August 30, 2022 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Louisville City FC News Release
Off a rare loss, Louisville City FC faces a quick turnaround to Wednesday’s 7 p.m. kickoff at Indy Eleven, continuing a rivalry series that has become quite contentious over the past year.
When USL Championship clubs returned to play in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, LouCity got the better of Indy Eleven in a shortened, regionalized season with three wins and a draw. So continued a run of meetings that hadn’t resulted in an Indy Eleven win since 2018.
But in 2021, what’s known as the Louisville Indianapolis Proximity Association Football Contest took a turn. The series finished 1-1-1, and earlier this season the clubs played to a draw at Lynn Family Stadium.
Both sides can consider themselves motivated to take ahold of the LIPAFC when it resumes at Carroll Stadium.
LouCity (17-4-4, 55 points) enters after a 1-0 weekend defeat at Miami FC. There was no answer offered to a fourth-minute goal, ending the club’s 10-game unbeaten streak.
Sitting ninth and unlikely to climb into playoff contention, Indy Eleven (7-14-4, 25 points) showed signs of life last out when ending its four-game losing skid with a 1-0 upset of Western Conference leader San Antonio FC.
Here’s more of what to watch for Wednesday…
Follow along
The game will air live locally on My58 TV 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…
Playoff push: LouCity’s “magic number” is 1 to clinch a spot in the 2022 USL Championship Playoffs with a win or draw Wednesday enough. Of course, that’s a minimum expectation for a club that has advanced to at least the conference final round every year since starting play in 2015.
The format: LouCity’s also trending toward starting the playoffs at home. No. 1 seeds from the East and West receive byes to the conference semifinals. The No. 2-7 clubs open in the conference quarterfinals, with better-seeded teams to host. City would have to slip out of the top four to start the postseason away from Lynn Family Stadium.
Available for selection: LouCity was shut out last Saturday for just the fifth time this year. That was without leading scorer Wilson Harris in the lineup as he served a one-game suspension stemming from a red…