going forward. Amid a tough stretch of schedule between late August and September, City had scored in six straight games, netting 12 goals in that time. LouCity, in that spell, scored against other solid playoff teams such as Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and San Diego Loyal SC.
City’s recent inconsistencies, however, may have cost the team a fourth-place finish, a position that would have earned the club a home game to start playoffs. Having dropped points in its last three matches, failed to capitalize on Memphis’ recent woes, forcing the boys in purple to travel away from Lynn Family Stadium, a venue in which City has scored in eight straight games.
On Saturday, LouCity lacked the creativity to cut through and create quality chances against a stout Tampa Bay defense. On the night, City often danced around the opposition’s box, passing the ball around until a mistake would reset the attack or lead to a big chance for the Rowdies. LouCity out-crossed Tampa Bay, 34-6, but the boys in purple failed to get into dangerous areas in other ways, making its attacks predictable and preventable to an aerially dominant team like the Rowdies. All of this points to City’s possible need for a potent attacking addition in the offseason.
Foiled on the counter
Despite the possession imbalance on Saturday, Tampa Bay’s goals weren’t flukes. The Rowdies entered Lynn Family Stadium with a clear game plan: to get everyone behind the ball on defense and punish LouCity on the counterattack. This strategy worked for the visitors, as City failed to adapt and conceded two of three goals because of it.
When defending, Tampa Bay seemed content with letting City pass the ball deep into the Rowdies’ half. As a result, LouCity attempted a season-high 539 passes. Long strings of possession for City may have given it a sense of safety and control, yet left the boys in purple defensively surprised by lightning-quick Tampa Bay breakaways.
On Saturday, 36% of the game was spent in the Rowdies’ final third, with only 16% being in City’s. As a result, LouCity played a relatively high defensive line. So, Tampa Bay’s counter attacks would consistently have City defenders chasing the back of a Rowdies forward for 40 or 50 yards. In this way, City was constantly disorganized at the back and tiring legs made more mistakes.
The failure to adapt to Tampa Bay’s tactics ensured that LouCity was stretched vertically. Gaps between the attack and midfield, and midfield and defense for City gave the Rowdies more time and space on the ball, allowing more quality chances to be produced by the visitors despite having the ball less.
“There’s still everything to play for at this point,” Cruz said about moving into the postseason. “We have the quality to go on and do something special. But I want to make sure that at the end of the game against whoever we are playing, that there’s an immense amount of pride in the performance — that everybody is battling for the badge and the community.”
