From Louisville City’s inception through the 2019 season, Slugger field served as its home. In 2020, Louisville’s cathedral of soccer, Lynn Family Stadium, opened its doors and become LouCity’s new home. Much has changed in terms of fan experiences since the move, but little has changed in terms of performance for the boys in purple… or has it. In this piece, we will look at the numbers behind LouCity’s performances before and after the stadium switch.
Before we dive in, a few caveats need to be shared. If you don’t care, skip this paragraph. The most glaring point that needs to be addressed is the omission of 2015 and 2016 data. For whatever reason, 2017 and forward is how most sites have the USL data. 2015 and 2016 data can be found, but it’s not nearly as prevalent. This includes my main data source and one of the best around, American Soccer Analysis. For the sake of consistency, this is only factoring in the data they have made available. Another caveat is that this only contains USL regular season data. No preseason, Open Cup, or playoff data has been factored in. And finally, it is worth noting that the team composition has morphed over the years and has certainly played a major role in the differences. Please don’t take the below data to mean that one venue has been more advantageous than the other.
Now that is out of the way, let’s get into it! First up, Slugger! While we are missing 2015 and 2016, we thankfully do have the data for the three straight years LouCity made it to the finals (winning twice). In 50 total regular-season matches, Morados scored 1.96 goals a game with the high being in 2019 at 2.06. They were only allowing 1.1 goals a game with a low of 0.88 in 2017. Just over two points per game were earned in Slugger, with a high of 2.25 in 2017.
Next up, Lynn Family Stadium. In 35 matches in “The Fam”, LouCity has scored 2 goals a match with a whopping 2.25 scored per game in 2021. They have only allowed 0.94 goals against per game with the low being this current season (0.75). 2.26 points per game have been earned in Butchertown with 2021 and 2022 tied with 2.38 points per game.
Comparing the two, it appears that LFS has a great goals for, goals against, and points rate per game played. There is a bit of a smaller sample size for Lynn, however not enough to make that the primary culprit. As the club has grown, so have the expectations. The bar is continually raising and Coach Danny Cruz may have the most talented squad yet. It’s yet to be seen if they can achieve the heights that previous years have seen, but as it stands now, things are looking bright.
While this data was handy, I thought it might be interesting to see the monthly breakdown of home matches with the venue factored out. Interestingly, the points per game lows are in May and July, with three of the top four goals against per game months being May, June, and July. Perhaps there really is a mid-season slump.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed!
Parting Thoughts
The LouCityLadies and the Coopers are spearheading a school supply drive for two local schools. Check out their site to see how you can support!
Be sure to check out my assessment of LouCity's performance the first half of the season (How's It Going Pt. 2) as well as my feature on Josh Wynder!
Want to do a little more reading on LouCity? I suggest the following:
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