Lexington Sporting Club takes another leap forward, wins first USL Championship match
Linked together — arm in arm, hand in hand — Lexington Sporting Club’s coaches and players ran toward their fans, leapt into the Lexington night and celebrated with screams and smiles.
This style of victory celebration is synonymous throughout the soccer world: a club’s on-field participants taking a moment to interact with supporters and involve them in commemorating the on-field result.
For Lexington — the third-year professional men’s soccer team that has gone from playing in Georgetown to boasting its own soccer-specific stadium near Interstate 75 — there haven’t been many results on the pitch to honor in this manner. LSC missed the playoffs in USL League One — the third-highest level of men’s pro soccer in the U.S. — in both 2023 and 2024, cycling through coaches and players while struggling to find success.
But in many ways, Saturday night can and could be viewed as a soccer rebirth for Lexington, which won its first match in the USL Championship — the second-highest level of men’s professional soccer in the United States, and the highest-level overseen by the United Soccer League — by a 2-0 score over visiting Hartford Athletic, who finished the match with 10 men after a late red card.
Lexington deserved the result, striking in the ninth minute with a remarkable volley from distance by defender Joe Hafferty before sealing the win with midfielder Eliot Goldthorp’s one-on-one finish in the 79th minute. Hartford failed to record a shot on target in the match, which was played in front of an announced record crowd of 5,025 fans at Lexington SC Stadium.
It was a debut win for Lexington head coach Terry Boss, with plenty of LSC front office figures — from majority owner Bill Shively to CEO Kim Shelton — in attendance for the history-making moment.
So once it was over, and Lexington’s strong first impression in its new league was made, Boss and his players made their way toward the supporters’ section at the stadium. They stood together, then rushed forward — physically and metaphorically — into LSC’s future.
“We feel like we put in the work. The guys have been relentless all preseason long,” Boss said afterward. “We said before we walked in, ‘Go reward yourself for the work that you’ve done. Make sure that the fans leave here with more hope and more joy than they had when they came.’ So we felt like if we did that, the win would follow. I hope that they did that tonight.”
Lexington’s comprehensive win over Hartford was a positive first step toward LSC’s hopes of reaching the playoffs for the first time in club history. Boss’ team was threatening in attack, particularly on the left wing, and compact and organized in defense.
By almost every statistical metric, Lexington’s new-look roster dominated Hartford. This started with taking a lead inside the first 10 minutes on Hafferty’s thunderbolt of a goal, which Hafferty celebrated with a backflip routine that he credited to his mother, a former college gymnast.
“The first goal was going to be important in this game,” Boss said. “… We wanted to land the first punch and I think the guys came out and did that.”
Only one player from Lexington Sporting Club’s 2024 roster — star forward Cameron Lancaster, who led the team in goals last season — made the matchday squad for LSC on Saturday. That’s a good summation of just how much things have changed on the field for Lexington from a season ago.
“It’s been a really tough preseason, tough in a lot of good ways,” said Goldthorp, an Englishman who played college soccer at Hofstra and Old Dominion. “We’ve kind of been through a lot as a group, and I think in going through a lot you learn a lot about each other and you really develop. I think that showed tonight. We’ve shown a lot of grit.”
“A lot of our game is figuring out what (the opponent) is doing and how to respond to that,” added Goldthorp, who combined with fellow substitute Braudilio Rodrigues for Lexington’s second-half goal. “… I thought we used the two 6s brilliantly today. Finding Speedy (Williams) or Sofiane (Djeffal) on a half turn, and then going forward.”
Plenty of other things on Saturday also felt different as LSC levels up.
Everything about the match day experience at Lexington SC Stadium — a 7,500-seat venue that opened in September — felt more buttoned up. The main concourse area now includes more for the fans — including an enclosed soccer pitch for kids and increased concession options, such as Chick-fil-A. On Saturday, a pre-match concert was held in partnership with local music venue The Burl.
Lexington SC Stadium can now do light shows as part of the pre-match buildup or during goal celebrations. Additionally, an in-stadium emcee helps provide energy during pre-match and halftime festivities.
While drawbacks such as lengthy lines at concession stands can still be improved, Lexington Sporting Club will hope Saturday’s surge in fan interest is here to stay and not just a one-off occurrence following increased marketing ahead of the club’s first USL Championship match.
Continued success with the on-field product would likely help, and Lexington has a golden opportunity to build on its strong start.
Accounting for the USL Championship, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and the newly expanded USL Jägermeister Cup, Lexington will be at home for seven of its first nine matches this season. Lexington will be on the road next Saturday at Orange County SC.
It’s obviously still early days, but Saturday’s win against Hartford has Lexington in a tie for first place in the USL Championship’s Western Conference after one week. There’s still plenty of work to be done, but Lexington’s new beginning in the world of professional men’s soccer couldn’t have gone much better.
The next step for LSC will be showing that it can sustain it.
