The USL Championship Players’ Shield is Louisville City FC’s to lose this season.

That was the final takeaway from Saturday night’s 3-1 victory for the Boys in Purple against closest rival the Charleston Battery before a league-high attendance of 13,526 fans at Lynn Family Stadium that put LouCity four points ahead of Charleston with two fewer games played.

But what about the bigger picture?

Because Head Coach Danny Cruz’s side might not only be pursuing silverware this season – it could be pursuing league history.

So, what’s that going to take?

• MOST HOME VICTORIES: LouCity looks certain to surpass the current mark of 13 home wins in a season, having won 11 of 12 at home already this season. Three wins in the remaining five games at Lynn Family Stadium gets them there.

• MOST HOME GOALS: At the current rate, this record might be even more certain to fall. Phoenix Rising FC scored 51 goals at home in 2019. LouCity is currently on 44 goals in 12 games, an average of 3.67 per game. That projects to 62 goals at the end of the campaign.

• MOST WINS: Here’s where the hill becomes steeper. LouCity has won 17 games this season, putting it seven behind the record set by Phoenix Rising FC in 2019. Louisville would need to win eight of its final 11 games home and away to break the mark.

• MOST GOALS: LouCity also has a chance at breaking the record for single-season goals, again held by Phoenix’s 2019 squad at 89 tallies. Louisville’s 60 goals this season have come at an average of 2.61 goals per game. They need to up that average to 2.73 over the final 11 games to reach 90.

• MOST POINTS: Sitting on 53 points, there’s a small margin for error for LouCity to surpass Phoenix Rising FC’s record of 78 points set in 2019. If LouCity goes 8-1-2 over its remaining 11 games, it earns 26 points and surpasses Phoenix. If it goes 8-0-3 or 9-2-0, it earns 27 points and becomes the first team to break the 80-point barrier in a season.

• HIGHEST POINTS AVG.: If LouCity goes berserk – and given its squad, that’s not unfeasible – and goes 10-0-1, 10-1-0, or 11-0-0, it not only smashes the record for most points in a season, but also surpasses Orlando City SC’s record of 2.38 points per game set in 2014.

As friend of the newsletter Devon Kerr pointed out in last week’s USL All Access, Cruz didn’t set goals for LouCity this preseason, preferring to focus on the culture within the squad.

Now, that’s changed. Sitting in the driver’s seat for the first Players’ Shield in club history, LouCity could produce a regular season for the ages.

***

This is an excerpt from The Rondo, the USL Championship's free weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Tuesday.