What to Watch for with LouCity at Pittsburgh
September 9, 2022 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Louisville City FC News Release
Louisville City FC forward Enoch Mushagalusa
(Louisville City FC, Credit: Connor Cunningham)
Louisville City FC will conclude a congested run of games when it takes on Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC at Highmark Stadium in the Steel City on Saturday at 7 p.m.
It will be the fifth game in 15 days for the boys in purple, with four of those games on the road. City is 1-1-2 in that stretch, coming off a 2-2 draw at FC Tulsa on Wednesday.
“Obviously (we’re) really frustrated,” City coach Danny Cruz said on Wednesday. “This is certainly a difficult stretch of games – four on the road, five total in 15 days is not easy. We’re carrying a lot of knocks at the moment. We have to turn it around tomorrow, get our legs right, fly to Pittsburgh and respond this weekend.”
Cruz said the rigors of the schedule required squad rotation as his team prepares for a key home stretch to finish out the regular season and ready for the playoffs. After Pittsburgh, City has four home games and one road trip in the final month of the season.
“We’re beat up at the moment – guys are feeling tired legs and I have to rotate the roster and make sure we don’t pick up injuries,” Cruz said. “It’s been a difficult stretch, but it’s no excuse. We have the quality on the team to get these results.”
Louisville City (18-5-5, 59 points) is currently sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference standings in the USL Championship, followed by second-place Memphis 901 FC with 55 points.
Pittsburgh (15-7-6, 51 points) is currently fourth in the Eastern Conference. One of the five teams that already clinched a spot in the playoffs, the Riverhounds are coming off a road win at Loudoun United FC over the weekend.
Here’s more of what to watch for Saturday night…
Follow along
The game will air live locally on WBKI and ESPN Louisville’s 680/105.7, with streaming via ESPN+ and the WDRB Now app.
For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter and Louisville City FC on Facebook. Also find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram.
Injury report
Cameron Lancaster (Out)
Niall McCabe (Out)
Story lines…
Race to the top: The boys in purple are still chasing the top spot in the USL Championship. City is one point behind San Antonio FC, which has 60 points and leads the Western Conference. Even with seven consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference finals and two first-place regular-season finishes in the Eastern Conference, City has never totaled the highest number of points in the league in a season.
Last time out: LouCity won the first meeting between the teams, a 2-0 victory in late April that was, at the time, between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Wilson Harris and Enoch Mushagalusa both scored in the first half for City, which was amid a 13-match unbeaten streak to open the campaign.
Highmark advantage: LouCity has a difficult test ahead – Pittsburgh is 8-2-3 at home and 3-1-2 in its last six games at Highmark Stadium. The Riverhounds have only given up 12 goals in 13 home matches.
Away days: In addition to the draw against Tulsa, LouCity suffered back-to-back losses on the road to Miami FC and Indy Eleven on its most recent road trips. The boys in purple are still 8-4-3 on the road this season, an improvement over last season and the second-best record away from home in the Eastern Conference.
No bagels: Louisville City has gone an unlikely four matches without recording a clean sheet – the longest streak of the season. The previous longest run was three matches, from May 28 to June 18. LouCity is now tied with San Antonio for second in the league in clean sheets at 13. Goalkeeper Kyle Morton is also in a three-way tie for second in the league with 11 clean sheets.
Musha-goal-usa: Enoch Mushgalusa scored both goals for LouCity in the last match against FC Tulsa. This marks his second multigoal game for the club. His other time was a hat trick against New York Red Bulls II on July 9.
Wynder-ful moment: Elijah Wynder earned his first Louisville City FC start on Wednesday, playing 45 minutes at Tulsa. Wynder scored his first professional goal after coming on as a substitute on Saturday against Sacramento. Wynder created two chances against Tulsa and was responsible for the hustle-play deflection that led to Mushagalusa’s first goal. He also won five duels and completed 71% of his passes.
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