The Offseason

Let’s discuss the offseason tasks and goals for each respective Louisville club as they each enter a pivotal and crucial offseason: Louisville City coming off its best regular season in club history but failing to make the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time, and Racing Louisville pulling off a number of deadline deals to make a postseason push that didn’t materialize and missing the playoffs yet again.

Louisville City
City is coming off the most successful regular season in franchise history, but the most disappointing playoff run in team history, failing to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time. While they will return the majority of a productive, star-studded roster, there are still some holes to fill and questions to answer.
Goalie
The biggest offseason task for Louisville City is finding a new goalie. The team brought in Damian Las on loan from Austin this previous season, and while Las showed promise, he also struggled with decision making concerning coming out of his box. The team announced that he would be returning to Austin as one of their first offseason moves.
Goalie will be on their shopping list, but will it be for a starter or for depth behind Danny Faundez and Ryan Troutman?
I think it is time for City to invest in a veteran to bring some stability to the position. 2021 was the last time LouCity had their starting keeper return for the whole year, and that was Chris Hubbard. Since then the City net has seen Kyle Morton, Oliver Semmle, and Damian Las. I understand it can be cost-effective to bring in younger keepers, but come playoff time I would prefer a more seasoned option between the sticks.

CB Depth
City has one of the strongest backlines in not just the USL, but you could argue in all of America. Coach Cruz got the ingredients he wanted for his preferred 3-back system with the addition last offseason of reigning Defender of the Year Arturo Ordonez, who would go on to partner with Sean Totsch and Captain Kyle Adams. That starting trio was backed up by veteran Wes Charpie, who also put in strong minutes giving the starters some breaks. Arturo, 27, and Adams, 28, still have at least 5-6 years ahead of them, but when you look at Sean Totsch, 33, and Charpie, 32, it might be time to start bringing in some younger options to breed and cultivate behind them. Now you could argue that Amadou Dia deputized decently the few times he played in the back 3, but his better position is the left wing-back and he is also 31.
City should target a young CB, either thru the academy or USL League 1 to carry with the team this year and start learning and picking the brains of our elite defenders.

Midfield Depth
In an offseason that brought Arturo Ordonez, Jake Morris, Adrien Perez, and others, it would not be hard to argue that the best signing was Taylor Davila. He slotted into the City midfield from Day 1 and started pulling strings and pinging passes. He formed a dynamic partnership with Elijah Wynder, who took a massive jump forward in his career this past season as a force in our midfield. Elijah became an important release valve of runs and holding possession as well as showing toughness and grit in battling in the middle of the park.
Behind them is a 34-year old Niall McCabe and the curious case of 21-year old Carlos Moguel. Coach Cruz thinks the world of Carlos, and was ready to hand him the keys to the midfield going into this season, but Moguel is coming off a 5 appearance campaign that saw him take a backseat to both Davila and Wynder. This may not be a need if Carlos can become the player Danny thinks he can be, but does the team take that gamble?
Either way, my bet is that Wynder and Davila may be moving on sooner rather than later, so building up some depth behind them is not a bad move.

What is the Harris/Goodrum plan?
LouCity sent a shockwave through the USL on August 14 when they announced the acquisition of Phillip Goodrum from FC Tulsa, for a record fee within the USL Championship. It was an announcement that City were pushing all-in for another title. Goodrum spent the majority of his time in Louisville coming off the bench to relieve leading scorer Wilson Harris. Goodrum was still effective scoring 4 goals in 11 appearances and being his usual disruptive self to the opposition.
Harris and Goodrum rarely shared the field together, playing two separate halves with each other with no goals scored. A player of Goodrum’s caliber, with a league record fee attached to his name, is not a bench/squad player, but you also are not just benching your leading scorer since 2022 in Wilson Harris (53 goals).
It isn’t just as simple as slotting Goodrum into the lineup, as that would mean placing someone like Adrien Perez, Ray Serrano, Jansen Wilson, or Brian Ownby on the bench. I hope Coach Cruz has a plan for how to best utilize all of these attacking options, but I don’t envy him for trying to figure it out.

Overall City does not have to do much this offseason. They have already announced the return of the majority of last year’s roster from a record-setting campaign. The task now is to shore up the roster with some more depth, which is terrifying when you think how they are already two-deep at most positions, and find a starting keeper. Just remember, a returning Brian Ownby is almost like a free agent pickup in itself!

RACING LOUISVILLE
I want this franchise to do well. I want this team to do so well it hurts. But here we are once again with Racing Louisville once again finishing 9th and missing the playoffs. What was different this time? Racing made a series of deadline moves to try and make a postseason push. They shipped out Captain Jaelin Howell and rookie Reilyn Turner for Bethany Balcer and Janine Beckie, while also signing Courtney Peterson and Angela Baron.
SUPERSTAR WANTED/NEEDED
Racing once again struggled with attendance issues and attracting fans. They also coincidentally struggled with scoring goals and winning games. To get fans in the seats/stands to start next season, Racing needs a bona fide superstar. Savannah DeMelo had a chance to be that person two seasons ago when she broke out with a 5 goal campaign and making the World Cup roster for the USWNT. She has not quite been the same impactful player since that World Cup, but could be helped out by a superstar coming to Louisville and taking some pressure and defensive attention off her.
Emma Sears could well be on her way to being Racing’s superstar, and ended last year on the USWNT roster. She has great pace, but needs to develop more moves besides trying to run past people. Her time on the USWNT also showed how effective she can be when surrounded with other difference makers. For her to become a superstar, she arguably needs a fellow superstar to help her grow and draw opposition defenses away from her.
The problem with this need is how does Louisville bring in a superstar? They don’t just come available everyday and with no more Collegiate draft, they can’t dangle draft picks either.

HOW DOES RACING ATTRACT TALENT?
This is the first offseason in Racing history where they are not guaranteed a highly ranked collegiate player with the College draft no longer around. Free agency is now more important than ever and I struggle to see how Racing is going to attract talent. The main draw will be facilities between the training complex and Lynn Family Stadium, but beyond that I struggle to see much. Racing has overall not been very successful and has struggled to play attractive soccer. Maybe they can leverage the ability for someone to come in and play immediately, as in a young player, but overall it is a rough sell for free agents.

HOW DO WE TRUST THIS ADMINISTRATION?
I appreciate and respect that Racing Louisville was aggressive at the deadline and did not stand pat. I question the moves that were made in trading away Racing’s younger base in Howell and Turner for the more experienced Balcer and Beckie. Those moves did not work: Racing missed the playoffs once again and still struggled to score goals.
GM Ryan Dell left the club in a mutual move earlier in the offseason, and no replacement has been named as of yet. This means Bev Yanez is leading the offseason effort, and above all, from her, I need to see a mentality and reputation from this squad. Watching Racing play last season, I honestly could not tell you what their gameplan and mentality was. I need Bev to have a direction and create a mentality for this club besides finishing 9th.

This is the biggest offseason in Racing Louisville history. The team has continued to struggle to fill the stadium and another season with no playoffs has left fans frustrated. The college draft is gone and the club has to address how to get more goals, get more results, and get more consistent through just attracting free agents. They must do so so far without a GM and with an anxious fanbase desperate for them to succeed.