WHO: North Carolina FC, 13W-7D-5L, 46 points, 2nd place Eastern Conferece

WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match

WHEN: Saturday, August 24, 2019, 3:00 p.m.

WHERE: Louisville Slugger Field, 401 E. Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202

WATCH: At the game! This is a BIG match for LouCity. It’s in the middle of your Saturday afternoon. College football is still a week or so away. The weather is gonna be really nice. There’s literally nothing else you have to do. They sell beer there.

But if you can’t make it, you can still watch on WBKI, listen on 840 WHAS maybe, and stream it on ESPN+.

MARCH:

Join us and the Lou City Tailgaters for all your pre-match festivity needs! Tailgating typically starts around four (4) hours prior to kickoff but you may find a few die-hards out there earlier. The tailgate is supporter run and supporter funded. We recommend BYOB and food contributions. If you do partake we ask that you contribute to the general fund. The main tailgate is located at the corner of N Preston St and E Witherspoon St in the Riverside Parking Cobalt Lot. The Coopers are joined here by several other SGs, so come say hello to everyone!

About 30-40 minutes prior to kickoff we’ll start the March to the Match. Join us as we march around the tailgate lot, up Preston St, and into the east entrance. Flags will be waving, smoke will be popping, and we’ll be chanting and singing the whole way!

After the match concludes, we have beers at Against the Grain which is conveniently located right outside the Slugger Field gate. Make sure you ask for a pint of the Coopers rotating charity tap! $0.50 from every pour (on home match days) goes to Shirley’s Way, a most excellent local charity helping families of those afflicted with cancer.

WHO, AGAIN? Turns out, NCFC is pretty good this year. Dave Sarachan has navigated them into second place in what, earlier in the season, looked to be a two horse race for first place between RB2 and Tampa Bay. However, the former FailHawks have managed to win four of their last five matches while the Rowdies have stumbled a bit of late, and so they find themselves in the thick of things.

North Carolina a pretty solid possession team, but aren’t above playing on the counter, as we saw in living color way back in March. Their leading scorer is Steven (not Stephen) Miller with nine goals, and five players have at least five tallies each. This is a pretty dangerous offensive team, with attackers like Andre Fortune, Ulrich Ewolo, Robert Kristo, Ben Speas, Marios Lomis and the recently acquired Nazmi Albadawi. Sarachan also recently signed Justin Rennicks, the latest New England Revolution castoff who will probably do just fine in USL.

They’re a pretty strong home side, losing just once at WakeMed and drawing four times. Their away form isn’t too bad either, with five wins, four losses and three draws. NCFC has scored 47 goals on the season, which is a lot, while giving up just 23. They’ve scored nine in their last two matches, one of which was against Pittsburgh.

All hat might lead you to say “well, this is not a good time to be playing the FailHawks,” and you could be right. However, NCFC is coming off a tough midweek game (that they won) against Tampa Bay so rest is an issue. LouCity, meanwhile, is coming off a good run of recent form and looks like a team that is finally starting to gel at the right time.

But yeah, this is gonna be a tough match. Carolina can stretch you out, catch you on the counter, and pull you apart if you aren’t committed to the defensive gameplan. That is always a challenge for an offensive-minded team like Morados, but I think they’re up for it this weekend.

There’s still no update on Paolo DelPiccolo or Brian Ownby, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see the same lineup we saw last week. Sunny Jane drives me a little crazy with his unpredictability so there may be a different look up top, but otherwise I think the 4-3-3 we’ve been playing will continue apace. I think it’ll be important

This is a big match, and a chance for LouCity to really start making some moves heading toward the postseason. Let’s go get three points. VAMOS MORADOS.