Louisville City FC looks to take advantage of weak New York Red Bulls II defense

Daniel Karell | Louisville Courier Journal

There’s one team in the United Soccer League that has Louisville City FC’s number, and it’s this weekend’s opponent.

The New York Red Bulls II, who host Louisville City at 4 p.m. Sunday on the campus of Montclair State University, are the defending USL champions and have never lost to Louisville City. The club memorably advanced to the USL Cup final last season with a win over Louisville City on penalty kicks in a game that featured three red cards.

For New York, success came with a price. Star centerback Aaron Long earned a first-team contract and has started in all 15 of the Red Bulls' Major League Soccer matches. The club also lost midfield dynamo Devon “Speedy” Williams, who signed with Louisville City in the offseason.

As a result, while New York has one of the league’s most potent attacks with 22 goals scored this season, it’s tied for the worst mark defensively, conceding 23 times this year.

More: Mark-Anthony Kaye makes Canada squad for Curacao friendly

More: Louisville native Ballard gets first USL goal as Louisville City FC beats Charlotte

More: Louisville City FC's James O'Connor: Brian Ownby 'an MLS player'

And for all of Louisville City’s offensive faults, it has conceded the third-fewest goals in the league with nine.

Working in Louisville City’s favor this weekend is that porous Red Bulls II defense. In the past three games, New York has allowed Richmond, Charleston and Ottawa to have a combined 33 goal-scoring chances and 18 shots on target, along with five goals conceded.

In that same span of games, Louisville City has created 35 goal-scoring chances with 17 shots on goal and a combined six goals scored against Charlotte, Charleston and Pittsburgh.

“We only scored one goal (on Wednesday), but again, we’re creating lots of chances, and that’s the big thing,” Louisville City midfielder Oscar Jimenez said. "We’re getting better at shooting now instead of trying to dribble it in the goal. It’s important we feel confident in shooting.”

Another interesting twist in Sunday’s matchup is that, with the New York Red Bulls first team off this weekend, some of the first-team reserve players could get some action Sunday against Louisville City.

Brendan Allen, Justin Bilyeu, Derrick Etienne and Arun Basuljevic have all played regularly for Red Bulls II this season but Louisville City could see Connor Lade and Dan Metzger loaned down to the USL club as well as the potential return of Tyler Adams, who recently starred for the under-20 U.S. men’s national team.

“The difficulty is, when you’re playing against the MLS 2 teams, you’re never quite sure which personnel will be available,” Louisville City head coach James O’Connor said. “The first team doesn’t have a game this weekend. They’ve got (a U.S. Open Cup) game on Wednesday, so it’s hard to know who they’re actually going to have on their team. They have a number of players both in their MLS team and their regular squad who are very capable players. It’ll be a tough game for us.”

After missing the last two games, Louisville City received some more positive news Friday as forward Luke Spencer was a full participant in practice. Spencer went off injured early in Louisville City’s 1-0 loss in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on May 31 at FC Cincinnati with a hamstring injury and has not played since.

“It’s been very difficult watching the past two games, because as a player you want to be out there,” Spencer said. “When you’re watching your team from home or wherever it is, it’s difficult because you want to help and be able to do something with it. But I’m making a lot of progress and feeling better every day.”

UP NEXT

Louisville City FC at New York Red Bulls II

4 p.m., Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey

TV: FOX-41; Radio: WHAS-840