San Diego Loyal SC falls 5-2 to Louisville City FC at home
Credit: Don De Mars/ EVT Sports
As anticipated, San Diego Loyal SC and Louisville City FC provide an intense game at Torero Stadium on April 16. The game was filled with six goals, two red cards, and lots of tackles.
After the match, head coach Landon Donovan expressed his disappointment in tonight‘s performance.
“Disappointing results, more disappointed in a few performances against a very good team which Louisville are. You can’t give away one goal, and we gave it five.” Head coach Landon Donovan said in a post-game interview. “Not necessarily that they were earned goals, we just gave them away, so It’s impossible to win when we do that.”
Louisville went up on the scoreboard in minute 4 after a through ball went right through the Loyal backline, which forced goalkeeper Austin Guerrero to go one on one against Louisville forward Harris Wilson, who dribbled past Guerro to make it 1-0.
Ten minutes later, midfielder Andrew Carleton lobbed a through ball to forward Thomas Amang. Amang took advantage of his pace and went straight to goal, and right before shooting, the Louisville defender came from behind and dropped Amang in the 18-yard-box, which awarded the Loyal their first penalty kick of the season.
Carleton was the player assigned to take the PK and managed to convert his first goal for the team to make it 1-1
Right before the end of the first half Louisville Defender Wes Charpie capitalized off a bouncing ball in a packed loyal box and went right through Guerrero to making it 1-2
Six minutes into the first half, Louisville scored their third goal of the night off a PK, making 3-1.
San Diego responded quickly, with forward Kyle Vassel scoring a finesse shot in minute 52, making it 3-2.
At this point in the game, the steaks were high, and San Diego had to take advantage of their fierce attack.
Five minutes later, Louisville got a red card leaving them with ten men on the field. This was San Diego’s time to take full advantage of having an extra man on the field.
“There was a lot of modifications made, but the danger was them giving up the third goal,” Donovan said.
Donovan had hopes that at this point in the game, the Loyal would increase their chances of scoring, but instead, the game fell back into Louisville’s favor.
The odds would change in minute 83 when Niall McCabe scored the second penalty of the night off a foul by Grant Stoneman, who was sent off right after committing the penalty.
To finish off the game Louisville forward Brain Ownby scored their fifth goal of the game on a counter-attack which left the San Diego Loyal defense exposed to an open goal.
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“The team has to mentally and physically be prepared for next game now,” Donovan said. “Our focus is on on L.A Galaxy now.”
The San Diego Loyal is set to face L.A. Galaxy in Los Angeles next Tuesday for the U.S. Open Cup at 7:30 pm.
Juan Daniel Avila is a senior journalism student at San Diego State University. He’s been writing for 3 years and working in the broadcasting sector as a commentator for 4 years. Started at EVT in January 2022.