Setting a locker room tone with LouCity’s Pat McMahon, plus previews of tonight’s USL Championship action, here’s your Morning Tea for Friday.
When a team’s looking to reset, it always helps to have some experienced heads in the locker room.
Louisville City FC has plenty of those that have helped lead the club to the success it has found over the past five years, but as LouCity’s Ysabella Leon writes, there’s something about the presence of Pat McMahon – who’s earned the nickname “Vibes” in the locker room – that gets people feeling good about what’s ahead.
“He’s an older guy, but he doesn’t act like an older guy,” LouCity midfielder Napo Matsoso told reporters. “He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and he’s phenomenal. He’s really good and works hard every day at training.
“He never gives up, and whatever you need, he’s always there for you. Everyone on the team likes Pat, and I don’t see why you wouldn’t as a person.”
In this third season at LouCity, McMahon is the elder statesman on the club’s roster at 33 years old. His experience playing both overseas in Australia and Scandinavia, however, as well as in the Championship for the Rochester Rhinos – where he won a title in 2015 – and FC Cincinnati has given him a great perspective on the professional life.
It also means that when the team is struggling – and let’s face it, back-to-back defeats for a team with LouCity’s success counts as that – he’s there to pick things up and get everyone focused on what matters.
“Me being an older player on the team, I think talking to people, it’s [about] keeping our confidence — enjoying it at training,” McMahon said. “Sometimes we miss on that because we harp on needing a win and focusing on that, but I think we take care of the little things and get the enthusiasm and back to enjoying it, then we play better and obviously start winning games.”
Louisville will get back into action on Saturday night against Sporting Kansas City II, the first of two games between the clubs at Lynn Family Stadium in the next seven days. Looking to gain ground on Indy Eleven and Saint Louis FC in the Group E standings, the hosts will likely look to their 8-3 victory against their visitors late last season as a potential touchpoint for the first meeting between the sides this year.
With McMahon helping set the tone, LouCity believes a return to form is right around the form.
“He just kind of exudes this coolness,” said LouCity coach John Hackworth. “It’s not with his words. He’s certainly is a man of action. It’s more about the feeling that he gives off to everybody, thus the nickname.”
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