Louisville City Update: Charleston to be First LCFC Playoff Opponent

Orlando City’s lame duck USL affiliate finally knows what its path to a USL championship looks like. Louisville City FC will play host to the Charleston Battery on Saturday, Oct. 3 at Louisville Slugger Field in the club’s first ever postseason game.

The Battery finished the regular season on 46 points, which was good for third place in the Eastern Conference, only two points behind Louisville. Charleston was the tied with Sacramento Republic for the ninth-highest scoring attack in the regular season with 43 goals, and was the second-stingiest defense in the league behind regular season champions Rochester, only allowing 28 goals all season.

Charleston and Louisville have met twice this season with both teams defending their home turf. Louisville won 3-1 at Louisville Slugger Field on Aug. 22 behind two goals from Matt Fondy and a third from Magnus Rasmussen. In turn, the Battery shut Louisville out 2-0 in South Carolina, as the result of two second-half goals in Louisville's second to last regular season game.

Kickoff for the playoff clash will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night at Louisville Slugger Field.

Thursday's Anouncement?

In a tweet that was sent out Monday afternoon, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced that there will be an "important announcement about the Louisville City FC team" on Thursday night as a part of a community celebration that will include a meet and greet with LCFC players.

In response, Twitter speculation among Louisville fans as to what the announcement might entail has been rampant.

For their part, the Louisville Coopers have posted their (tongue in cheek) thoughts on what the announcement might pertain to.

If you asked me, I would speculate that the announcement is one of two things:

• An announcement that Matt Fondy has won USL MVP. This seems the most likely scenario to me. Fondy set the single-season USL goal-scoring record this year with his league-leading 22 goals, finished tied for sixth in the league with seven assists and was the lone forward and captain of the second-highest scoring attack in league history. In short, he is the only candidate for MVP and now seems like the time to make the announcement.
• A stadium announcement. The only reason this seems likely is because of Mayor Fischer's involvement. However, Fischer has been to several Louisville City games this season and could be making the appearance simply as a show of support to the team.