June 15, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release
Louisville City FC appeared poised to extend its unbeaten streak Saturday after overcoming an early multi-goal deficit, but the Tampa Bay Rowdies hit the back of the net again in stoppage time to escape with a 3-2 victory at Al Lang Stadium.
The defeat ended a run of eight LouCity games without a loss dating back to early April. But at 10-2-2 overall, good for 32 points, the boys in purple maintained their three-point lead atop the USL Championship’s Eastern Conference standings.
“I was really proud of the second half,” said coach Danny Cruz. “We made some tactical adjustments I thought the players executed, and I felt the players left everything on the field in the second half. We cannot switch off in the last moment there. It’s too easy of a goal to concede in the (92nd) minute. Now it’s about responding.”
Tampa Bay’s Damian Rivera delivered the final blow two minutes past the full 90, getting on the end of Pacifique Niyongabire’s curling cross at the back post for the game-winning goal.
It spoiled a LouCity comeback from 2-0 down in the first half and arrived just as the boys in purple were threatening to win it. Minutes earlier, for instance, Niall McCabe’s free kick from the left flank forced Rowdies goalkeeper Jordan Farr into a diving save that caromed off the cross bar.
Instead, City was sent to its first loss since an April 9 defeat to the second-place Charleston Battery – the only other time the club trailed by multiple goals in a game this season. That one also ended with a 3-2 scoreline.
“Obviously we didn’t start the game the way we wanted to,” said defender Kyle Adams, who wore the captain’s armband Saturday. “We found ourselves in a bit of a hole there and made a tactical adjustment there toward the end of the first half, and it worked…Second half, we were excellent. We left everything out there, but on the road you’ve got to find a way to pick up a point there or hopefully keep three.”
LouCity, which entered Saturday having conceded just 12 goals in 13 games, found itself in unfamiliar territory when Tampa Bay’s Manuel Arteaga converted a 36th-minute penalty kick to spot his side a two-goal lead. Minutes earlier, Cal Jennings also netted the Rowdies’ opener.
Aiden McFadden pulled a goal back in first half stoppage time, finishing off a corner kick after teammates Arturo Ordóñez and Jorge Gonzalez had point-blank tries of their own saved….
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