Tracking the USL

So we're at right around the midway point of the season. Quick check of the standings.

1) FC Cincinnnati 35 pts

2) Pittsburgh Riverhounds 34

3) Louisville City FC 29

4) Indy Eleven 28

5) Nashville SC 27

6) Charleston Battery 26

7) New York Red Bulls II 25

7) Penn FC 25

9) Charlotte Independence 24

10) Bethlehem Steel FC 23

Rearranged into points per game to account for disparities in total games played:

1) Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2.00

2) FC Cincinnati 1.94

3) Louisville City FC 1.81

4) Nashville SC 1.68

5) Indy Eleven 1.65

6) Charleston Battery 1.52

7) Bethlehem Steel FC 1.41

8) New York Red Bulls II 1.39

8) Penn FC 1.39

10) Charlotte Independence 1.33

Despite how close four and five currently are, I think a gap is going to start opening between the top four and everyone else. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Louisville are likely the four best teams when they're all playing their best soccer, free of injuries.

Louisville will only continue to progress if the coaching hire is a good one and comes in and sort of cruises the groove for the rest of the season. The new guy can't disrupt the team culture midstream and hope for anything but mediocrity. Then next year move to reshape the team that he wants.

To my mind, Pittsburgh is the best team in the league, currently bearing a strong resemblance to coach Bob Lilley's Rochester Rhinos team that won the 2015 USL title with a defense that was practically impenetrable. The Riverhounds have only surrendered 7 goals through 17 games. That's just insane.

On the opposite side of that, FC Cincinnati has scored an impressive 35 goals this season. Only New York Red Bulls have scored more. But like New York Red Bulls, they'be had trouble stopping other top teams from scoring, surrendering 21 goals. Of teams currently in playoff position, only New York has given up more.

Cincinnati's defense has been much improved over the last 7 matches. Their goal differential is beginning to creep up.

Pittsburgh has been very impressive lately. Taking Lilly and some of his better guys from Rochester and adding them to Pittsburgh's existing team was handled very well, and they are turning into a legit force as the season has progressed and they've ironed things out.

Louisville is closer to that second group than they are the top 3 right now, so it will be interesting to see if they get a boost at some point as they figure out the player-coach situation, and if they get healthier/stay healthy.

Things are going to heat up over the last month and a half of the season with Cincy currently at the top of the table. Cincy and Pittsburgh will square off twice, and they'll have a regular season finale at Nashville as well. They also have to play at Louisville, and Louisville has been their kryptonite... stealing a win at Slugger field would go a long way to making me feel more confident that Cincy can win the title, though wins at Pittsburgh and Nashville would be nice confidence boosters heading into the playoffs in their own right.

FC Cincinnati vs Charlotte on ESPN2 right now.

Cincinnati gets their 3 tonight.

Cincinnati gets their 3 tonight.

Set a new record for attendance at a midweek USL game too.

For the first time I can remember, Louisville is closer to being out of the playoff spots than to the top of the table. I’d like to see City get at least a point at home tonight vs. Charlotte on a short-rest week. Luckily for City, Charlotte also played midweek.

On a more positive note, club Vice President Brad Estes is on 790 WKRD this morning on their Saturday soccer show. Says the team expects to announce a new coach in the next ten days. Down to five candidates and they’ll interview all five this week.

Also mentioned that the new coach is being hired with the goal of him directing the foundation of a LCFC youth academy, which is pretty big. Lots of nasty youth soccer politics for the organization to have to muck through there.

FC Cincinnati — already squarely in first place — is about to announce its first two MLS signings and that they’ll join FCC for the rest of this USL season.

MLS contracts are more readily available to see than USL’s, but it looks as though the salaries for Adi and Alashe are roughly equivalent to HALF of Louisville’s budget. Not the player wages, half of Louisville’s entire operating budget.

Good lord Cincinnati. :lol2:

On the the other hand, it’s been over a year since Cincinnati scored a goal on Louisville, so I understand why they’d want to make sure they beefed up for the final run to the playoffs.

