June 29, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release
Louisville City FC’s Ray Serrano congratulates Tola Showunmi
(Louisville City FC, Credit: Ken Shepherd)
After a scoreless opening 45 minutes Saturday, Louisville City FC’s attack kicked in for a 4-1 away blitz of Birmingham Legion FC.
Four players scored at Protective Stadium on a LouCity squad that continued two telling trends. Each time City has lost this season, the boys in purple have rebounded to win. Their 2.7 goals per game are also pacing to make this the strongest attack in USL Championship history.
LouCity improved to 12-3-2 as a result, at 38 points now five clear atop the league. However, Saturday did include one major setback when Jorge Gonzalez left with a leg injury after a scary 36th-minute collision into Birmingham’s goalkeeper.
“I actually thought in the first half we were really, really good with the ball, but we needed more quality in the final third,” said LouCity coach Danny Cruz. “…The injury was a lot, I think, for the players to take in. Coming in at halftime we had a really good discussion – obviously went through a few things tactically, and I thought the players were absolutely brilliant in the second half.
“Every phase of it, for me, was quality. They have a lot to be proud of.”
LouCity entered Saturday off last weekend’s 5-2 defeat to Rhode Island FC – a shocker given City was unbeaten this season at Lynn Family Stadium and hadn’t ever conceded five goals at home.
The boys in purple didn’t offer a response in the first half at Birmingham, but they delivered a suffocating quarter hour out of the locker room. LouCity controlled 73% of possession through the opening 15 minutes of the second half while scoring two goals.
First, Sam Gleadle cooly headed in a Wilson Harris cross. Harris then made the most of a goalkeeping gaffe, tapping in a dropped corner kick to double the lead and make it 11 goals on the season for the star forward.
“I think all great teams have to respond,” Gleadle said. “We don’t ever want to lose two games in a row, whether it’s home or away. I know we’ve struggled to score goals on the road this season, so I think after what happened at home with the response, the amount of goals and how we scored them today was very important for us.”
The deluge continued in the 80th minute, just after Jake Morris won a free kick at the edge of the box. Ray Serrano fired the ensuing set piece through traffic to tally his sixth goal…