SAN ANTONIO — Louisville City FC made eight lineup changes Saturday at San Antonio FC and still managed to register 1-1 draw as coach Danny Cruz strategically winds up his squad for the playoffs.
Phillip Goodrum scored LouCity’s opener just before the first half whistle, San Antonio’s Kevon Lambert equalized in the second half, and the boys in purple eked out a road result two games before postseason play opens.
Cruz’s personnel swaps were designed both to build fitness in his bench and provide a proving ground for more minutes in the playoffs. He’ll go with a first-choice lineup again next weekend when LouCity hosts Phoenix Rising FC in its regular season finale at Lynn Family Stadium.
“With the travel, we wanted to make sure that we put some guys in the best positions possible to be ready to go against Phoenix from a physical standpoint,” Cruz said. “…I thought the group tonight was excellent. I asked them to fight. I knew it was going to be an ugly game, and every single one of them stepped up.
“We made a mistake defending the corner, then it goes 1-1, and we had a lot of chances. But most of all, I was proud of the defensive work from the group. I thought they were excellent.”
LouCity made adjustments from back to front of its formation en route to improving to 23-6-4 on the season. A draw upped City’s point total on the season to 73 — a club record, eclipsing the prior mark set in 2022.
Wes Charpie started defensively in place of Kyle Adams, who’s at his limit for yellow card accumulation. In the midfield, regular starters Taylor Davila and Elijah Wynder rested, giving way to Niall McCabe and Carlos Moguel Jr. Cruz’s front three were all fresh faces, too.
“In my opinion, I don’t want (regular starters) to have missed a week going into the playoffs,” Cruz said. “The idea was to obviously get some guys some rest as well because this is travel against a team that we know is a very physical opponent — but at the same time put guys in positions to get minutes tonight that prepares them as well to be ready for the playoffs.”
LouCity limited San Antonio to only 0.16 expected goals in the first half but appeared poised to go into the break scoreless. A corner kick delivery from Jake Morris to Goodrum changed that, with Goodrum heading in an attempt two minutes into stoppage time.
San Antonio’s Lambert answered in the 61st minute as City and Saturday’s hosts went on to nearly identical attacking numbers on the night. Louisville separated itself defensively, winning 14 of 19 tackles and 52.5% of the game’s duels.
The boys in purple kick off their regular season finale next Saturday, October 26, at 7:30 p.m. against the defending USL Championship title winner Phoenix before the playoffs open November 2 at Lynn Family Stadium.
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