What to Watch for as LouCity Visits Defending Champion Colorado Springs

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USL Louisville City FC

What to Watch for as LouCity Visits Defending Champion Colorado Springs

July 3, 2025 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release


For this Independence Day, the USL Championship brought two title winning teams together in hopes of fireworks.

Louisville City FC, the defending Players' Shield champion, travels west this Fourth of July to take on the defending USL Championship title winners, the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. Kickoff is set for 9 p.m. in a nationally televised game at Weidner Field in Colorado.

The clash of title-holders is relatively unprecedented in USL history. It's happened just seven times in a USL competition since 2011, when the league turned fully professional. Shield winners and champions are an even 3-3-1 all-time in those meetings, between the regular season and playoffs.

There was an eighth meeting between Shield and title winners, albeit not in USL competition. After winning the USL Championship title in 2018, LouCity faced the reigning Players' Shield winner, FC Cincinnati, in the 2019 U.S. Open Cup. Cincinnati, which was in its first season as an MLS team, defeated LouCity 2-1 in extra time.

All that history, though, is old news for LouCity head coach Danny Cruz.

"I think it's a good storyline for sure, but for us, again, at the end of the day, it's an opponent that we want to try and go take three points off of," Cruz said.

Whether there will be fireworks on the field Friday isn't certain, though the discrepancy in form between the two sides has dampened the hype ahead of the display.

LouCity (10-1-4, 34 points) has picked up mostly where it left off in 2025. The club is in first place in the league, two points clear of the second-place Charleston Battery, and boasts the league's second-highest scoring offense (28 goals) and the second-stingiest defense (12 goals allowed).

Colorado Springs (3-5-6, 15 points), though, hasn't yet lived up to its championship pedigree this year. Last season's leading scorer, Ronaldo Damus, moved on to Birmingham Legion FC, while serial champion midfielder Speedy Williams moved to Lexington SC in the offseason. The club has registered just two league wins since March.

The matchup is LouCity's final competitive game for two weeks, but that doesn't mean the boys in purple won't be in action. The club will return home on Saturday, July 12 for the club's first-ever international friendly against a Spanish club, CD Leganés. For tickets and more information, visit LouCity.com/leganes.

It's the start of this summer's Global Games Series at Lynn Family Stadium. An English Premier League club will play in Louisville for the first time when Aston Villa visits to face Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany's Bundesliga on July 26. Then, on July 29, LouCity will host Frankfurt for the second-consecutive season.

For tickets and more information on how you can see these top-level European clubs in person, visit LouCity.com/GlobalGames.

Follow Along

- The game will air nationally on CBS Sports Network. Local radio coverage will air on ESPN Louisville's AM 680/FM 105.7.

- For Starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter. Also, find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram and Louisville City FC on Facebook.

Story Lines...

No possession, no problem: Last week's 4-1 regular season win at Loudoun United was historic for LouCity in the way it happened. The boys in purple finished with just 24.9% possession in the win. It was the lowest total in any game in LouCity history, and the third-lowest total in USL Championship history for a winning team.

Ray's run: Louisville City FC's Ray Serrano has recorded a goal contribution in five consecutive USL Championship regular season games following his goal against Loudoun United FC last Wednesday night. The run includes three goals and two assists.

The mustachioed menace: Jansen Wilson has scored in back-to-back games for LouCity, including at Loudoun last week and the winner in Sunday's 1-0 USL Jägermeister Cup triumph versus North Carolina - all while sporting a new mustache. "It's staying, 100 percent," Wilson said Sunday of his fortunate facial feature. "It's not going anywhere."

Milestone: Last week, forward Cameron Lancaster appeared in his 150th USL Championship game at Loudoun. He became the 22nd player to hit the mark in league history, and the sixth player to do it while playing for LouCity.

Happy Fourth: Colorado Springs has a long-standing tradition of playing before a sold-out crowd on Independence Day. The club has annually hosted a game on the holiday since 2019, aside from the pandemic-altered 2020 season. Colorado Springs is 3-2-0 in those games, with the last four played before a sold-out crowd of 8,023. "We know the July Fourth game there, it's always a sold-out crowd, it's an unbelievable atmosphere," Cruz said.

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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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