USL Louisville City FC

Lucky's Goal Lifts LouCity Past Ottawa Fury, 1-0

April 20, 2019 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release


A 60' goal by Lucky Mkosana was just what Louisville City needed to beat Ottawa Fury FC Saturday night at Louisville Slugger Field. LouCity recorded its second clean sheet of the season, in its 1-0 win.

Mkosana's goal came off a nifty set of passes, first from Oscar Jimenez to Niall McCabe and then from McCabe to Mkosana who sent the ball into the back of the net on one touch.

"The goal was a good ball from Niall [McCabe]," Mkosana said. "He served me one and he played a really good ball already. Credit to him and Oscar [Jimenez] seeing that run from Niall and him seeing me drop back. It came out as a very good pass from him."

Saturday night's win gives Louisville City three more points to add to the seven they have from the first six matches, and puts City back into the win column for the first time since March 23.

Earlier this week, Louisville City coach John Hackworth told reporters he believed his team turned a corner with a late goal down in Tampa Bay vs. the Rowdies. That goal salvaged a point in the 88th minute. Now, Louisville City have four points in the last two games.

Hackworth was asked Saturday night if his team had turned the corner, "Yeah, absolutely they did. When you make a statement like that it's awfully nice when your players go out and back you up. I felt that way after last Saturday," he said. "We had a really good week of preparation. I think it showed in our performance tonight. I'm really proud of the players."

Mkosana, voted the Dr. Mark Lynn and Associates Man of the Match by the fans, won the award for his goal, but also on a nifty defensive play he made earlier in the match. Mkosana headed away an Ottawa shot on goal, saving the 0-0 tie at that point in the match.

Scoring Summary:

60' LouCity - Lucky Mkosana (Niall McCabe assist)

John Hackworth Quotes:

Q: On turning the corner

A: Yeah absolutely they did. When you make a statement like that it's awfully nice when your players go out and back you up. I felt that way after last Saturday. WE had a really good week of preparation. I think it showed in our performance tonight. I'm really proud of the players.

Q: On what they worked on in practice

A: Ottawa is a really good team that plays a similar style to us and we came up with a tactical plan that was difficult to implement. Basically, when we started to play, we would have three forwards but then we transitioned to two nines, with Abdu and Luck, and that meant that Niall dropped. It also meant that we looked like we had three in the back and had Frano and Oscar up high. That's difficult to make those switches within the run of play, but really happy with it because its unbalanced Ottawa all night long and ultimately leads to the goal that we scored there.

Q: On what impressed him the most

A: I think they are finally starting to trust the way that we want to play, and they trust in each other. They believed in the work all week long. We built off of a positive result last week. We've dealt with so much adversity this year, so far, for us to have those feelings then come out and have a performance like tonight was really important. That's what I'm impressed with those group of young men. When you're faced with that adversity you have several different ways that you can react. I really thought we came together and played quite well. And did that all week.

Q: On the defense

A: I think defending is something that has been an issue for us, so far this year. I thought that Taylor, Totsch, and Paco, in particular, did a fantastic job. We were asking Oscar and Frano to do double duty. They were effectively our wingers but balanced on the weak side. I thought that those two guys did a fantastic job. Ben Lundt makes a big save and probably the only moment that we let down, on that free kick. Interesting situation there. Everybody's got a job to do and I think, not just our defense, but the guys up front too. I thought Lucky and Abdou did a really good job. They're a team that likes to build out of the back off their center backs and we just didn't allow them time and space to do that. I should mention Niall. We gave Niall the job at taking out Charlie Ward and Charlie has been Ottawa's catalyst for everything they do, and he didn't get on the ball much tonight. It was an all-around good team defensive effort.

Q: On playing particularly high when up

A: We were talking on the sideline on whether we should drop our line. Whether we should go back, and we ultimately did when we brought Alexi on. But the plan all along was to bring Paco a little wider and have Shaun farther up the field to really defend their opposite outside back. (Carl) Haworth is a really good player for them. He's a guy that's played as a nine for them this year and does now play right back. It was effective to kind of try and negate him a little bit.

Q: On not finishing in the first half

A: Absolutely Lance. Look, we've had so many games, so far this year, that we felt so good about the way we played in the first 30 minutes. We would walk into halftime down a goal or walk in, like we did tonight, without anything and we just said like 'let's continue to do it.' We made a couple adjustments that I thought were important for us, in our build up play. Really proud of the team because I think we're getting better in those aspects. We're asking every guy to make reads and feel comfortable on the ball under pressure. They're a team that put us under pressure, so It was nice to see us have so many of those build up plays we were successful tonight. It would've been great if we would've finished on the other end out of one of them.

Q: On Casey Clark

A: I need a whole press conference just for that whole story. Casey was with us a couple week ago and came in on trial. Then, this crazy injury bug that hopefully I'm wishing to end. I can't even make up the craziness we've dealt with in terms of injuries. For Tim to get hurt on a non-contact play, in training, earlier this week, meant that we had to call in a goalkeeper. Casey had come in and he'd been a real good person within the locker room. He'd performed well in training just off his indoor season. One of those opportunities and we are thankful for him to come.

Q: On being a one-day thing

A: We'll have to see. For now, it is, but we obviously have a situation that we don't know how long this is going to be, with Tim out. We have Chris coming back, but you can't go through the next game with one goalkeeper. I think Casey is going to be around for a little bit, and I think he'll make the most of the opportunity.

Q: On other injuries

A: We're progressing, but its slow. We have a little break here, which is nice. We aren't playing next weekend. Our next game is on a Tuesday. I think that will give us really good time. I think that we will get at least three of these guys back, hopefully more, but we're on track to get three of them back.

Q: On all injuries, who has trained

A: In training we just had Luke and George back temporarily, although Paolo is looking good. Those three right now are the closest to getting back.

Lucky Mkosana Quotes:

Q: On the goal

A: "The goal was a good ball from Niall [McCabe]. He served me one and he played a really good ball already. Credit to him and Oscar [Jimenez] seeing that run from Niall and seeing * drop back it came out as a very good pass from him."

Q: On what impressed him most in the team's win:

A: "I feel like the energy was better today and I feel like everyone worked with each other. Everyone was doing their work and it showed to be honest. The entire first half we controlled the game. Maybe the last few minutes we let it up a little bit, but we all believed we were going to get a goal."

Q: On the confidence boost given from pulling off a win while dealing with so many injuries:

A: "Well I'll say it really comes as a team. At practice everyone can start, everyone is fighting for a starting position so it's good that the coaching staff managed to get guys that are really hungry and ready to step up when whatever happens."

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