The 2023 Louisville City FC season was the club's ninth season of competition. Louisville City competed in the USL Championship, the second tier of professional soccer in the United States.
Background
The previous season was the first season since 2019 not to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the first season since 2019 in which the U.S. Open Cup was held.
The team won the Eastern Conference in the penultimate match of the season against Detroit City FC, and finished the year with a club record 72 points and earning a bye into the Conference Semi-finals. They advanced to the USL Championship match by defeating the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the Conference Finals, avenging Conference Finals losses to Tampa Bay in the previous two seasons. They lost the USL Championship match to San Antonio FC. In the U.S. Open Cup the team reached the Round of 16 for the first time since 2018, losing at home to MLS side Nashville SC.
Kyle Morton and Elijah Wynder became the first Louisville City players to earn the league's Golden Glove and Comeback Player of the Year awards respectively, while Kyle Morton and Sean Totsch were both selected for all league teams.
Summary March and April Louisville City opened the USL season with back to back matches in California. Defeating Orange County and Monterey Bay 1–3 and 0–1 on March 11 and 18 respectively. With Niall McCabe scoring the opening goal of the season. On March 25 they played their home opener against El Paso. A match they would lose 0–3 in front of record crowd for an opening match. This was also only the third multi-goal loss at Lynn Family Stadium. They returned to California for their next match; this time against Sacramento. They would lose this match 5–0 which was the worst league loss in club history. After giving up 8 goals over 2 matches reigning USL golden glove winner Kyle Morton was effectively replaced as first choice goal keeper by rookie Oliver Semmle. Semmle would go on to post four consecutive clean sheets before giving up his first league goal in the 52nd minute against Memphis.
This would be the start of a streak of five matches unbeaten. Beginning with a pair of 1–0 victories over Detroit and San Antonio in a rematch of the previous seasons' USL Final. Followed up by draws against Charleston and Memphis. During this opening stretch of the campaign goals were well distributed amongst team. Six different players scored across the first 8 league games. With only Harris scoring a second goal giving Louisville City a total of 7 goals over that time frame. This gave Louisville an average of 0.875 goals per game. The lowest such rate to begin a season in club history. The Memphis match was also the last match where Joshua Wynder would appear before making a record breaking USL transfer to Benfica.
May and June Following a break for the Kentucky Derby Louisville returned home to defeat Miami FC 3–1. Only the second multi-goal performance of the season and first since the opening match. For the following two matches returned to scoring only a single goal per match. With the first match being a 1–2 home loss in front of a record mid-week crowd to FC Tulsa with Phillip Goodrum scoring the winning goal in the 89th minute. Ending a 5 match streak of allowing no more than one goal per match. The second match was a 0–1 away victory in a rivalry match Indy Eleven. Louisville's first victory in LIPAFC since the 2021 season.
In the following match Semmle earned another clean sheet in a scoreless draw against Hartford. Not only did Louisville fail to score they also didn't have a shot on target. Louisville would then return home to face Memphis. Louisville would find the scoresheet again as Harris scored his team leading fourth league goal. However, Memphis went on the win the game 1–3. The first time since the pandemic shortened season of 2020 that Louisville would lose back-to-back home games. For the next match Louisville travelled on June 17 to western conference side Phoenix. In this match Louisville scored two goals. The first match since May 13 where Louisville scored multiple goals. Louisville was leading the match 1–2 until the 74th minute when Manuel Arteaga converted a penalty to draw Phoenix level. Phoenix was then awarded another penalty in 80th minute. This penalty, taken by Danny Trejo, was saved by Semmle preserving a 2–2 draw and marking the beginning of a four match unbeaten streak. In the next match Louisville played another western conference side. This time at home against Las Vegas in the first ever meeting between the two clubs. Semmle would earn his league leading seventh clean sheet with a Enoch Mushagalusa goal leading to a 1–0 for the home side. Mushagalusa's first goal since the opening match of the season and the beginning of three match clean sheet streak for Semmle.
July and August
On July 1 Louisville travelled to Pittsburgh to play the conference leading Riverhounds. A match played to a goalless draw in the rain. Louisville would fail to have a shot on target but did have an Elijah Wynder shot cleared off the line by Dani Rovira. Next, Louisville returned home to play Loudoun United in Sean Totsch's 200th appearance for the club. This began a stretch of six home league matches out of eight. A match they won 1–0 as Cameron Lancaster scored his first goal since the opening match of the season. This marked the halfway point of the season. Over the first half of the season Louisville scored an average of 1 goal per game. The lowest such average to open the season in club history and second lowest in the conference. Eight different players scored with Harris being the club leader with four. On the defensive side of the field Louisville and Semmle lead the league with nine clean sheets; setting a club record for number of clean sheets in the opening half of a 34 match season. The club conceded 18 goals. The second lowest goals allowed in the conference; trailing Pittsburgh.
To begin the second half of the season Louisville played Pittsburgh for the second time in three matches. Louisville would again fail to score while a 68th goal by Albert Dikwa led to a 0–1 defeat. The following match Louisville played Detroit away. Detroit came into the match on a six-game winless streak and went ahead in the 5th minute on a Ben Morris goal. After halftime Totsch would score an own goal as Louisville failed to find the scoresheet for the second match in a row. Marking the first lose to Detroit in team history. Louisville then returned home to face Birmingham in a match that would mark McCabe's 200th appearance for the club. Louisville took the lead in the 34th minute on a Dylan Mares goal. However, Birmingham would score twice in the second half including a stoppage time goal by Alex Crognale. Leading to Louisville's third consecutive loss. The first three match losing streak since the club's inaugural season. Louisville ended the month of July against the Indy Eleven in the return leg of the LIPAFC rivalry. In front of the largest home crowd of the season to date Wynder and Lancaster both found the back of the net with Oscar Jimenez assisting on both goals. Winning the season series against Indy for the first time 2020. This marked only the third victory over the last 10 matches as Louisville only earned 12 points out of the 30 in June and July.
Louisville opened August on the road against FC Tulsa and turned in what Head Coach Danny Cruz called a true 'Louisville City performance'. Louisville would register three goals while recording a clean sheet for the largest victory of the season to date. This marked the first back-to-back wins of the season since early April as well as the first back-to-back multi goal performances of the season overall. With a goal in the 58th minute Lancaster's became the first Louisville player to score in consecutive games while Semmle set a USL Championship rookie record with his eleventh clean sheet. Louisville followed that performance with two consecutive draws at home. First 1–1 draw in the rain against Charleston followed by a 2–2 draw against Rio Grande. In both matches Louisville would take the lead only to allow game tying goals in the 80th minute. Lancaster scored the lone goal against Charleston creating a streak of three consecutive scoring matches. Against Rio Grande Elijah Wynder scored the Louisville's second goal marking the first time he registered multiple goals in a single season. The draws extended Louisville's unbeaten streak to four. A streak that ended the following on the road against Birmingham. Louisville allowed a goal by Enzo Martínez in the fifth minute followed by a Neco Brett penalty while failing to score goal. The first time Louisville lost multiple games to Birmingham during the same season. Louisville closed out the month of August at home in their first ever match against western conference side Oakland. A Johnny Rodriguez goal right before half time put Oakland ahead while Brian Ownby would score an equalizer in the 71st minute. Eight minutes into stoppage time Oscar Jimenez put Louisville ahead with his first goal of the season leading to a 2–1 victory. While Louisville won the game this marked the fourth consecutive game without a clean sheet. The longest streak of the season to date.
September and October