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USL Ottawa Fury FC

Match Preview | Ottawa Fury FC V Louisville City FC

July 13, 2019 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Ottawa Fury FC News Release


Week 19

Ottawa Fury FC v Louisville City FC

Kickoff: Sunday, July 14 - 2:00 p.m.

TD Place, Ottawa, ON

OTTAWA - With another character-filled performance against New York Red Bulls II last weekend and a convincing win in its first match of the Canadian Championship on Wednesday night, Ottawa Fury FC returns home on Sunday to face two-time USL Championship defending champions Louisville City FC (KO 2 p.m., OttawaFuryFC.com). Always looking to bring a bit of bite to the game, Fury FC will also be looking to impress its canine fans on this Dog Day Afternoon match.

STORYLINES

Sunday's match will be the second encounter between the two teams this season. The first matchup at the Louisville Slugger Field ended with a last-minute 0-1 defeat for Fury FC. The team managed to generate 5 shots from inside the box and Callum Irving had a massive exhibition by allowing only one goal out of the 19 shots that were fired his way.

Louisville City FC has lost three times away from home this season and has 2W-2D-1L in its last 5 matches.

All-time, Fury FC has a record of 0W-1D-4L against Louisville City FC.

Ottawa has a 5W-2D-1L record at home, where it will play its next two league matches, plus the return leg of the Canadian Championship.

Fury FC model of play has almost already generated more goals than in the complete 2018 season, sitting at 27 so far this season (total of 31 last year).

The Senegalese Sensation Mour Samb, with his 7 goals and 4 assists, is in the top 20 in the USL Championship for goals (tied 16th with 7, 4th in the Eastern Conference), assists (tied 14th with 4) and shots (tied 13th with 36).

Through 17 games, Ottawa has 4 different scorers with 5 or more goals to their name: Wal Fall (5), Carl Haworth (5), Mour Samb (7) and Christiano François (5).

A total of 7 different players have scored for Fury FC so far this season.

Ottawa as a club is sitting in the middle of the pack in 15th rank for scoring in the league.

Despite missing Week 18 action for load management, midfielder Charlie Ward still leads the USL Championship with a total of 1,134 passes, well ahead of his closest competitor in Seth Casiple of Reno 1868 FC who has 990.

As a unit, Fury FC averages 453.6 passes per game, with a success rate of 78%.

In 2018, Ottawa averaged 332.1 passes per 90-minutes and had a success rate of 70%.

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

"It is a very important match for us. We know that we are playing the titleholder and that they are a very dangerous team. I think we had a good performance against them at the start of the season. I think the scoreboard and the performance tell two very different stories. The performance tells a more real story than what the scoreboard does. I remember we created lots of chances during that game, they, of course, had a lot of chances as well, but I think it was a very even game. They are a very experienced team that is full of players with a lot of USL experience, so we expect a very difficult game, but we have good chances to win if we perform the way we want to perform."

Midfielder Thiago De Freitas

"We have to be able to control the game at home and rely on our strengths. We have to keep on doing what we have done until now. We know that opponents we face have different playing styles and different strengths, but we have to adapt. If each player manages to give their 200%, then we will be able to get great results out of every match."

HOW TO WATCH

LIVE STREAM: OttawaFuryFC.com

TWITTER: Follow @OTTAWAFURYFC for LIVE updates #OTTvLOU #ForTheFury

TICKETS: Join us for the Dog Day Afternoon at TD Place; your furry friend gets free access to the match when you buy a ticket. Details at OttawaFuryFC.com

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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