WHO: Loudoun United, 3W-3D-4L, 12 points, 12th place Eastern Conference

WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match

WHEN: Saturday, June 8, 2019, 7:00 p.m.

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

WATCH: At the game! Marc Weinberg is an alarmist, the weather will be fine. But if you can’t because you’re trapped under something heavy, you can still watch on TV on WBKI-58, stream it on ESPN+, or listen on Radio TBD (which probably means 790 WKRD or 1080 WKJK).

MARCH:

PRE-MATCH TAILGATE

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!PRE-MATCH MARCH

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!

POST-MATCH CELEBRATION

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? Loudoun United is DC United’s 2 team, in case there was any confusion. DC decided to try and take the New York Red Bulls route to planning for their second team and cobbled together a coach and a squad about a week before the season started. Unlike the Red Bulls, DC’s halfassed attempt to field a competitive team in USL didn’t work out.

And that’s not because Red Bulls have more talent; DC United has actually produced some quality soccer players in their 20+ year history that have played in MLS and beyond. It’s just that the Red Bull organization is used to planting and starting new clubs from scratch, and DC definitely is not. To wit: Loudoun has already lost their first ever head coach, US Soccer mainstay Richie Williams, to Bruce Arena’s new staff in New England, so they had to look around their technical roster and hire a new guy, Ryan Martin. Martin was formerly the technical director of DC United’s academy program, and might still be doing that job on the side while he coaches Loudoun. Fun fact: Martin was an assistant to John Harkes during his one and only season at FC Cincinnati.

Another thing Loudoun ostensibly has going for it is that it intends to build its own stadium in Leesburg, Virginia, and already has a modular facility there. I think. We’ll find out on the return trip.

As far as the team itself goes, Loudoun is another one of those clubs that doesn’t get a lot of shots but is somehow much better than average at putting them in, converting 18.2% of their 77 attempts. John Hackworth would kill for that conversion rate (LouCity’s is around 12%, up from 9 earlier this season, but City has taken 215 shots). They’ve scored 14 goals, and surrendered 15. They’re an okay passing team but still seem to play fairly direct, with over 40% of their pass attempts going forward. Their 42% possession rate underscores that assumption.

Kyle Murphy is United’s leading scorer with four goals on the season, and also leads the team in shots with 25. No one else on the team has more than nine. Wunderkind Griffin Yow is second on the score sheet, but seems unlikely to play as he’s already been promoted to DC’s first team.

This, frankly, is yet another team Louisville City should beat handily. However, we’ve said that about a lot of “2” teams this season and the results haven’t been great (see Rangers, Swope Park; and Steel, Bethlehem). To add to that weird MLS2 hoodoo, Morados will be missing Speedy Williams, Shaun Francis, Paco Craig, and Brian Ownby Saturday night, too. Ownby actually got two games for his elbow to Candela last week, so he’ll be out against RB2 next week, too.

The absences probably point to either a three-man back line, which Hackworth doesn’t like very much, or Pat McMahon at right back, with Oscar going back to the left. I very much like Pat and he’s done well in a defensive role, but he doesn’t get up field very much in attack. That should be okay given Oscar’s general ownership of the opposite flank, but it does serve to make the team a bit one-dimensional sometimes. The good news is, with Paolo back, we have better means of getting the ball to whomever’s playing right attacking midfield or wing. I also expect to see Napo Matsoso take over Speedy’s box-to-box role in midfield, assuming he can keep from picking up another straight red card.

This match should be an interesting test given City’s roster difficulties. The Boys in Purple seem to be in higher spirits these days, though, and hopefully that positive mindset (thanks, Kevin Chappell?) will lead to yet another positive home result.

VAMOS MORADOS!