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Photo courtesy of EM Dash Photography
Just as I sat down to write this, I turned on the TV just in time to see the three minutes between Karim Benzema putting the ball in the back of the Liverpool net and a scared-shitless-faced referee deliberating with VAR about whether or not it should be allowed in a Champions League Final which involved supporters were teargassed outside the Stade de France. It’s been nearly a minute and a half, and the camera operator’s clearly running out of ideas. I've seen a close up of Benzema's extremely sweaty face like six times now.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother with the whole thing, but from time to time, Louisville City wins a football match and things are alright.
It was a return to form at Lynn Family stadium for Lou City, as they ended their recent slide with a 4-1 victory over Tulsa. Yet despite an impressive scoreline, it’s hard to say this was fully reflective of the match itself, which saw City respond well after a fairly dismal first-half display.
Tulsa opened the scoring when a simple flick on from a goal kick frustratingly let Brian Brown slip past Wynder and beat Morton with little resistance, a goal I think I’ve now seen scored at least 47 times by various opponents over the past two weeks.
While we controlled a significantly larger share of possession, Tulsa seemed to have the better chances overall.
The match was turned on its head at the death of the half, when Johnny Fenwick’s mistimed standing challenge on Ownby earned us a lifeline. Despite Sean Lewis getting a hand to it, Lancaster converted the penalty for his first goal of the season.
The second half was a much better performance, marked by a second for Lancaster on a delivery from Dia, and an own goal turned in by Tulsa’s Abuchi Obinawa after Gonzalez’s effort deflected off the keeper. A stoppage time goal from Harris rounded off the win for City, and keeps the young striker in contention for the league’s golden boot.
Alongside the own goal, a pair of close shaves around the 70-minute mark, including an attempt from Brown that came spinning off the inside of the post and a mistake from Morton that could’ve easily ended up in the back of our net showed that we really got the rub of the green today, and things could’ve gone differently on another day.
As much as it was encouraging to see the team respond to difficult first 45, much of the the way we played and particularly conceded in the first half are clearly indicative of a larger defensive issue of keeping out balls from over the top. After just conceding four goals in their first 10 matches, we’ve now gone five without a clean sheet, many of which looked quite similar to Brown’s goal today. On the whole, it’s never worth looking for too much trouble in a win, and it was a relief to see the team remove the proverbial albatross from their collective neck, or whatever aviary metaphor you prefer.
VAR check over, no goal for Madrid. Glad that didn’t take too long.
We’ve got a bit of a break before next Saturday when we play Tampa Bay at Al Lang, a fixture that fills my heart with profound pain and sorrow, so let’s have a nice rest and take it easy til then.