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Louisville’s O’Connor Remains Forward Facing

By NICHOLAS MURRAY - nicholas.murray@uslsoccer.com, 04/11/18, 1:47PM EDT

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Defending champion welcomes Richmond while in midst of best start to a season


Louisville City FC's Kyle Smith is one of six players to have played every minute in the club's three wins to start the 2018 season. | Photo courtesy Em-Dash Photography / Louisville City FC

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Defending USL Cup champion Louisville City FC is off to its best start to a season in the club’s short history, and halfway to matching the best start in the USL’s modern era, but ahead of this Saturday’s game against the Richmond Kickers at Slugger Field (7:30 p.m. ET | Match Center) the club’s record is the least of Head Coach James O’Connor’s concerns.

“For us, the 3-0-0 record, I have no interest in any of that,” said O’Connor at his weekly press conference. “I’m dialed in to Richmond and making sure our guys are zoned in as to what they need to do against Richmond. In regards to the most pleasing aspect, when I sit with one of our players, there’s a desperation for them to get better. They don’t sit and think ‘oh, I’ve played like Pele today’, they sit and go ‘okay, what can I get better at?’ and want to get better. They want to grow. Some areas of the game, they can get coaching on, and it’s really, really great that we have players like that.”

That the club’s sights are still focused on what needs to get better says much about the mindset that has permeated the club. Louisville is one of only two teams left standing this season with a perfect record alongside Real Monarchs SLC, and one of only two teams who have yet to concede a goal this season alongside Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC.

In the Kickers, Louisville also welcomes a club it has had its fair share of success against over the past three seasons. City is undefeated in seven prior meetings, going 5-0-2 overall and taking four wins out of four at Slugger Field including a postseason victory in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the 2016 USL Cup Playoffs. While that could lead to a sense of Saturday’s outcome being an inevitability for O’Connor’s side, there’s a great deal of respect for what the Kickers are capable of in Louisville’s locker room.

“[Richmond head coach] Leigh (Cowlishaw] is someone who I have tremendous respect for,” said O’Connor. “He’s done a phenomenal job with Richmond and is a very, very good coach. It’ll be nice to see Leigh and [defender] Conor [Shanosky]. Obviously, Conor played for us as well.”


Louisville City FC's Richard Ballard takes on the Richmond Kickers' Braeden Troyer at Slugger Field in 2017. | Photo courtesy Em-Dash Photography / Louisville City FC

With their three consecutive wins to start the new season, both Louisville and the Monarchs have a chance to make a run at the USL’s modern-era record of six consecutive wins to start a season, which would be notable at least for Louisville in that the side would avoid what has been typically a middling performance from defending champions to follow their championship year.

The last three clubs to lift the USL Cup prior to Louisville combined to post a 3-4-2 record in their opening three games to start their title defense, and O’Connor said he hoped his side would remain forward facing as last year’s championship fade into the distance.

“I don’t look at last year and we don’t speak about last year,’ he said. “We’re always looking at the next game. The talk today has been analyzing and going over individual clips from Saturday’s game and then looking to Richmond and prioritizing what we need to do against Richmond and making sure everyone is okay.”

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