FC Cincinnati — already squarely in first place — is about to announce its first two MLS signings and that they’ll join FCC for the rest of this USL season.

 

MLS contracts are more readily available to see than USL’s, but it looks as though the salaries for Adi and Alashe are roughly equivalent to HALF of Louisville’s budget. Not the player wages, half of Louisville’s entire operating budget.

 

Good lord Cincinnati. :lol2:

 

On the the other hand, it’s been over a year since Cincinnati scored a goal on Louisville, so I understand why they’d want to make sure they beefed up for the final run to the playoffs.

Louisville/O'Connor had that Cincy offense figured out early in the year.

It will be interesting to see how things go when Cincy visits Slugger Field in September. Cincy's goal differential is off the charts now that they've got their optimal lineup settled. If they can get the MLS guys involved with minimal effect on team chemistry, hard to see even Louisville keeping them off the scoreboard.

Louisville/O'Connor had that Cincy offense figured out early in the year.

 

It will be interesting to see how things go when Cincy visits Slugger Field in September. Cincy's goal differential is off the charts now that they've got their optimal lineup settled. If they can get the MLS guys involved with minimal effect on team chemistry, hard to see even Louisville keeping them off the scoreboard.

Agreed on all counts. O’Connor read Koch’s gameplay a mile away and had the team firing on all cylinders for the game at Nippert back over Memorial Day weekend.

Cincinnati has been absolutely cruising since then.

Louisville, on the other hand, followed it up with a pretty miserable month of June while trying to contend with an Open Cup run and several injuries. Now the Cup’s over and Louisville has played really well the last two games but that’s too small a sample size to know what things really look like going forward.

Shaun Francis, the Jamaica international who was our top offseason signing, getting healthy has been nice and forward Richie Ballard should be back soon. With him and Luke Spencer hopefully back in playing shape soon, Louisville will be at full stregth headed down the stretch.

It’ll be a fun final run in this year as compact as the table is.

Last game before the new coach takes over in Louisville.

City won 6-4 up in New York. :lol2:

I guess his first job is to shore up that defense.

A little over two-thirds of the way to the finish line. Here's where the PPG standings sit. They're way off from the regular standings in the 5-9 spots but rescheduled games are just starting to take place end of this month and so we should start to see some uniformity in the number of games played pretty soon.

Tea - Total Points/Games Played - Points Per Game

1) FC Cincinnati 54/25 2.16

2) Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC 45/24 1.88

3) Louisville City FC 43/23 1.87

4) Charleston Battery 43/25

5) Indy Eleven 39/24 1.63

6) Nashville SC 35/23 1.52

7) Bethlehem Steel FC 39/27 1.44

8) New York Red Bulls II 36/25 1.44

- - - - -

9) Ottawa Fury FC 35/26 1.35

10) North Carolina FC 31/24 1.29

If the playoffs started tomorrow, I'm all over that FCC/NYRB matchup. Potential for loads and loads of goals. Would be awesome.

However, hard pass on Louisville seeing Nashville again. Easily the most boring team to play in all of pro soccer.

Anyone watching Louisville City vs. FC Cincinnati tonight? It's on TV here in Louisville on the CW network. Not sure about Cincinnati.

Here are the current Eastern Conference standings:

Team - Total Points/Games Played

1) FC Cincinnati - 60/27

2) Pittsburgh Riverhounds - 49/27

3) Charleston Battery - 48/28

4) Louisville City FC - 47/26

5) Indy Eleven - 45/28

6) Bethlehem Steel FC - 42/30

7) New York Red Bulls II - 40/28

8) Nashville SC - 39/27

- - - - -

9) Ottowa Fury FC - 38/29

10) North Carolina FC - 35/27

Anyone watching Louisville City vs. FC Cincinnati tonight? It's on TV here in Louisville on the CW network. Not sure about Cincinnati.

FCC goes up 1-0 late in the 22nd minute on a score by Corben Bone.