Kentucky Derby Week in Louisville means... soccer?
- Kenta Hagiwara
- May 8
- 3 min read
May 8, 2025 (Louisville, KY) - The first week of May in Louisville is iconic - the Kentucky Derby hits town as nearly 150,000 were in attendance at Churchill Downs to watch Sovereignty take the victory for the 151th edition of the derby.
Before and after the Kentucky Derby, Louisville's very own men's soccer team - Louisville City FC - hosted two matches at their soccer specific Lynn Family Stadium.
First, the inaugural edition of the Commonwealth Cup between Lexington SC (in the Western Conference of USL Championship) and Louisville City (in the Eastern Conference of the USL Championship). The birth of a new rivalry saw Louisville City FC earn their 200th USL Championship victory - the first club to reach that mark in modern USL history, as they defeated Lexington SC 2-0 at home in a physical match.
Second, Major League Soccer's Minnesota United came to Louisville for the Round of 32 in the history Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Minnesota United prevailed thanks to a goal by Loons debutant Darius Randell, as the MLS club moves on to the Round of 16. Louisville suffered their first defeat of 2025 on Wednesday - their last loss since November 9, 2024, when Rhode Island FC defeated the Shield winners at Lynn Family Stadium in the USL Championship Playoffs Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Featured photos: Polaroid 600 Color Film (Exp 2023) by Kenta Hagiwara (@kentrahagatra)
Louisville City FC vs Lexington SC
March 1, 2025 - 8:00pm ET
Lynn Family Stadium - Louisville, KY
USL Championship
Louisville City FC (3-4-3): 1 Las; 4 Totsch, 5 Ordonez, 32 Adams; 15 Perez (3 Morris 59'), 17 T. Davila, 27 E. Davila (31 Lambert 72'), 2 McFadden (13 Dia 87'); 25 Wilson (16 Perez 87'), 23 Gleadle (9 Goodrum 58'), 7 Serrano
Head Coach: Danny Cruz
Lexington SC (4-2-3-1): 1 Ketterer; 6 Hafferty, 5 Burks, 27 Gibert, 24 Sargeant; 80 Williams (37 Goldthorp 82'), 3 Djeffal; 11 Epps, 8 Firmino (22 Greene), 33 Ajago, 99 Burke (17 Lancaster 46')
Head Coach: Terry Boss
50' RED CARD, LEXINGTON - Forster Ajago (Louisville City FC 0, Lexington SC 0).
67' GOAL, LOUISVILLE - Aiden McFadden (Louisville City FC 1, Lexington SC 0).
81' GOAL, LOUISVILLE - Phillip Goodrum (Louisville City FC 2, Lexington SC 0).
Kentucky Derby
March 3, 2025
Chuchill Downs - Louisville, KY
First Place: Sovereignty
Runner-Up: Journalism
Third Place: Baeza
Louisville City FC vs Minnesota United FC
March 7, 2025 - 7:30pm ET
Lynn Family Stadium - Louisville, KY
Lamar U.S. Open Cup
Louisville City FC (3-4-3): 1 Las; 2 McFadden, 5 Ordonez, 32 Adams; 15 M. Perez (24 Jones 85'), 17 T. Davila, 27 E. Davila (31 Lambert 46'), 13 Dia (3 Morris 66', 70 Cano 76'); 16 A. Perez (25 Wilson 66'), 9 Goodrum, 7 Serrano
Head Coach: Danny Cruz
Minnesota United FC (5-2-3): 96 Speel; 24 Gressel (35 Fischer 68'), 27 Taylor, 23 Duggan, 2 Padelford, 33 Chandler; 22 Ho-Yeon, 34 Calov; 7 Sang-Bin (39 Hille 90'+2), 98 Randell (90 Mesanvi 67'), 19 Shashoua (37 Niang 79')
Head Coach: Eric Ramsay
65' GOAL, MINNESOTA - Darius Randell (Louisville City FC 0, Minnesota United FC 1)
Louisville City FC head coach Danny Cruz addressed the media following both matches at Lynn Family Stadium displeased. After the 2-0 win against in-state rivals Lexington SC, Cruz was critical of his team's performance post-red card to Lexington's Forster Ajago, who was making his Lexington debut, on loan from MLS' Real Salt Lake.
[After the Red Card] "Probably the most frustrated I've been this season. I thought it was complacent, I thought it was poor, I thought we were poor with the ball, I thought they created too many chances when we went up a man."
Unsuprisingly, Danny Cruz was also displeased with his team's performance following their first loss of the 2025 season on Wednesday against Minnesota United, who rotated their entire starting XI from the weekend's match against Austin FC and called up NINE Minnesota United 2 MLS NEXT Pro players on a short-term loan to play against LouCity.
"We have to have more quality and we have to do a better job of managing transition. We spoke about it all week, we know how they [Minnesota United] want to play. They came out the way we spoke about - the way we worked on, and we did a poor job of executing."
