Match Preview | Ottawa Fury FC at Louisville City FC
April 18, 2019 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Ottawa Fury FC News Release
OTTAWA - Coming off a satisfying 2-0 win against Loudoun United FC at home this past Saturday, Ottawa Fury FC will slip on their white kits once more this weekend as the team travels to Kentucky to face the two-time reigning USL Cup champions Louisville City FC (kick off 7 p.m., OttawaFuryFC.com).
STORYLINES
With two wins in four matches and 7 points entering Week 7, Fury FC has put together the most successful start of a season for the 2019 USL Championship campaign, reaching the mark of 2 wins/7 points two weeks earlier than in their previous best start (in 6 matches in 2014 NASL Spring Season).
A few Fury FC members made their debut or return on the pitch for Ottawa last weekend: forward Mour Samb celebrated his first start with his first Fury FC goal; goalkeeper Callum Irving helped his side secure a second clean sheet on the season, his first in 2019; TFCII loanee Shaan Hundal made his Fury FC debut in the 85th minute.
Fury FC brought out their attacking mentality last weekend against Loudoun, creating 18 shots, 12 of which were in the first half and 7 on target; this is their highest amount in a game this season (3 of 11 against Birmingham the previous best).
For a second match in a row, Fury FC completed over 550 passes in the game (579). Ottawa now averages 505.3 passes per 90 minutes with a success rate of 77.6%. In four matches, the side has completed over 1,500 successful passes.
Louisville City FC is coming off back-to-back losses to Birmingham and Pittsburgh at Slugger Field, but managed to steal a point in Tampa Bay in Week 6 with a 1-1 draw despite their current injury issues. That draw was enough to push them up two spots in the latest USL Championship power rankings.
SCOUTING LOUISVILLE CITY FC
As the first back-to-back USL Cup champion in the league's history, Louisville City FC enters unprecedented territory in 2019. After ending 2018 on a 10-game winning streak that covered the final six games of the regular season and the USL Cup Playoffs, LouCity will enter the new season as the team everyone else is looking to take down after a remarkable run of success over its first four seasons.
Head Coach John Hackworth will have some gaps to fill in his starting lineup, however, with goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh and defender Kyle Smith both having joined former LouCity Head Coach James O'Connor at Orlando City SC in Major League Soccer. Also departed is forward Ilija Ilic to Indy Eleven after his breakout campaign, and then there's the move of 2018 Championship Golden Boot-winner Cameron Lancaster to Nashville SC, with the English forward signing an MLS contract in the Music City a year before NSC joins the top flight. LouCity has finished in the top two in the Eastern Conference in every season of its history and there's a strong case it will at least emulate that feat once again, despite the difficult start of the season. (via USL Championship)
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
Head Coach Nikola Popovic
"We are facing a learning process. Every game we've played we have gotten better in terms of what we want from our model and from our team. And we expect the team to continue developing, but we need to be more consistent. That's what we have to prepare when we are going to face a very difficult opponent."
"Louisville will be a very difficult opponent. It will be very similar to what we saw against Nashville in terms of the level of the opponent we are facing. They have a lot of high-level players. We will have to be very compact and very aggressive defensively because they are capable of scoring a lot of goals."
Midfielder Wal Fall
"We are expecting a strong team in Louisville. We respect them but they have to respect us as well. They know we are a good team, like them. It will be a good game, hard competition. We are ready to go and looking to score a lot of goals."
On his role in creating scoring opportunities... "Coach is giving me a lot of freedom to do it, to move where I want a bit, so I find the space between the lines and I find my teammates."
HOW TO WATCH
LIVE STREAM: OttawaFuryFC.com
TWITTER: Follow @OTTAWAFURYFC for LIVE updates #LOUvOTT #ForTheFury
VIEWING PARTY: Join the Bytown Boys at The Senate Tavern (1159 Bank St, Ottawa) to watch the match - all are welcome
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