Lots to catch up on after a busy week: City’s last preseason match against Pittsburgh, Parker Siegfried is gone before we knew him, and the Open Cup continues to trip over its own shoelaces. Also: Tobin Heath to Racing Louisville might could possibly maybe be a thing? Let’s go:

Preseason result: Louisville City 2, Pittsburgh Riverhounds 0

Oscar scored early and Corben Bone finished off a delicious Napo Matsoso through ball late to give Louisville City a shutout win over Bob Lilley’s Pittsburgh Riverhounds in their last preseason friendly last Saturday afternoon. Morados begin regular season play this coming weekend against Atlanta United 2.

Chris Hubbard recorded six saves in the match, including a penalty kick stop after Pittsburgh went to the spot following one of the softest fouls I’ve ever seen. Benton Newman goes into some greater detail about the match, but it appears that John Hackworth used several different shapes against the Hounds, including switching from three to four at the back. I expect that will be useful in a season where City will play its conference opponents four times each.

Hack himself was reserved about the tune-up: “I thought we grew into the game a little bit. It wasn’t a great performance, but we have to do that in particular against a team like Pittsburgh.”

Preseason is now officially over, y’all. It’s real this weekend. BE READY.

Parker Siegfried loaned to Sporting Kansas City

City’s would-be third keeper is gone (temporarily) before we even knew him. The club announced what should be a short-term loan deal for Siegfried with Sporting Kansas City on Thursday. Sporting has, like, almost zero healthy goalkeepers and were in a real pinch leading into their season opener at Red Bull New York last Saturday, which is what prompted the deal.

Once Sporting’s keeper roster gets a little healthier, it’s anticipated that Siegfried will return to City. Meanwhile, though, this is a great opportunity for a kid that was entirely without a club just a few weeks ago. Good luck to Parker!

US Soccer’s Open Cup committee postpones 2021 tournament

At least, that’s what they’ve said they’re doing. After already cutting the 2021 field in half, and more or less taking the “open” part away from the competition, US Soccer confirmed last Friday that the 2021 “Open” Cup would not be held this spring as originally planned. There’s no word on whether it will be held in the summer or the fall.

“The logistical and financial burdens to have the tournament take place this spring in the current environment are substantial,” Open Cup commissioner Paul Marstaller said in a written statement. “Even though all of U.S. Soccer’s member professional teams will be playing in their respective league competitions this year, the [Open Cup] committee did not feel it wise to have clubs divert important resources during the next two months for Open Cup play.

“Instead, we will look further into the future to see what possibilities might exist for 2021. After that, a full-scale 2022 Open Cup is less than a year away.”

[RON BURGUNDY VOICE]: I don’t believe you.

This is a farce, plain and simple. It’s not US Soccer’s job to make sure participating clubs can play in its games and manage their league schedules at the same time. They’ve never even pretended to care about any of that before. That’s a red herring argument.

The truth is the Open Cup commission didn’t put in the effort to put on their own damn competition. Never has it been more apparent that U.S. Soccer cares so little about its own national tournament. Pretending as though “a full-scale 2022 Open Cup” is going to happen is just as big of a joke. What happens now is Atlanta United gets to take the open CONCACAF Champions League spot on the backs of their 2019 Open Cup title for a third straight season. That’s not Atlanta’s fault, but it begs the question: if the Open Cup tournament organizers care so little about the tournament, why the hell should anyone else?

Maybe that’s the point. US Soccer’s too busy trying to negotiate their way out of equal pay and anti-trust lawsuits to pay attention to their actual mission, which is, supposedly, “to make soccer, in all its forms, the preeminent sport in the United States and to continue the development of soccer at all recreational and competitive levels.” Scrapping the Open Cup again, which is supposed to be the crowning achievement of all of that bluster, is counterintuitive at best. It’s not just disappointing, it’s infuriating.

Tobin Heath’s season in Manchester is done, may be heading to the US for rehab?

Here’s the tweet:

Tobin Heath’s unfortunately injured. She’s in the US. She wants to make the USWNT roster for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. It stands to reason she’ll need to get some good game minutes before Vlatko Antonovsky feels comfortable selecting her for that roster. Racing Louisville presently owns Heath’s NWSL rights.

Add all that up annnddd…it could mean we get to see one of the best midfielders in the world playing in a black fleur-des-lis shirt in 2021! Maybe! It’s definitely not confirmed in any way! But it’s a much bigger possibility than it was last Friday! NO, YOU’RE LEVITATING OUT OF YOUR CHAIR, NOT ME. STOP THAT.

Tobin might have enough cred with Vlatko and the WNT that she doesn’t need to play any professional minutes to earn her way into that Olympics roster. But that doesn’t exactly sound fair to the person that she’s going to beat out for a spot, so I feel like in the interest of fairness and my own entertainment she should have to at least appear in a game or two before jetting off to the Land of the Rising Sun for a month. Just spitballin’ here. We’ll see!