Louisville City Signs Conor Shanosky, Placed in Eastern Conference

As the inaugural USL PRO season grows nearer for Louisville City FC, Orlando City SC’s affiliate, new player signings are starting to dominate the news with the first-year club. This week the club announced the signing of former D.C. United player Conor Shanosky, bringing the club it’s first player who has had experience in the American top-flight.

Born on December 13, 1991, the Sterling, Virginia native played high school soccer at Potomac Falls High School, where he was a standout All-State, All-Region and All-District defensive midfielder. He joined the D.C. United academy in 2009, where he featured as captain for the U-18 squad. Upon leaving high school in 2010, Shanosky signed a letter of intent to play college soccer at George Mason University but forwent that opportunity to sign with United in August of that year as the club's third homegrown player.

It was a short-lived career for Shanosky at DC, where he only featured in five matches for the Red and Black, including a CONCACAF Champions League match. He spent most of his time on loan in the lower leagues of American soccer, making appearances for the Harrisburg City Islanders and Richmond Kickers of USL PRO and the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers of NASL. Shanosky has spent the majority of his career with the Kickers, making 31 appearances there over last two seasons, where he was a part of a regular season championship squad in 2013.

On the International scene, Shanosky featured in eight matches for the U.S. U-20 squad that won the Milk Cup in Ireland back in 2010.

"Conor is a massive signing for us," Louisville City FC head coach James O'Connor said of Shanosky. "To have had MLS, U.S. National Team and CONCACAF Champions League experience, Conor is someone that we are extremely excited to join us, and his character and leadership will definitely make a difference this season."

Shanosky is Louisville City's sixth signing thus far, joining Kadeem Dacres, Juan Guzman, Guy Abend, Adam West, and Sean Reynolds. The 6-foot-4 defender is Louisville's fourth defensive minded signing, showing the emphasis that O'Connor will put on that side of play.

Louisville City to USL PRO Eastern Conference

As had been expected, on Wednesday the USL PRO league office announced the new conference alignment for league play in 2015. The third division league, which has expanded to 24 teams for the upcoming season, will be split into Eastern and Western conferences with 12 teams in each. The league has provided for teams which are regionally close to play each other more often, hoping to cut down on excess travel and to create local rivalries.

You’re Allowed to Hate the Chicago Fire Now

Chicago is a great city. It has given us deep-dish pizza, a pipeline of basketball talent over the last few years, a vibrant cultural history, including Jazz and the Blues, and lest we forget the effervescent Harry Caray. However, if we have any say in it, the soccer club which calls the Windy City home will be in the ditch by decade's end. The Chicago Fire have met the MLS-wide mandate and affiliated themselves with St. Louis FC of USL PRO. Why would they do this? Perhaps they wanted cheap beer. It certainly wasn't because they thought the Missourian club would actually field a competitive side this season (hint: they won't). Yup, must have been the beer.

(See? Told you this was gonna be a rivalry.)