Lots to cover, no readily available snarky jokes come to mind, so let’s just go.

Preseason friendly: Nashville SC 4, Louisville City 0

Suboptimal! Unfortunately, all we know was the score and that it was nice weather outside. My new go-to post-gamer at Purple Prose has a reasonable take, and you should check that out. The good news is, it’s a friendly, it doesn’t count, and I’m sure John Hackworth picked up a lot of lessons that will finally give his squad something to chew on as we slump toward the actual season in two months.

NEW PLAYER ALERT! Parker Siegfried!

Think he ever gets tired of the “where’s Roy?” jokes? Or am I so old that these goshdarned millennials don’t even know what that means?

ANYWAY – City signed a third keeper! Siegfried is a former first round MLS SuperDraft pick out of Ohio State and Crew Academy that, for whatever reason, didn’t manage to stay on in the first division. As usual, MLS’s loss is our gain, and now he’ll be competing for minutes against a couple hungry guys in Chris “Diesel” Hubbard and Simon “IT’S NOT SIGH-MUHN” Lefebvre. Iron sharpens iron, y’all.

Hack said on In the House recently that he expected to sign maybe a couple more players, and that was before this signing, so there might still be one more kid in the wings before we reach opening day. Phil Durbin is in knots over this, I’m sure.

Academy players join City on Texas Roadshow

In order of importance, the three most important parts of Louisville City’s continuing existence and ingredients to their future success are Lynn Family Stadium, the Academy, and the first team. The first two feed the third. City’s Academy is already beginning to pay dividends as Elijah Wynder has been playing with the first team for nearly three seasons now. If not for his injury, opportunities for other players might not have come up, but here we are:

Elijah’s younger brother Joshua Wynder will be joining the Boys in Purple for their friendlies in Austin and Houston this week! Martha Layne Collins High School’s Carlos Moguel is also leaving his Academy team to make the trip. This is a fabulous opportunity for both players, but also a chance for them and the club to prove how well City has been able to develop these two high school kids into potential pros. We can’t see either game, but I do hope to hear some kind of post-match briefing on both kids’ performances, perfunctory or otherwise.

In NWSL-adjacent news: FAWSL signs new media contract

Per the always-informed Bob Williams, British national media Sky Sports and the BBC have signed a deal to pay the English Women’s Soccer League 8 million pounds per season to broadcast those league games. By contrast, the NWSL just signed a deal with Viacom/CBS to broadcast their matches for $1.5 million. More money in the women’s game is good, to be sure, but it’s a bad sign when the FAWSL, largely been ignored in England since its inception, all of the sudden is a much more valuable property in a much smaller market than the NWSL is here in the States. Hopefully that’s a tide that changes, though.

JOIN THE COOPERS!

The start of regular-season play for Racing and Louisville City is still agonizingly far away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t join the Coopers and become part of the heartbeat of both clubs today!