Two more games, six more points from Los Morados. I’d have done a MMCB earlier in the week but I was crushing Big Thunder Mountain Railroad riding Prince Charming’s Carousel so I’m only just now getting to it. Neither of the last two opponents are very good so the results shouldn’t be that surprising. Let’s dig into numbers and charts, then, shall we?

Interestingly enough, the counting stats in the Tworonto game are really pretty equal between both teams. The Little Reds actually had more possession, completed more passes, and more accurate shots than Louisville City did. The problem was three of City’s four shots on target when in, which probably says more about the quality of chances both teams had than anything else. The touchmap probably tells the tale best:

TFCII had the ball 13 times in City’s penalty area, but very little possession in dangerous areas. Maybe five touches were really problematic. Morados, on the other hand…

That’s quite a bit better. Finally, the quality of shot both teams took were, well, different:

Morados definitely had more control over the match in the first half than the second, but given the 0-2 lead they had it’s not hard to imagine they were trying to shut the game down or at least be a bit more conservative.

Individually, Oscar notably created five scoring chances in the match and picked up an assist for his trouble. Brian Ownby was 14-17 on duels, which is nuts. Cam touched the ball six times and scored a goal. LOL. All told, things went about as you’d expect.

Soooooo let’s see what, if anything, changed in the North Carolina game….

A bit. Hackworth rolled out the standard 4-2-3-1 in the Tworonto game, but for this one, he kind of put Niall McCabe and Jose Carranza in central midfield to rest Speedy and spell Paolo, who was out on a yellow card accumulation suspension. We saw this kind of thing once before, ironically in the prior meeting with Toronto that went so badly. In that game, City put out a four man back line, Speedy and sort of Ilija in the center, and four other attackers. It didn’t work, and I had reservations about it in this game, too.

More importantly, it’s a bit of a different look. The holding midfielder sits deep in front of the centerbacks so the fullbacks can get further forward to get service to the four attacking players who sort of play in a diamond with Cam at the top. In attack, this formation can kind of be an inverted 4-3-3; a 3-3-4, really. In this match, Niall played much further back to offer some support to Carranza, who was a little overwhelmed by the Carolina midfield. That’s not that surprising, given the setup. When Speedy came on in the second half, he seemed to have a better grasp over the role, though by that point the fullbacks pulled back a bit and the space in midfield was easier to fill.

Morados really overwhelmed Carolina in this game, with nearly 60% possession, along with a big edge in duels, tackles, completed passes in the opposition half, chances and shots. Ilija really shone again in the Number 10 role, Cam did Cam things, Oscar and Kyle both were incisive in their runs and deliveries.

Carranza actually didn’t play that badly from a statistical perspective, but he didn’t do particularly well keeping the ball in possession. He’s still a young player and this was a pretty good learning experience for him in my book.

Given the rotated roster and tactics in this match, City can feel pretty good about this result. Plus, since Pittsburgh drew last night, Morados have locked up second place in the USL Cup Playoffs. However, just because this weekend’s match is essentially consequence-free doesn’t mean the entire club isn’t out for BLOOD in the final regular season installment of the LIPAFC. LET THE REVENGE TOUR CONTINUE APACE! Indy owes us some goals, let’s go get ’em.