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Louisville City FC is in Washington DC preparing for Sunday night’s matchup with Loudoun United at Audi Field. Check out this photo gallery from Saturday’s training session at the DC United training fields near RFK. 

Louisville City is back to work this week after a frustrating result vs. Bethlehem Steel last Saturday. LouCity goalkeeper Chris Hubbard says he likes the way his teammates are responding to Saturday’s match. 

“It was a frustrating result, that’s for sure, but everybody came out here and put their work in today,” Hubbard said. “Really high intensity, good quality, so it was the right response. We just gotta carry in through the rest of the week and into Sunday.”

Louisville City fell to 7th place in the Eastern Conference after Saturday’s match. While the top 10 teams make the playoffs, Louisville City holds themselves to a higher standard. 

“I think there is a confidence that we all have, that we can all play a good brand of soccer,” Hubbard said. “Just not getting the results is extremely frustrating for everyone, but we know that it’s coming, we know the potential that there is around here for us to not just win games, but score a lot of goals, so it’s just a matter of unlocking that and finding the right mix.”

With more than half the season complete, Hubbard and his teammates would be justified in looking at the league table, but Hubbard said that’s not his style. 

“I try not to, personally. I did the same thing in college,” Hubbard said. “I just try to worry about us. At some point it’s always in the back of your mind about where you are in the table and what you can do to change it, but I always try to ignore it if I can and just focus on us, but it’s tough to ignore the longer and longer you go, but once the results start coming then I don’t think I’ll need to look into it.”

Louisville City travels to Virginia Saturday to prep for LouCity’s next matchup, a 7:30 Sunday night tilt vs. Loudoun United. 

Louisville City FC’s longest-tenured player, Niall McCabe, was voted Dr. Mark Lynn and Associates Visionworks Man of the Match during Louisville’s game vs. Bethlehem Steel on Saturday. 

McCabe, who was responsible for several key chances for Louisville City during the match, garnered 44 percent of the vote. Teammates Speedy Williams (21 percent), Paco Craig (20 percent) and Luke Spencer (15 percent) were among the other vote-getters. 

McCabe led the team with six key passes and had two shots, one on frame during LouCity’s 0-1 loss. 

The Boys in Purple are preparing for a weekend trip to Loudoun United this weekend. Kickoff is set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m. 

Louisville City fell by a goal to Bethlehem Steel Saturday night at Slugger Field. A 26′ blast from just outside the box by Walter Cortes was the only score during a frustrating night for LouCity. 

LouCity put a lot of pressure on Bethlehem goalie, Tomás Romero, early in the game, but the Boys in Purple were unable to convert. 

“We had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t even get a shot off on,” Louisville City coach John Hackworth said. “We didn’t test their goalkeeper in a way that made him make a really tough save. We put it at him every time, and that’s just execution in the final act, and we missed a lot of those.” 

With that pressure, Louisville City sent 13 shots at the Bethlehem goalie in the first half, but only allowed four at Louisville City’s Chris Hubbard; however, one of those four found the back of the net in the ‘25. Bethlehem took a 0-1 lead with a little less than 65 minutes left to play. 

Following the Bethlehem goal, there was an onslaught of shots by LouCity including two shots on goal by Antione Hoppenot and Paco Craig, but time and time again, Louisville City was unable to convert. 

Luke Spencer said, “Honestly, besides the slow start, we did well in keeping the ball and creating chances. It just came down to creating chances. We had a ton of chances, just got to find a way to put it in the back of the net.”

Moving into the second half, it was more of the same. Shot after shot was taken towards the Bethlehem goal, and yet the Bethlehem keeper stood tall despite many Louisville City efforts. 

Hackworth said, “It has to start with me. Clearly whatever I am going is not good enough right now. I have to make some changes. I flat out was embarrassed in that first 20 minutes, because that’s not reflective of the way our team is. It’s not reflective of the way we train every single day.

“It’s hard because we watch these guys and from the day I got here they are an extremely competitive group. Their mentality is really good. It’s almost as if we think that we are better than we are. We think that we can go out and go through the motions and play to the level of our opponent. We’re taking those moments for granted. We’ve taken a lot of them so far. I don’t know how many more we can take until it becomes glaringly obvious.”

Louisville City fell to the Bethlehem Steel 0-1, as tonight’s loss was the first time Bethlehem has won against the two-time defending USL Champions. Louisville City fell to 7th place in the USL Eastern Conference standings. 

LouCity will head to Leesburg, Virginia to take on Loudoun United FC, who also fell tonight to the Indy Eleven, 0-2. Kickoff is scheduled for Sunday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m. 

Louisville City FC coach John Hackworth is not taking Bethlehem Steel lightly. Hackworth and LouCity will square off against the Steel Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Slugger Field.

Louisville City (8-5-6, 30 pts.) is currently in 6th in the Eastern Conference while Bethlehem Steel (5-10-4, 19 pts.) is in 12th. The top 10 teams make the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“The biggest thing we need to realize is that Bethlehem Steel has been a team that, every year, has consistently been in the playoffs,” Hackworth said. “We played them last year in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference. We tied them earlier this year in Philly. They deserve our ultimate respect, and we have to make sure that we go into this game giving them that, but also controlling what we can and believing that we can get a result.”

Hackworth called Bethlehem dangerous for a number of different reasons, most notably their changing lineups.

“Well if you specifically look at MLS-2 teams, they do a lot of rotation,” Hackworth explained. “You never know who you’re gonna play. You could get a first-teamer who’s coming back from injury and they wanna get him match minutes, or you could get a young guy that’s been playing well in the academy, so it’s difficult. What I know about Bethlehem Steel is what I said earlier: They have been in the playoffs consistently, they’ve always gotten better in the second half of the year. We’ve seen that recently from their performances, and I think we’re gonna get the best of what they have on Saturday night here.”

As for Louisville City, Hackworth wants to see his squad focus on starting the game well. The Boys in Purple have allowed the opponent to score first in the last five matches.

“The fact that it’s happened five times in a row, we’ve been able to come back and get results in all but one of those games is pretty remarkable,” Hackworth said. Louisville City has a win, three draws and a loss in its last five matches. “If you’re a soccer or football statistician, you’re looking at that and saying, ‘That’s not how it’s gonna play out.’ So that’s a positive, but honestly, you know, it’s not good enough that we have to react the way that we’re reacting. Again, we’re gonna go into it and say, ‘Let’s be proactive, let’s take the initiative, let’s get the first goal, let’s get the second one.’ And then it’s a much different look for us and a much different reaction, and that’s just what we have to try and work towards.”

Louisville City returned to training Tuesday morning after arriving back from Ottawa on Monday. After Ottawa scored in the 56’ on a penalty kick by Wall Fall before Louisville City found the equalizer from Magnus Rasmussen in the 67’. 

“The emphasis is going to be that we have to play 90 minutes from the first whistle to the last whistle, very consistent,” Hackworth said. “And that’s something that we honestly haven’t done yet. It’s fantastic that we have the responses that we are having when we go down a goal, but we don’t want to rely on that. We need to be proactive, we need to take the initiative from the very first whistle, and we need to be consistent through the last.”

Louisville City and Bethlehem Steel kick off at 7 p.m. at Slugger Field. The game will be broadcast locally on WBKI and streamed online on ESPN+.  The radio broadcast with Kevin Kernen and Jeff Greer will be on 840 WHAS starting at 6:45.

Louisville City coach John Hackworth spoke with media after training about the team’s upcoming matchup with Bethlehem Steel.