Three Thoughts From Louisville's Dominant Win Over Charleston
Louisville City roll over Charleston Battery 4-1 in hotly anticipated showdown
It’s been circled on calendars since Opening Night.
August 9th, 8:00 EST. Louisville City hosting the Charleston Battery. The top two teams in the league. A showdown to likely decide the Player’s Shield. Months of these two teams jockeying for first in the East, and first in USL overall. Months of buildup. Months of anticipation.
Yet, it was over in just sixteen minutes.
Louisville demolished Charleston by a score of 4-1 in front of a packed house at Lynn Family Stadium. They didn’t even need the second half. Goals in the 2nd, 16th, 28th, and 45th minutes saw the game out before the halftime whistle. They proved, yet again, they are the cream of the USL crop. Louisville now sits top of the USL standings, 3 points clear of the Battery.
In honor of the three-goal margin of victory, three thoughts on last night’s game.
1. For Charleston, is there even a lesson to learn?
Even in a blowout, good teams learn something to take with them going forward. But what?
Take more shots? The Battery led in that department 17-16, and 6-5 in shots on goal. Louisville’s found the back of the net, Charleston’s didn’t. MD Myers had good looks in the 1st and 11th minutes but couldn’t get a clean strike. His goal in the 52nd minute kept the Battery from being shut out.
Be better defensively? The Battery came into the match averaging less than a goal a game allowed (that number has now ballooned to 1.1 goals allowed). The back line didn’t perform great, but certainly not bad enough to account for 4 first half goals. Keeper Luis Zamudio may have been able to save one of the four goals, but the blame can’t be placed on his performance, either.
Manager Ben Pirmann called it a lack of execution. “I think if you want to look at the first two plays of the game, that summed it up. We did exactly what we needed to do; we played through, we got a half breakaway,” said Pirmann. “We prepared well, we knew exactly how we needed to play and what we needed to do to win, but we didn’t do it. We just didn’t turn up. We were nowhere near where we needed to be, and we just didn’t perform.”
Lack of execution, unlucky in front of goal, an off night from a usually stout defense. It could be any of those, or more likely a combination of them all. But there’s an alternative, a terrifying lesson that might be true: Louisville could just be better.
2. Louisville Looks Legit
Wow, breaking news: good soccer team might be really good at soccer. Phenomenal analysis. Sarcasm aside, when you look at what Louisville is doing (especially to good teams) it starts to sink in all the more. Louisville might just be this much better than even the next best team in the league.
If you want a blueprint on how to beat the Battery, look no further than last night. Charleston strives to dominate possession and slowly break teams down. They had nearly 70% possession on the night, all according to plan. They had more shot attemps and more shots on goal. But they are vulnerable to the counterattack, and Lou City’s was perfect.
Phillip Goodrum’s opener began with a long pass from deep in Louisville’s end. It took just three touches to go from their own 18-yard box to the back of Charleston’s net. Jansen Wilson’s 16th minute goal was much the same, a quick chip from inside their own end found the back of the net just four touches later.
Damian Las also deserves praise. Charleston rarely put together a truly threatening chance to score, but Las was ready for them each time. And if he doesn’t save Cal Jenning’s first minute shot, this may have been a very different recap.
Lou City can adjust its style to beat you at your own game. Their stadium is an absolute fortress, one of the largest and most imposing environments in USL. Aura aside, stats back up their dominance too.
Only the Battery average more goals scored per game (2.1 for Charleston to Louisville’s 2.0). Only Sacramento allows fewer goals per game (0.7 for Republic, 0.8 for Lou City). They score in bunches, hardly allow goals, and still have just one loss in league play, a one goal loss on the road to North Carolina FC, a top 5 team themselves.
If this is what Louisville can do to the other best team in the league, is there anyone out there who can slow them down?
3. How Does Charleston Respond?
So, uh, where do we go from here?
It took Louisville about 20 minutes to dash Charleston’s hopes of winning away at Louisville for the first time ever. Charleston is 4-11-7 all time against Lou City. They’ve only beaten them once in league play this decade. This is the third time in their history Louisville has won by a 4-1 scoreline. It’s less of a rivalry and more of a yearly humbling.
After Louisville’s 3-1 August home win in 2024, the Battery responded by beating Orange County 6-0 the next week. But they won just three games the rest of the way, bumbling to a 3-2-3 record heading into the playoffs before eventually falling to Rhode Island in the Eastern Conference Final.
A gut punch like this can result in a team venting frustrations the next week out. It could even be a rallying cry for the rest of a season.
But this was less of a gut punch, more of a getting your you-know-what kicked in a back alley for 90 minutes. Louisville is dusting off a place for the Player’s Shield in its trophy cabinet already. Sure, it’s only a three-point lead in the standings. But after last night, it might as well be three thousand points.
Last year, Charleston responded well in their next match out but stumbled slightly the rest of the way. Ben Pirmann wants to shake this off as fast as possible, but will the shadow of this game linger over Charleston’s title hopes the rest of the way?
No matter what, the East now runs through Lousiville. And that’s bad news for the Battery.
Next up: Charleston stays on the road to face Pittsburgh Riverhounds next Saturday at 7:00 PM, while Louisville travels to The Miami FC Saturday at 7:30 PM.