Sidney Rivera No Longer with Louisville City; Status Unclear

Rookie striker Sidney Rivera is no longer with Louisville City FC. His profile was removed earlier today from Louisville City’s website and he was not at training with the club today. Email and text exchanges to representatives of both LCFC and Orlando City provided no additional details on Rivera’s current status.

Either the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Rivera has been waived by Orlando City, is being traded or reassigned, or is being recalled. Rivera had recently posted photos on social media of himself working out with a professional trainer. The Mane Land's Jeff Milby attended training to talk to him about it and noticed he wasn't at the team's practice and no explanation was given for his absence.

The fourth-round selection (No. 63 overall) by Orlando City in the 2015 MLS Entry Draft had recently experienced difficulty getting into Louisville’s 18-man match day roster. He failed to even make the bench at least three times despite being healthy enough to play. The Hampton, NJ, native had been assigned to Louisville City earlier this season to get more playing time, with Orlando already having Cyle Larin, Martin Paterson, Bryan Rochez, Danny Mwanga and Pedro Ribeiro up top.

But with LCFC striker Matt Fondy playing so well (11 goals, four assists in 17 matches), it was tough for Rivera to get on the field. Being a healthy scratch at Louisville recently makes it unlikely that Adrian Heath and Paul McDonough have recalled him to Orlando to solve the recent offensive power outage that has seen the Lions score just once in the last three competitive matches.

Because he can't get in the LCFC squad, it is possible that Orlando City has found a new club to accept Rivera on loan. As of this writing, he is still listed on the Orlando City website. He also may be part of a deal that has yet to be announced by the club. Or, Orlando City may simply have moved on.

Rivera had played only 205 minutes in eight matches (25.6 minutes/game average), starting once. He registered six shots, putting two on target and had not tallied a goal or assist in USL play. Rivera did score a goal in U.S. Open Cup action against Indy 11, however. His line in all competitions for LCFC this season:

• 9 games played
• 4 games as an unused sub
• 3 games out of the 18
• 2 starts — one in U.S. Open Cup, one in USL

The Old Dominion product captained his college team to its first-ever Conference USA title in 2014, scoring eight goals across six matches to end the season. The Monarchs made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they lost in heart-breaking fashion to Georgetown on a last-second goal.

We will continue to monitor this situation.