I honestly don’t have a lot to say about this game. City won 2-1. The one goal was just a momentary lapse in a game where the defense collectively fell asleep and Ben Lundt was helpless to stop Tyler Freeman’s shot to ruin his clean sheet.
Louisville City outshot SKCII 20-8, created 17 chances to their six, scored their two “big” chances, and otherwise mostly passed circles around Nope Park Rangers for 90 minutes or so. I didn’t really get the impression Louisville City needed to get out of third gear all night, which is kind of nice.
The three points meant LouCity had the most points of any team in what would normally be the Eastern Conference, though it’s unlikely the USL is going to bestow any silverware on them this season. Reno 1868, unfortunately, ended the season with the most points of any team in the league, largely helped by the fact that they played eight matches against two of the worst teams in the Championship in Tacoma Defiance and Portland Timbers II, the Timbering. Still, it’s not Reno’s fault their group sucked out loud, so props to them I guess.
Much more entertaining was the fact that Indy placed both hands firmly around their own necks and squeezed hard all week to lose their last two matches of the season and bounce themselves out of the playoffs after being arguably the best team in the entire league just two months ago. That means our frenemies St. Louis make the playoffs for just the second time in their history. It also means that STL gets to play at least one more game before they have to finally roll up the turf at Soccer Park for good, as the club will totally shutter once the season is over. Good for them, and I’m personally happy for their fans.
That gets us to the PLAYOFFS for the 2020 United Soccer League Championship Playoff Trophy (ASTERISK), the worst named soccer thing since I made up LIPAFC as a joke that thankfully caught on. C
ity play Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the first round. Still not sure how that’s allowed to happen, but it’s 2020 so the USL said ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It’ll be a hard game, but also a good opportunity to make up for that walloping they laid on Morados way back in July.
The other intriguing Eastern Conference pairings are also pretty good, though I must say Tampa Bay probably lucked into the easier bracket*. Charlotte and Charleston will probably closely resemble a brick fight, while STL and Hartford get to fight about who’s REALLY blue and green. Out west, who cares? We’ll worry about that later.
Have a good week, everybody, and VAMOS MORADOS!
*remember to delete this when TBR lose to Birmingham, say was a typo
