By Kevin Kernen | Photo by Christian Watson
In a city and a state divided along
college lines, Louisville City FC has become a
confluence of local fans, red and blue alike. Having
started their 2018 season in March, LouCity is on
the campaign to defend the laurels of the most
fruitful season to date, when the team collected
their conference regular season and playoff titles
en route to winning the league last November.
If you’ve been living under a rock since 2015,
LouCity has quickly branded itself as the most
exciting sports experience in the area. The vocal
support has created a pressure cooker of a home
advantage at Louisville Slugger Field, a reputation
that precedes the team across the league.
The league that “The Boys in Purple” makes their
home in is the United Soccer League (USL), which
occupies the second division of American soccer,
second only to Major League Soccer (MLS). The
USL counts cities such as San Antonio, Las Vegas,
Cincinnati, Phoenix and Indianapolis among their
markets and continues to add franchises each
season. The league has grown threefold since 2012,
and LouCity has kept pace with the exploding
number of competitive teams joining the fray.
The team brings an exciting roster to Slugger,
managed by the scrupulous Irishman James
O’Connor.
O’Connor imparts a pragmatic, yet positive
playing style on the international collection
of players. LouCity’s squad features members
from eight countries, a wealth of domestic and
international experience, as well as a number of
players with local ties, like Richard Ballard. The
Louisville native attended Manual High School and
Indiana University for four years before signing his
first professional contract last season for LouCity.
He cemented his reputation as an exciting young
player who played a part in eight goals.
From further afield, London, England, natives
Paco Craig and Cameron Lancaster have both
had a palpable impact on the club. Entering his
fourth season for the club, Lancaster scored the
decisive goal in last November’s USL Cup Final
for LouCity. On the opposite end of the field,
central Craig made headlines last season as the
only LouCity player to feature in the USL Team
of the Season, the leader of a defensive unit that
O’Connor hangs his hat on. From top to bottom,
the roster is full of talented players, all of whom are
upstanding people in addition to being successful
on the field.
Off of the field, Louisville City is also no stranger
to success. Last October, Louisville’s Metro Council
voted 20-4 to allocate some $30 million of public
money toward a 37-acre site in the Butchertown
neighborhood that is to become the home for a
bespoke 10,000 seat stadium for the team. With
plans for seating to be expandable to 20,000 and
inclusion of retail and hotel space, the project
is sure to transform the area, which is currently
occupied by an auto salvage yard and a storage
facility, among other things. There are a few other
hurdles for the project to clear before ground can
be broken. The team targets a 2020 deadline set by
the USL for all teams to play in their own stadium.
The team is also part of a number of media
agreements, entering their second year of hosting
game broadcasts on the local iHeartRadio network
of stations, chiefly on News Radio 840 WHAS.
New for this season, local radio personality Tony
Vanetti hosts a weekly Coach’s Show with James
O’Connor, along with select players on News Radio
840 WHAS at 8 p.m. Monday nights. Rounding out
the radio programming is the revamped Soccer
City Radio show (find more details on the Thursday
night program below). LouCity games are also live
streamed on YouTube and on TV locally across
WDRB, WMYO and WBNA.
All of those outlets are useful, but nothing quite
compares to the experience of attending a game.
If you haven’t been to a LouCity match before,
ask someone who has. If you don’t know anyone
who’s attended a match, I’ll give a brief synopsis
of what a typical match day looks like to an ardent
supporter. Firstly, matches typically kickoff at 7:30
on a Saturday evening, which means tailgating
begins in the early afternoon, maybe in the late
morning if it’s an important match. Libations and
food are aplenty as the purple loyal find their way
to the tailgate, the largest of which takes place in
the parking lot situated across Preston Street from
Louisville Slugger Field. While the doors open 90
minutes prior to kickoff, the majority of supporters
don’t leave the tailgate until about 30 minutes
before kick and are usually well lubricated by then.
Led by the talented Coopers drum corps, named
the Groove Machine, the fans parade around the
ground, singing their LouCity-centric songs all the
way to their reserved section behind one of the
goals. Once there, they stand and sing all match
long, breaking from their repertoire only for the
tradition of singing “My Old Kentucky Home.” If
a goal is scored, purple and yellow smoke billows
from the supporters’ section, and the fans rejoice.
Ninety minutes later, the fans cheer the players
off the pitch – win, lose or draw. The players
exchange high-fives with the crowd en route to
the locker room, where they mingle with fans
after the game as well. In all, it’s a thoroughly
exciting experience, with multiple levels to
engage on. For people looking for a more subtle
experience, a sideline seat is more appropriate.
With a better sightline on the proceedings, this
section gives an ideal vantage for absorbing
the percussive atmosphere while following the
match’s progression.
The outlook for the season at hand is a positive
one. City returned 15 players from last season’s
squad that won the USL Cup- something unheard
of at this level of the game. The team brought on an
important combination of youth and experience for
the 2018 campaign. Headlining the new signings
is the return of fan favorite Magnus Rasmussen
and MLS veteran Shaun Francis. MagRam, as he
is affectionately called by the supporters, was
part of the purple team in the 2015 and 2016
seasons before returning to his native Denmark
for last season. The midfield dynamo faces some
competition to make the starting lineup, but he
is certain to get some good minutes this season.
Francis, a versatile wing player, who’s represented
his native Jamaica on the international stage over
a dozen times, played in nearly a century of MLS
matches over a 7-year foray into the league.
The pair join an already stacked LouCity cadre
of players who are separated from retaining their
trophy by a grueling season, their path paved with
opponents and flanked by supporters. Soccer is
happening in a big way here, the only question
is, will you join them?
Soccer City Radio
New for this seas on, Extol writer Kevin
Kernen is taking to the airwaves on
Soccer City Radio show. Kevin appears
alongside longtime co-host La nce
McGarvey, the voice of Louisville City. Join
the duo on the hour-long weekly show
that covers all forms of soccer, from
Louisville City to local colleges to the US
National teams. Tune in to 1080 WKSK 7 p.m.
Thursday and on the iHeart Radio app.
