September 28, 2017 USL Toronto FC II--Toronto FC II vs Louisville City FC game recap alternate (from louisvillecityfc.com)
Takeaways: Squad rotation proves key in busy game schedule By Tate McGarvey / Louisville City, 09/28/17, 12:00AM EDT LouCity tries to keep their energy high as they played their fifth game in 15 days. It was a frustrating night for a Louisville City FC side in the middle of their three-game road trip. The game showed the visitors dominate the stat sheet against Toronto FC II but ultimately coming up empty-handed. Having already spent five days on the road, it may be the traveling on top of playing five games in fifteen days that has worn down the Eastern Conference’s first-place team. “It’s a mentality test,” said head coach James O’Connor. “…when you look at Sunday’s game, it was really important that we made some of the changes with the guys. You make that amount of changes, you’re doing that to keep the energy levels high.” The squad rotated quite a bit after Sunday’s match against Ottawa, a 2 p.m. kickoff in nearly 90 degree weather. As for midfielder Brian Ownby, the rotation had no effect on the club. “It’s a lot of games, a lot of minutes in a couple days so obviously we’ve been rotating the squad,” Ownby said. “I don’t think by rotating the squad the levels dropped.” LouCity wraps up the eight-day road trip with a visit to Rochester where the club will take on the fifth-place Rhinos with a chance to further their lead in the conference. It would be safe to assume the squad will continue its rotation during Saturday’s match before heading back to Louisville. “Again, when you have so many games in such a short period, it’s important that you totally utilize the squad,” Coach O’Connor added. Though the boys in purple didn’t get the results they wanted, a chance for redemption comes just days away. “Unfortunately tonight, I thought we were not as sharp on the attack. It is what it is sometimes,” continued Ownby. “Hopefully we learn from this and get going for the next one against Rochester.” Here’s more from the match… • After scoring twice in the previous two matches, midfielder George Davis IV began Wednesday’s match on the bench, though that wasn’t the only lineup change from Sunday’s draw. Using four players on the back line against a tall Ottawa front, Louisville City FC went back to the 3-man back line it has seen most often this season against a smaller Toronto side. •Coming into the match with just 5 wins on the year, Toronto FC II holds the last-place position in the Eastern Conference, though the Canadian club isn’t the first bottom-of-the-barrel team LouiCity has faced this season. The boys in purple dropped another match against the Harrisburg City Islanders in late-June when the Pennsylvania side was then the last in the conference. • Heading into Saturday, Louisville City holds the second-most points in the USL (55), tied with Reno 1868 FC and five points behind Real Monarchs. Depending on results around the conference, a win over Rochester could mean more home field advantage in the playoffs for Louisville City.
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