Detroit City FC's season ended by 4-0 loss to Louisville

One week after pulling off the statistically largest upset in USL Championship playoff history, 8-seed Detroit City FC's season came to an end in the worst kind of way on a soggy Saturday night in Louisville, a complete dismantling of hopes and dreams at the hands of its biggest league rival in the Eastern Conference semifinal.

No. 5 seed Louisville City FC scored a backbreaking penalty in the 15th minute, added a controversial goal to close the first half, and later scored two more over a span of 92 seconds to reach its ninth consecutive Eastern Conference final with a 4-0 victory at Lynn Family Stadium.

It was the final match as DCFC's head coach for Trevor James, who joined the club in 2019 and in August announced he would be moving into a sporting director role at season's end. James was responsible for leading DCFC up from the semi-pro ranks and finished his DCFC managerial career with 83 wins, 33 draws and 32 losses, including DCFC's first-ever USL-C playoff win.

The loss marked DCFC's third in three tries against Louisville City in win-or-go-home competitions. Louisville knocked Le Rouge out of the U.S. Open Cup in 2016 and 2022.

Entering Saturday's knockout round, DCFC had one win, one draw and 15 losses when conceding the first goal and had given up an alarmingly high seven goals via penalties, a combination that would prove dramatically fatal as Louisville jumped out to an early advantage and then suffocated Le Rouge over the final 75 minutes.

SUMMARY: Louisville City FC 4, Detroit City FC 0

Even while only down 2-0, the deficit felt wholly insurmountable, not just because it would have been an unprecedented instance for DCFC's season, but because Le Rouge simply never was able to manufacture a pulse. They ended the match with just one shot on target.

And with a one-goal game still one goal away, Cameron Lancaster scored his second goal of the night in the 59th minute and Jorge Gonzalez added one for Louisville in the 60th to slam the casket shut.

Louisville's dominance was evident from jump, and the home team made good on its early threats when Brian Ownby drew a foul on Michael Bryant in the penalty area in the 14th minute. Lancaster hit his kick to the left of DCFC goalkeeper Nate Steinwascher for the 1-0 lead.

DCFC caught a bad break when a ball serviced to the penalty area appeared to hit the arm of a Louisville player before bouncing to Ownby, who cashed in on the opportunity for a 2-0 lead.

Midfielder Abdoulaye Diop, whose injury-stricken season limited him to just 22 starts, departed in the 36th minute after taking two hard fouls near the ankle area.

As a club, DCFC now turns its attention to a managerial search, which will be led by James. There is currently no known timetable for when a hire will be made.

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @nolanbianchi