LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- For the first time in club history, Louisville City Football Club's season comes to an end before the USL Championship's Eastern Conference Final.
No. 1 LouCity's 3-0 defeat to Rhode Island FC at Lynn Family Stadium Saturday ended a historic season for the boys in purple. LouCity had a USL-record-tying 24 wins and club records of 76 points and 86 goals.
“I’m incredibly proud of being able to work with this group this season," LouCity head coach Danny Cruz said. "It was a memorable one in two different ways, obviously. We recognize that tonight wasn’t good enough, and this will sting for a long time.”
This would've been LouCity's 10th consecutive conference final berth. It was also the first time in 18 matches that LouCity was held scoreless.
“It certainly wasn’t good enough tonight,” Cruz said. “We made too many mistakes and didn’t capitalize on our chances…There’s been a lot of ups and a lot of downs — but this certainly is not the way we we wanted to end it.”
LouCity's only other home loss this season came on June 22 to Rhode Island. This second meeting played out in a similar manner to the first one.
Rhode Island scored in the 9th minute and never allowed LouCity to get back into it. University of Kentucky alumnus JJ Williams tallied that opening goal and put away another after a costly Louisville mistake led to a giveaway in the home side's own third.
Absolute magic from JJ Williams#WickedGoodGoal | @capellisport pic.twitter.com/uenxPjgRRd
— x - Rhode Island FC (@RhodeIslandFC) November 10, 2024
LouCity thought it had an answer in the 84th minute when Rhode Island goalkeeper Koke Vegas bobbled a Jake Morris cross that took a deflection. Louisville started celebrating, thinking the ball went over the goal line in that sequence. But the center referee disagreed and disallowed the goal.
“I think it’s pretty surreal,” LouCity captain Kyle Adams said. “I don’t think any of us thought it would end this way — the season we had, especially here at home.
"The fans were huge for us all season, and we made this place a fortress. Rhode Island was the only team that was able to come here and take points off us. Credit to them, and hopefully they can go on and win it all.”
The club has not won the league title since 2018, when it won back-to-back championships. Standards are always high and this season shockingly fell well short of making more history.
“There’s a lot of positives, but at the end of the day if you don’t win the last game, it’s all for nothing,” Adams said of the 2024 campaign. “That’s how we feel. That’s how it always is here. If you don’t win the last game of the season with a big trophy, it doesn’t matter.”
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