LOUISVILLE CITY FC 4

INDY ELEVEN 1

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Bringing their regular season form in with them, the Louisville City ‘Boys in Purple’ extended their win streak to 7 games, but more importantly stridently overcame the sturdy challenge of the Indy Eleven ‘Boys In Blue’ with a 4-1 beating to qualify for Round 2 of the USL Playoffs.

The clubs tied their regular season series (1-1-1) and in 2018’s 4th edition of the Louisville Indiana Proximity Association Football Contest held in the constricting confines of Slugger Field. With the visitor always determined to load up in midfield and stifle the favorite, another gritty, closely fought affair had been anticipated.

City lined up unchanged from the crew that had consigned the Eleven to 7th place and a faster than fast return to LSF a week later.

Indy Eleven have had a lot of trouble getting their offense going this season. Their front-runners consistently turned in inconsistent performances, and it turns out that top scorer Jack McInerney and probably the most talented member of the squad Soony Saad were not really suited to playing together.

McInerney – on this night paired with Ben Speas, the couplet sporting nearly 250 matches of MLS experience between them – started this match for Indy. The man bold enough to turn out weekly for IXI in a No. 99 jersey almost shocked City just 30 seconds into the game when he found himself with enough room at the top of the area to bang one in on Greg Ranjitsingh. Fortunately, the alert goalkeeper did well to tip it over the bar.

It was an early warning bell that the Louisville had better tighten up or prepare to get upset, a fate that in fact befell 4 of the 8 top seeded teams in Round 1.

The home side were a little slow to absorb the message, however. Indy almost exploited room behind Kyle Smith as Alexis Souahy cleared for a corner, the leftovers from which Nico Matern flashed a shot wide from outside.

After their unusual less-than-assured beginning to a match, City began to sort their game out. Niall McCabe and Brian Ownby soon issued warnings of their own, sending in questioning crosses, each of which did not quite connect.

IXI wanted to cancel out City’s potent midfield but Brian, these days fully fit and flying around the field, was eying up adversaries Karl Ouimette and Seth Moses as likely fodder. The predatory wide man beat Moses up the line and sent in near post for Cameron Lancaster whose brave header was turned away by returning center-back Carlyle Mitchell’s nearby boot.

The first big chance for Louisville came on 14 minutes when a delightful Oscar Jimenez cross from the left arrived at the doorstep of Ilija Ilić’s deep in the Indy area. However, the routinely lethal attacker surprisingly turned his left-footer wide. Upon further inspection, of Ilija’s 12 tallies this season 11 have come from his right foot, the other from his head.

With much of City’s attack being generated up left wing, a trend developing since Brian’s rousing renaissance, he along with Cameron, were becoming a handful for the northerners’ defense. In the 17th minute, Ilija and Kyle set up Cameron but his shot on the turn had no gas and on it and Owain Fôn Williams, Indy’s star performer from the week before, gratefully collected. Shortly after, a fine, long, curving ball played by Oscar with the outside of the foot nearly played Brian in but this time Moses recovered in time to ward away the threat.

City now had a firm grip on the midfield and in the 19th, Kyle drove forward and inside from the right and was stopped illegally by Moses 30 yards out from goal.

Recently, Oscar has been looked as incisive as ever on key balls from open play whilst strangely struggling to find his range on dead ball situations. His free kick here, though, only narrowly missed connecting as Paco Craig showed up at the far post.

Niall drew a foul by Mitchell, left and 35 yards out and this being in Lancaster Land, the guilded Golden Booter stepped forward. Typically for his 1st free kick attempt of a game, he ballooned the loosener high over the bar.

In the 25th minute, the lively Speas found space behind Kyle again and Greg was glad to see McInerney’s rising bid clear his crossbar.

George Davis lV had made little offensive impression until in the 29th he was provided a promising chance on a cross from Brian, however his drive was well saved by Williams for a corner.

Perhaps ready to improvise for improved results, an apparent training ground play saw George lV check in and draw a defender and Oscar send the corner low to the incoming Niall. The Emerald Express hit a seeing eye shot from 14 yards out that appeared to take a touch or two on its way by a screened Williams before finding the back of the onion bag for the opening goal of the game. After allowing himself to be caught by his teammates right in front of a rapturous Coopers section, Niall saluted toward the Louisville coaching staff – Hack after the match generally gave assistant Danny Cruz the credit for scouting the specific Indy defending weakness.

Speas and Dylan Mares continued to furrow up the left and it seemed that if IXI were to manage a breakthrough this would be the likely avenue. Meanwhile nothing getting through to Greg was seriously troubling him.

This was far less so at Williams’ end as Kyle received from Oscar and dropped a fine ball in over the heads of the Indy central defense for Cameron to chase down. His looping header on goal was slowed by the blustery wind, pervasive for the duration of the match, for the goalkeeper to gather safely.

Just as in the previous game, a 1-0 halftime deficit would have been acceptable for the Eleven from which to regroup and endeavor to bring themselves back into the game. However, City had other ideas.

Niall, working the seams all over the pitch, outstripped Matern up the right wing and chipped a dangerous ball into the area. Mitchell, pressured by Cameron, was unable to play clear the lines and George IV pounced and lobbed into the goalmouth where Ouimette was now challenged by Brian. The ball fell to where Ilija was cannily waiting and the Silky Serb redeemed himself for his earlier miss, coolly stroking it inside the goalpost for City’s 2nd.

