It’s a BIG Friday night match for Louisville City following their 4-2 victory over Loudoun United. Memphis 901, the number two team in the East, is making the trip north for a huge last-season matchup. With 58 points from 29 matches, they only trail LouCity by five points and have a game to spare. Louisville has yet to lock up the first in the East accolade and Area Code FC is looking to make a late run at that spot.
901 is one of the few teams that can go toe-to-toe with LouCity’s stats. FotMob has them 3rd in goals for and 4th in goals against. They have the most shots on target, the most big chances, and the 6th most clean sheets. Based on the battle that took place earlier this season, probably not a total shock at this point. There are few legitimate threats to LouCity, but they are certainly one of them.
Phillip Goodrum, Aaron Molloy, and Jeremy Kelly are a few of their outstanding performers to keep an eye on. Goodrum has a whopping 19 goals this season, scoring 0.77 per 90 (1st). With 3.4 shots per 90 (2nd) and 1.7 shots on target per 90 (1st), he is likely to put Kyle Morton to work. Molloy leads his team with 10 assists but also boasts six goals (3rd). He is first for chances created, big chances created, accurate passes, as well as average player rating. He has been a big piece of the puzzle to Memphis’ success. Kelly is not far off from Molloy on the problem scale. He has seven goals (2nd), eight assists (2nd), and the 2nd highest average player rating.
FiveThirtyEight still believes that LouCity is the better side and has them with a 52% chance to win with Memphis 901 only at a 22% chance. These are two playoff locks fighting for the coveted 1st seed that provides a first-round bye. There will be no holding back in this one. Make sure you are there to cheer on the boys in purple and help create a hostile atmosphere for the visitors. We need these points!
Parting Thoughts
Want to do a little more reading on LouCity? I suggest the following:
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