What to Watch for as LouCity Visits Detroit City
USL Louisville City FC

What to Watch for as LouCity Visits Detroit City

Published on September 26, 2025 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release


For Louisville City FC right now, life is good. Four straight wins have locked up a top-two finish with five regular-season games left on the docket.

Up next: the boys in purple look to keep it going as they're workin' on the weekend with a visit to Keyworth Stadium at 7 p.m. Saturday for a matchup with playoff hopeful Detroit City FC.

The matchup marks LouCity's penultimate away match of the campaign before it kicks off October with a two-game homestand against Indy Eleven and Miami FC.

LouCity (18-1-6, 60 points) inched closer to a second consecutive Players' Shield last weekend when it downed Las Vegas Lights FC, 3-1, on the back of a dominant second-half display at Lynn Family Stadium. The hosts' defense held the Lights to just three shot attempts the entire match - the visitors' lowest single-game total this season.

It was the fifth time in the last eight matches that City has scored at least three goals.

The consistency Danny Cruz's men have shown in 2025 is unprecedented. The team is on track to break the USL Championship record for points per game, currently held at 2.38 by the 2012 Orlando City SC team, with a projected 2.4 average.

To accomplish that, the boys in purple must win four out of their last five contests.

The first barrier to this remarkable feat is Detroit (8-9-8, 32 points), a team that sits just above the Eastern Conference's playoff line in seventh place. The Michigan club hasn't finished outside the East's top eight since it joined the USL Championship for the 2022 season.

After stringing together five games without a loss, Le Rouge, as the club is known, has dropped two straight. The most recent came against Kentucky's other USL Championship club, Lexington SC. DCFC put just two of its 16 shots on frame in the loss.

Louisville last saw Detroit on March 29 - a 2-0 result in favor of City at Lynn Family Stadium. However, the venue this weekend, Keyworth Stadium, hasn't been the friendliest to the boys in purple recently. DCFC has secured victory against LouCity at home for two seasons running.

Follow Along

- The match will air live locally on MyTV 58 and ESPN Louisville's AM 680/FM 105.7.

- If streaming, download the free WDRB+ app to watch the local feed in Louisville or ESPN+ for national coverage.

- 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...

Cruzin' to 100: After last week's triumph over Las Vegas, LouCity head coach Danny Cruz stands alone in the record books. The 35-year-old became not only the youngest but also the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in USL Championship history. It took Cruz just 169 games to hit 100, 16 games earlier than the next quickest: Sacramento Republic FC's Neill Collins. To add even more context, he's the third to hit the 100-win mark with one club.

AP, the game changer: Adrien Perez, who is coming back from an injury, continues to provide LouCity with a necessary offensive spark. He has now scored goals in back-to-back games off the bench, with his latest coming just five minutes after coming onto the pitch against Las Vegas. The last time Perez bagged goals in consecutive games was when he played for the now-defunct San Diego Loyal SC.

Precipice of history: Displaying reliability to the utmost degree, LouCity defender Sean Totsch moved into a tie with former Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC midfielder Kenardo Forbes for the league's all-time regular-season appearance record. It was his 295th outing in the USL Championship, 252 of which have been in purple. One more would make Totsch the new regular-season appearance record holder. He's already one of two players with over 23,000 league minutes to his name.

Another feather in his cap: UofL product Josh Jones is piecing together an exceptional rookie campaign in the backline for LouCity. The win over the Lights saw him add another memorable moment to his 2025 collection, as he tallied his first professional goal to seal the three points. Before turning pro this season, Jones scored 11 total goals during his college career as a Louisville Cardinal.

Defending the fortress: For visitors, getting a result at Lynn Family Stadium is never a walk in the park. The boys in purple once again sent their fans home happy last week, extending their regular-season home undefeated streak to 21 contests with the win. It is the eighth-longest such streak in league history.

Darren can do it: Danny Dichio's crew has one player above the four-goal mark in the league: South African Darren Smith. Smith joined Detroit ahead of the 2025 season on a two-year deal after some time in Finland with Inter Turku. He has hit the ground running during his first season in the States, netting 10 goals across 25 regular-season matches played. The 29-year-old is red hot, too. Smith has four goal contributions from his last four starts in the frontline, though he hasn't appeared in the last two games.

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United Soccer League Championship Stories from September 26, 2025


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