Lexington SC is officially a member of the USL Championship starting next season, making the leap up after two years in USL League One. This week’s announcement came as a surprise to some, but it was conditional in the club’s entry agreement with the USL that they could rise up the ladder upon building a soccer-specific stadium.
The new venue will be a boon for Lexington. Currently based out of Georgetown College to the north of the city, the club can’t sell alcohol at their games. The new, self-run stadium is southeast of downtown – much closer to the young, soccer-friendly campus of the University of Kentucky. Though the team’s sub-1,500 average attendance is down versus 2023 and would rank second-lowest in the Championship this season, there’s hope for a real leap come 2025.
Still, Lexington will become the second-smallest metro area and fifth-smallest television market in its new league.
There’s upside in potentially fierce rivalries with Louisville City, Memphis 901, and Indy Eleven nearby, but you could also argue the lower Midwest is saturated as is. The club is also dead last in USL League One this year, though they’ve shown a willingness to spend. Sources told Backheeled that their payroll is at or above the Championship average already.
As it stands, Lexington and expansion side Brooklyn FC, whose women’s team debuts at Coney Island later this month, will push the Championship to 26 clubs for 2025. Pending unfortunate (but ultimately likely) contractions, a schedule reorganization is on the cards and could include participation in the Jagermeister Cup. The USL has always been nimble in the face of changing team counts and divisional structures.
Back on the pitch, it was a jam-packed week featuring 14 matches. Who stood out, and how’d it impact the balance of power in the Championship? Let’s dig in.
John Morrissey
1. Louisville (No change)
Result: 3-1 win v. Charleston
Philip Goodrum signing with Louisville City isn’t just the rich getting richer. It’s the USL equivalent of a billionaire winning the PowerBall jackpot. A lottery comparison isn’t quite right, either. This wasn’t luck. This was a club hungry for a title putting in the resources to strengthen their roster in the most ostentatious and fear-inducing way possible.
Goodrum only has five goals to date in 2024, but he’s an elite finisher; that number is near 40 over the last three seasons in sum.
His ability to pair with Wilson Harris is even more enticing than the scoring. Goodrum delights in throwing his body around as a presser, and he’s had practice as a second striker in Tulsa this year. Danny Cruz has experimented with a 3-5-2 on occasion, pairing Harris with a winger-turned-No. 9 rather than a true forward. With Goodrum in tow, that shape would now feature the best strike pair in the history of the USL.
The new star began his stint in purple on the bench against Charleston with Cruz favoring a 3-4-3 shape.
Once again, Jansen Wilson held down the right attacking spot in a testament to the rookie's vast – and vastly improving – capabilities. This was a somewhat conservative outing for LouCity, one in which Wilson and fellow winger Ray Serrano often dropped into a flatter 5-4-1 focused on midfield denial. You can’t argue with the results. The Battery turned 452 completed passes into only three shots on net.
Wilson ultimately proved the matchwinner, scoring on a sizzling counterattack in the second half with his side seeing out a lead. Still, it was a whole-team effort. Kyle Adams and Amadou Dia were absolute standouts on the left side of the defense. The icing on the cake? Goodrum came on for half an hour and got himself a goal, chesting down a pass and hammering it into the back of the net.
This Louisville side is untouchable, and they’re only getting better.
2. Charleston (No change)
Result: 3-1 loss at Louisville
When Charleston and Louisville met at Patriots Point in April, Nick Markanich hadn't yet announced himself as the premier attacking threat in the USL. Charleston possessed in a pseudo three-at-the-back system that drew LouCity out, and Markanich consistently found a gap behind the opposing left wing back. It was a three-goal lead by the 30-minute mark in a match that established the Battery as a title threat yet again.
The reverse fixture was on the menu this Saturday in Kentucky, and it was a reversal of fortune in a major way.
Charleston struggled mightily to break down a lower-seated Louisville shape, and you could feel the absence of Aaron Molloy’s gravitational table-setting in buildup. Moreover, Markanich was marked by two defenders whenever the ball approached the final third to prevent the free lunch he enjoyed the first time around.
