2019 United Soccer League Championship Final

The match is this Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 7:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time...at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium at the University of Louisville. The two time defending champs, Louisville City F.C., earned the right to host the final for the third consecutive season by being the finalist with the best record. They'll be playing the Real Monarchs SLC, the reserve club of Real Salt Lake of MLS. Louisville City finished 4th in the eastern conference this regular season, their worst finish in their five year history. They lost five key members of the previous title winning teams: Trinidad & Tobago international and starting GK Greg Ranjitsingh and DF Kyle Smith were sold to Orlando City, FW Ilija Ilic signed with Indianapolis and FW Cameron Lancaster, the league goal scoring champ with 25, moved to Nashville's pending MLS club, on loan to the USL club this season. Although they still had a solid core of performers, most league observers opined that they would be hard pressed to pull off a three-peat. Their uneven regular season did little to change that assessment. It meant they had to play their first ever road post season match if they could beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the first round at home. They did. Then they won their first ever post season road game at top seed Pittsburgh on a goal in the 118th minute extra time. Then they won their second playoff road match at Indianapolis by scoring the equalizer at 3 and half minutes of the 4 minutes of stoppage time, then scoring twice in added extra time.
Last year they defeated Phoenix Rising FC in Didier Drogba's final match, 1-0. The season before, they beat Swope Park Rangers 1-0. It'll be live on ESPN 2. I think you'll be surprised at the quality if you tune in. I also think there's a good chance it will be more entertaining than today's MLS final in Seattle. If Louisville wins, you can make a fair argument that they'll be the most successful American professional soccer club of this decade. The word dynasty gets thrown out pretty cheaply in the current sports climate. But I believe it would apply in this case if our lads pull it off.

 

We lost 3-1. But what a run by our guys. Real Monarchs earned this trophy. We'll be back.

 

Real Monarchs were really strong at the end of the season. Sacramento Republic drew at home in March, but they steamrolled us at their place in October.