Louisville City FC: A new era begins against Saint Louis FC

Here we are, folks. The beginning of a new era for a new sport to the Bluegrass kicks off this afternoon in Louisville, as Louisville City FC will open their tenure in the USL against another new club to the league in Saint Louis FC.

The “Kings Cup,” as it’s being dubbed, will kick off at 3:00 ET and, as far as this being a preview and all goes, there really isn’t a lot to preview. These are both teams who have never played a meaningful game on the field with their current roster in tact, so any predictions you could have about this game are, essentially, null and void.

But, this is what we do know. For those of you new to American soccer, first off, welcome! Second off, the USL, essentially, is the AAA level to the MLS, meaning a ton of the teams (as a matter of fact, all but three teams) have an affiliation with an MLS squad. Louisville City is affiliated with Orlando City (Lou City actually took OCSC’s spot in the USL when the Lions moved up to MLS, hence the “City” branding and the similar colors), while Saint Louis is affiliated with one of the original members of MLS in the Chicago Fire.

Now you can impress all your friends with your knowledge, even though the above has nothing to do with today’s game.

Again, with two new teams, we don’t have much to compare, so let’s compare the preseasons! Louisville City had a strong showing in the preseason, going 4-0-1 (four wins, no losses and a tie) and outscored opponents 13-2, and only allowed goals in two matches. However, only one of those games came against a professional team, Indy Eleven of the NASL, which closed the preseason and gave LCFC a 2-1 win.

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For Saint Louis, they split four preseason matches, including a loss to Indy Eleven, but did beat a Tulsa Roughnecks team who will compete in the USL this season. That last game against Tulsa also gave us a glimpse as to who might be key in the offense for STLFC – Jeramie Lynch. Lynch netted two goals in the second half to give STLFC the come-from-behind win to close out the preseason.

These two teams will see each other a lot to open the year, as today marks the first of three meetings over the first two months of the year (granted, one of those months includes just one game here in March), and the season will also close with a meeting between these teams for a total of four matches this year. These two clubs are also geographically the closest to one another, which is even more a reason why this might be a great rivalry.

There is a lot of positivity surrounding this Louisville City club, and rightfully so, and it’s exciting to see a new era of sport open up here in Kentucky! First touch is at 3:00 ET this afternoon, and the game can be seen on YouTube, and when it’s live, you’ll be able to find the video right here on BluegrassDominion.com.

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