USL Louisville City FC

City Clinches Home Playoff Game with Road Rout of Atlanta United 2

September 29, 2018 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release


LAWRENCEVILLE - Louisville City FC downed Atlanta United 2, 4-1, at Coolray Field to help secure home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The win propelled City to second in the table, jumping Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (+22) on goal difference (+29) with both teams on 57 points.

What Happened? Coach John Hackworth replaced injured goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh with Tim Dobrowolski as a return to the starting XI also came for midfielder Brian Ownby.

LouCity came out the more offensive team from the first whistle and nearly found an opening goal inside the first four minutes.

Tied for the league lead in assists off set-pieces, midfielder Oscar Jimenez swung in a deep cross off a free kick that was headed down but was ultimately claimed by the ATL UTD 2 "keeper Christensen.

ATL UTD 2 responded with a chance of their own after 19 minutes, also off a free kick but from a much closer distance. Forward Romario Williams stepped up to take an attempt from around 20 yards out and fired a dipping effort on goal, though City "keeper Tim Dobrowolski was in perfect position to repel the effort.

Five minutes later, LouCity capitalized on their second real chance of the evening, again off a set-piece delivery by Oscar Jimenez. Delivering a short cross from a corner, the ball was headed on and eventually headed in by ATL UTD 2 defender A.J. Cochran for an own goal.

In the 37th minute, City continued to display their excellence at tinkering around the penalty area in possession and showed that form through a second goal. Midfielder Niall McCabe looked to the right side of the box at defender Kyle Smith, who took the ball inside and fired a bullet with his left foot to the back post and in. The goal was Smith's first since scoring on July 7 in Tampa against the Rowdies.

Not done yet in the first half, LouCity continued to pour bodies forward on a wounded ATL UTD 2 side and found a third goal just before the break. Taking a pass out wide, midfielder Brian Ownby whipped in a cross to the far post for George Davis IV, who placed his header off the post and in for his eighth goal of the season.

At the interval, City held an impressive three-goal advantage.

There was no lapse in energy for LouCity after coming back from the halftime break as they continued to cause problems for Atlanta. In the 56th minute, Oscar Jimenez against tested Christensen with an incredible high drive that forced a good save out of the young "netminder. However, City could not be kept at bay for much longer and found a fourth goal in the 69th minute. Again off an Oscar Jimenez corner kick, City's fourth came from an own goal by defender AJ Cochran, the fifth time they have hit for fourth goals this year.

Atlanta would end up biting back quickly just two minutes later as forward Romario Williams pounced on an effort from close range, but that would end up being the lone bit of consolation for the hosts as City triumphed impressively in a 4-1 win.

Louisville City FC now moves on to their final road trip of the year, going north of the border to play Toronto FC II on Friday, October 5. Wrapping up the regular season, City returns to Louisville for a home double on Tuesday, October 9 against North Carolina FC and the regular season finale on Saturday, October 13 against Indy Eleven. Tickets for the team's final two games are available for as low as $16 at LouCity.com or by calling 502-LOU-CITY.

The Key Points:

* City ended up getting their first and fourth goals off Atlanta own goals, both off the unfortunate AJ Cochran * Kyle Smith scored City's second and game-winner in the 37th minute * George Davis IV scored his ninth goal of the season to cushion City's lead at three * Goalkeeper Tim Dobrowolski had a pair of saves and allowed just one goal in his first USL start of the year

Injury Report: OUT - Greg Ranjitsingh (Rib) OUT - Magnus Rasmussen (Knee sprain)

Atlanta United 2 1 : 4 Louisville City FC Saturday, September 29, 2018 Coolray Field | Lawrenceville, GA 81 degrees / sunny

Scoring Summary: LOU - AJ Cochran (O.G.) 24' LOU - Kyle Smith (Niall McCabe) 37' LOU - George Davis IV (Brian Ownby) 41' LOU - AJ Cochran (O.G.) 69' ATL - Romario Williams 71'

Disciplinary Summary: ATL - Romario Williams (caution) 44' LOU - Paco Craig (caution) 75'

Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Tim Dobrowolski (GK); Kyle Smith, Alexis Souahy, Paco Craig, Oscar Jimenez; Paolo DelPiccolo, Devon "Speedy" Williams (Jose Carranza 82'); Brian Ownby (Jonathan Lewis 70'), Niall McCabe (Ilija Ilic 71'), George Davis IV; Cameron Lancaster

Bench: Chris Hubbard, Sean Totsch, Shaun Francis, Luke Spencer

Atlanta United 2 press comments Coach John Hackworth | Saturday, September 29, 2018

On what he liked about tonight's win: "I really liked the adjustments that we made in-game within the first 20 minutes and that made a huge difference for our team. It opened up the game and allowed us to create some chances and also kept our opponent from building any kind of rhythm."

On the own goal changing the game: "I think it started before that first goal when we were doing a better job in transition and doing a better job in our press. We turned them over in areas of the field where we wanted to turn them over in and we thought we could execute in. That led to that corner kick and us setting up that opportunity. I hadn't seen either but I guess they were own goals? [Yes, the first and fourth goals were own goals] Huh, alright."

On Kyle Smith's goal: "He's done it several times both in training and in games where he comes inside and obviously we encourage it because he's dangerous. Anytime you have an outside back who can go on an inside dribble and the opposing team doesn't know what to do with that, we can take advantage and he used his pace. We caught them unbalanced and Kyle was excellent at taking advantage of that and then had an opening and produced a wonderful shot. That's a huge goal for us."

On the play of the three of Brian Ownby, Niall McCabe, and George Davis IV: "It was good. We wanted all three of those guys to get involved in the attack and specifically, with Brian and George, part of our idea was to make sure that they were aggressive tonight going forward. I thought that especially George and Brian did that early. You look at the assist that Brian gets... he takes his guy 1v1 on the line, whips in a ball across and George had come inside because he clearly knew that Brian was about to put a ball into the box and it was a great finish. He still had work to do when the ball was still in the air but he got up, timed it perfectly, and obviously was accurate."

On conceding the one goal: "Obviously, it was tough to give up a goal and off our error in the midfield. They countered that and we knew they were a good counter team. Romario Williams is an excellent player and you can't give him that kind of space."

On the play of Tim Dobrowolski: "I'm really happy for Tim. I thought he did really well. In the big picture, Tim came up huge a couple of times and managed things really well all night. He was solid and we're happy for him."

On the road unbeaten streak: "We're just trying to get better every game. That has been something that we've tried to emphasize so it doesn't matter that we've had a harder time at home. The reality is that in a lot

of those games, too, our focus has been getting better throughout the week. We've had a tough schedule and we have another tough week coming up but we have managed when we're on the road to be superfocused and that has been good for us."

On clinching home-field advantage for at least one playoff game: "That's huge. Despite our road success, we know that to reach our ultimate goal we'll have to go on the road, but to have a home game secured is important because it does allow us that little bit more preparation and we want to continue to push to make sure that happens. When you take care of your job, you can't worry about anyone else but we got a little bit of help tonight and that's what we needed. Now we just need to continue, with another away game in Toronto, we need to push and take care of what we can."

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