It was an archetypal No. 14 goal, with Ilija, on the back of industrious teamwork, ghosting into a quiet area in the box and snapping a precise finish beyond a stunned defense.

On the stroke of halftime, Oscar picked out Niall on the left with a great 40 yard ball, but the Young Harris Hall-of-Famer wasn’t able to make the most of it as his cross went directly to Williams.

During the break, Indy coach Martin Rennie proactively replaced holding mid Matern with defender Kevin Venegas and immediately stationed him high up on the right, his skill set being similar to that of Kyle’s.

Rennie’s team had almost started the 1st half with a bang and they began the 2nd by incurring a yellow card when Mitchell dumped Cameron just as play got underway again.

When he was bundled down again for a free kick near the right corner, Oscar and Niall foolhardily figured they could hoodwink the Eleven a second time on the exact set play they had employed earlier – and wondrously they did. The pair pulled a virtual carbon copy, with Oscar once more feigning long, then cutting back low for Niall to drive the ball through a slew of defenders screening Williams’ view. It was a Dublin double for Niall, who was having a total blinder.

At 3-0, the only question to be answered was whether IXI would be able to muster any pride and keep the score respectable as the 2nd half played out, or totally collapse and allow City to run riot, as they are known to.

George lV might be a little frustrated lately, justifying his inclusion by getting into scoring positions and getting off several shots game after game. The problem, they’ve been either missing the target or drawing brilliant saves, and Williams pulled off a flying intervention from No. 22’s 51st minute effort, supplied by Ilija and Cameron.

In the 58th, he was in for a chance again as Brian carried through midfield, smartly turned right and switched for Cuatro to again fire narrowly over.

Rennie had persisted with favorites McInerney and captain Ben Watson as long as he possibly could but he finally withdrew them for the twin threats of rangy Kiwi forward Elliot Collier and Soony Saad, the Lebanon international.

Collier, in a role repeating the one he had been given the previous week, once again instantly imposed himself with a threatening cross scrambled away by the City defense and Soony was active as well around the Louisville area.

Speedy Williams replaced George lV , and Niall committed the sole blemish on his otherwise grand evening by taking a needless yellow card for denying Indy a quick throw-in in their own half.

Indy had been desperate to restore some hope and they managed to do so in the 67th when Ilija turned into a challenge by Moses just his side of halfway. Speas collected the loose ball and fed inside to Mares who threaded a precise pass to Soony in a pocket between Alexis and Paco. The central defenders had been trying to hold the offside line and there were inches in it, but with no flag forthcoming Soony skillfully turned Paco and sent a strong right-footer low to Greg’s right and into the Louisville net.

City had been looking nigh on impregnable and though mildly bemused by the sudden reversal set about working to make up their 3 goal lead.

A counter sweeping the length of the park involving Speedy, Cameron, Brian and Oscar resulted in Speedy firing over the top. The Jamaican Jammer is another midfielder who could do to get his name on the scoresheet after losing his starting spot through little fault of his own – more due to the compelling performances of others and the unrelenting offensive instincts of Coach Hack.

That said, with less reason than ever for the Eleven to make life easy for your franchise marksman, it possibly was not the safest long term strategy to keep Cameron on the field so long into a match you never looked like losing, and certainly he was not immune to a taking a few knocks over the course of the period.

Nevertheless, after Ouimette took a card in the 72nd, cleaning out Oscar 35 yards out on the penalty area perpendicular, No. 9 was presented another opportunity to add to his incredible Louisville legacy. With all the work to do from such a distance, Cameron struck yet another spectacular arcing effort over the wall and beneath the bar at the near post, Williams doing well to get a glove to the ball but, like so many before him, unable to prevent the Tottenham Torpedo from tickling the twine yet again.

Soon after taking another knock resulting in on-field treatment, Cameron was at last relieved by Luke Spencer for the final 10 minutes. Sean Totsch later replaced Ilija to shore everything up at the back.

The Purples continued to manage the latter stages of the game well and had a chance to extend their lead when Brian, Niall and Speedy combined for an opportunity for Oscar, only for his shot to fly well over.

Greg stopping a headed Soony flick from a Speas cross was the last action of the game and City’s resounding 4-1 scoreline had held.

In light of the ultratight nature of previous LIPAFCs, perhaps the most surprising factor was that emphatic scoreline, although Indy Eleven had competed hard throughout, with Soony Saad all class in his half hour on the field and Ben Speas showing well over the 90 minutes.

Amongst a sea of fine LCFC performances, the unopposed selection for Player of the Game was 2 goal hero Niall McCabe who was also instrumental in Ilija Ilić’s strike. Oscar Jimenez for his smart assists and all-around creativity and Captain Paolo Del Piccolo for his, as ever, firm underpinning of the Louisville midfield were also standouts.

With all hands (and feet) fit and on deck, City appear to be sailing at full steam and Round 2 opponent Bethlehem Steel, who scored an upset penalty shootout victory in Pittsburgh on Saturday night, will need to be at their level best to avoid being scuttled at Slugger next Saturday evening.

NY Red Bulls 2 surprised Charlotte Battery and will visit FC Cincinnati, winners in a shootout vs Nashville SC, in the other Eastern semi-final.

~~~~~ Fun Footnotes ~~~~~

* City’s 7 game USL win streak becomes a franchise record for a single calendar year

* Through their final 6 league and playoff games of 2017 and opening 4 games of 2018, City prevailed in 10 straight outings