Building A Fortress: Staying Nearly Perfect Again At Home Will Be The Key To LouCity FC's Season
- Information VOICE_TRIBUNE
- Apr 3
- 4 min read
By RUSS BROWN • Photos Provided By LouCity FC
Last season Louisville City Football Club was almost unbeatable at home, posting a 16-1 record in Lynn Family Stadium, and coach Danny Cruz wants to see the same kind of domination this year.
“In 2024, we made Lynn Family Stadium a fortress,” Cruz said. “As we talked about before the season started, it’s about continuing to do that.”
The stadium has seat locations for 11,600 fans and a capacity of 15,304. Cruz’s team got off to a good start with a 2-0 win over Loudoun United in front of a packed house in its home opener on March 22.
“We feed off the energy of the crowd,” forward Ray Serrano said. “I think the energy was the same as last year, so we felt that the fans deserve a show, and we gave them one.”
At the time this was published LouCity was preparing for its second home match against Detroit City on March 29 and another capacity crowd was expected for a special event honoring local multi-Grammy-nominated band My Morning Jacket.
With or without such a high-profile attraction, though, Cruz will be expecting a 2024 repeat for the 15 remaining home matches.
“We want to make this a place where teams are, you know, not excited about coming to play,” he said. “They understand that it’s a difficult place to play with our environment and the way we play.
“A big thing for us playing here is it allows us to play the game the way we want to play. Where, when we go away to some places, we have to change things. We have to make things a little bit different.
“At Lynn Family Stadium we have a big field, unbelievable fans, so the environment can be intimidating at times for opponents. We feel confident playing in our stadium, and I think that ultimately making sure this place is a fortress will put us in the best position possible at the end of the season.”
After finishing atop the Eastern Conference last season, the club fell short of its ultimate goal of a United Soccer League (USFL) championship and Cruz says the disappointing finish was motivation during the team’s preparations for this year.
“I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t kind of fueled us,” he said prior to the season. “We were certainly proud of the things we accomplished last year, the consistency that we had most of the season. But we have a lot more to accomplish.”
The boys in purple hope they set the tone for the season with an important 2-1 road win over Charleston Battery, their main rival in the Eastern Conference. LouCity’s starting lineup featured 10 returning players in its sixth-straight season-opening win.
Serrano scored in the 53rd minute for LouCity, then Adrien Perez had the game-winning goal in the 77th minute.
“I just thought we were relentless,” Perez said.
LouCity’s defense limited Charleston to just three shots on goal, despite the hosts controlling 64% of possessions in the match.
“A difficult opponent to start the season with, but I thought the execution of what we wanted to accomplish was done to the ‘T’,” Cruz said. “I thought our performance defensively was excellent, made it difficult to break us down, especially on the road against one of the top teams in the league.
“We understand that the different environments, the different fields that we play on, the travel, that’s going to play a role. But there are no excuses. At the end of the season, we’re not going to look back and say, ‘Well, we played on a turf field,’ or ‘Well, it was hot.’ That’s irrelevant. We’ll address every game the same, which is to do everything we can to make sure we come away with three points.”
LouCity lost last year’s leading scorer Wilson Harris to Maccabi Petah Tikva FC of the Israeli first division, but Cruz is hoping that Phillip Goodrum, a five-year USL veteran who signed with LouCity in August will be a solid replacement. Goodrum has 48 career goals in the USL Championship and is eager to assume a larger role.
“I’m excited for the opportunity,” Cruz said. “I know what’s expected of me, and I’m ready to lead the attack. We’ve got a lot of talented guys around me, so I think we’ll be dangerous going forward.”
Goodrum’s supporting cast includes playmakers Taylor Davila and Arturo Ordonez, both of whom were named to the All-League First team last year. In all, the squad returns 20 players from last year’s record-setting team.
“We’re super excited,” said midfielder Kevon Lambert, who joined the club on loan from Real Salt Lake. “I mean, it’s go time, and I think we’re ready to show everyone what we can do.”
With a mix of returning talent and new faces, expectations remain high for LouCity, which has been among the most consistently outstanding in the USL Championship.
“Our ultimate goal is to win everything,” said veteran center back Sean Totsch, a three-time All-League First Team performer. “It starts with the habits Danny talks about every day and trying to implement those so that we build that winning mentality and winning culture and ultimately achieve our goal at the end of the season. The guys that have joined, it’s been seamless. They’ve come in and not just been a part of the culture, but added to it, and that’s a big thing.”
After the March 29 match, the boys in purple won’t play another match at Lynn Family Stadium until they open a three-game homestand on April 26 against the Richmond Kickers, followed by Lexington SC on May 1 and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on May 10.