Two games, two wins, three red cards, two very different styles of play. We shouldn’t look a points-horse in the mouth, but this was a weird stretch of games. Louisville City set out in a 4-2-3-1 in both matches, though the lineups were obviously a bit different.

It seemed, to me at least, that City attempted the same tactic against Penn as they did against Pittsburgh: defend and counter. That made sense to me against the Riverhounds, but it didn’t compute against the former City Islanders, who aren’t a defensive powerhouse. Hackworth said in his Coach’s Show interview last week that wasn’t really what he intended to do, but you wouldn’t know it based on how the game went. Penn had over 60% possession, a lot of passes, completed good numbers in both halves, sent in 28 crosses, and took 18 shots. All that plus a Pat McMahon red card points to a win for the home team, except they lost 0-3.

For their part, Louisville City obviously didn’t have much of the ball, didn’t pass it very well at all when they did have it, only crossed the ball six times, and lost a key defensive fullback with about 15 minutes left in the game. What Morados did that Penn couldln’t, though, was make the most of its chances. City had just eleven shots all game and only four on frame, but three of the four went in. Yes, one was a penalty, but last I checked penalties still count.

I said earlier that City looked like they tried to play more direct against Penn. I might be only half right. Paolo’s opening goal was off a nice set play ball from Francis. It was one of just three passes completed into the Penn 18 yard box the entire first half. They did even less in the second half, but by then they were up two goals and then down a man, so I guess that makes sense. Either way, the offense was maybe less “Route 1” than it was really disjointed the entire game. That City was able to score at all, given how off they were in possession, is kind of incredible.

Penn was pretty unlucky not to have put at least one past Ranjitsingh themselves. Lucky Mkosana deserved at least a goal, and betrayed his moniker by not doing so. Oh well.

Morados looked a bit more like their old selves against Ottawa, I think. They played very well out of the back, looked for space on the wings, and generally kept the Furries out of the middle of the park. Frankly, I thought City should have been up by two before the first Fury got sent off. As you might expect with a one or two man advantage, Morados had most of the ball, Better than 75%, which is quite a lot. They didn’t do particularly well in duels, which isn’t too surprising given Ottawa’s size and how physical they play. That physicality came back to bite them pretty hard, however.

Morados attempted 670 passes in this game and completed 91.3% of them, 84.6% in Ottawa’s half. It was an absolute Jekyll and Hyde show compared to just three days before. They attempted 23 shots, eleven on target, scoring four. Ottawa had just seven shots of their own and none were on frame.

From a tactical standpoint, Paolo played the deeper of the two defensive-ish midfielders in this game. I was pretty impressed with Carranza’s performance as the other pivot, as he seemed like he was everywhere all at once. That said, Paolo attempted nearly 150 passes, three times Carranza’s load, and completed 92% of them. That’s really, really good. Both d-mids created five chances between them.

Paco turned in another excellent performance, as is standard. However, he might have even been overshadowed by Alexis, who played his best game yet in purple. I feel like I say that just about every time he plays. The Frenchman completed 99% of his 105 passes, created two chances, and scored a goal. Granted, it wasn’t too hard for him to do his job since Ottawa offered next to nothing in attack or possession, but still, it’s noteworthy. Paco created another chance of his own and won five of nine duels.

Kyle and Oscar were also great. Again, they weren’t seeing a whole lot of resistance, but the two of them had three assists between them. That’s a wow number.

Jonathan Lewis didn’t do a lot on the stat sheet but has been a really nice addition during his loan stay. His goal against Penn was class, and he wore out Ottawa’s right fullback all night on Saturday. Niall was unlucky not to score early in the match, Cuatro produced a textbook headed finish from a wicked cross from Kyle to open the scoring, and definitely should have earned a penalty about ten minutes before that.

Cam did Cam things. I’d elaborate further, but what can you say? He’s having a league MVP season while barely touching the ball. That’s what a real number nine does, and he’s been doing it to devastating effect all season. In this match he had 31 touches, 16 passes, four shots, and two goals. Incredible.

There’s a lot from a narrative standpoint that you could say about this game, from Ottawa’s collectively malfunctioning pressure release valve to the center ref’s dumbfounding decisionmaking that certainly didn’t help the aforementioned Canadian aggression to Greg subbing out early, and so on. I’ll let others dwell on that. City needed a win at home, and it wouldn’t have bothered me too much if it was ugly. It wasn’t, at least not from a numbers perspective. Let’s keep it up.