‘We don’t like losing.’ Loss at Louisville compounds early struggles for Kentucky soccer.

This December, the NCAA Division I men’s soccer championship match is coming to the commonwealth for the first time.

The College Cup — which consists of the national semifinals and title game — will be played at Lynn Family Stadium, the home of both Louisville City FC and Racing Louisville FC.

It will be a monumental occasion for soccer in the Bluegrass State, following on from the excitement of Lexington Sporting Club’s ongoing debut season in USL League One.

But, something has become quickly apparent just a few weeks into the 2023 men’s college soccer season: UK has some work to do if the Wildcats are to capitalize on this opportunity close to home.

No. 19 Kentucky dropped to 2-2-0 (W-L-D) on the young season with a 4-2 loss at No. 7 Louisville (4-0-0) on Tuesday night at Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium in the Derby City.

The defeat was UK’s second consecutive loss , following a 1-0 defeat at Wisconsin on Friday night, and it came in the first head-to-head athletic meeting between UK and U of L in the 2023-24 school year.

Friday’s loss was already a rarity: It was the first time since March 18, 2021, (as part of the COVID-affected 2020 season) that UK lost a regular season match in 90 minutes.

But when coupled with Tuesday’s rivalry defeat to the Cardinals, it constitutes the worst run of form for the Wildcats in years.

It’s the first time since October 2017 that UK has lost back-to-back matches in 90 minutes.

“We are Kentucky. We don’t lose. We don’t like losing. We’re not used to losing,” UK head coach Johan Cedergren told the Herald-Leader postgame.

“It starts with me. I have to find a way to do a better job. I have to find a way to get these guys to play as a team. We have very good players, and we’ll find a way and we’ll look much better against Lipscomb on Friday.”

The rivalry defeat at U of L — the Cardinals’ first win over the Cats since 2019 — was comprehensive.

UK trailed inside 10 minutes when Louisville sophomore forward Konstantinos Georgallides finished into an empty net after a cross into the UK penalty box.

The Cardinals’ lead doubled in the 36th minute when Gage Guerra (a junior forward who previously played at Army) directed a header into the bottom right corner past UK sophomore goalkeeper Casper Mols, who managed to get a hand on the shot.

Seconds earlier, Mols — who was an All-American last year as a freshman — had made a phenomenal one-handed save to keep the Cats down just one.

Guerra grabbed his second goal of the match in the 57th minute when he dispatched a rebound into the net after initially heading the ball against the crossbar.

Redshirt sophomore defender Parker Forbes also netted for U of L in a scramble following a corner kick in the 74th minute.

UK’s consolation scores came in the form of a first college goal for freshman forward Isaiah Chisolm in the 62nd minute and a second goal of the season for junior forward Logan Dorsey, an offseason transfer from Gonzaga, in the 80th minute.

The four goals scored by Louisville were the Cardinals’ most against UK since 2007.

It would take some blue-and-white tinted glasses to extract positives from UK’s defeats at Wisconsin and Louisville.

UK brought in 14 newcomers this offseason, several of whom were major additions from the NCAA transfer portal.

That includes former Louisville star attacker Aboubacar Camara and graduate student midfielder Finn Ballard McBride, the former offensive player of the year in the Big West Conference at California-Santa Barbara.

Still, several of these newcomers — both young and old — have been thrust into new experiences and roles with Kentucky: For example, UK started a pair of freshman center backs in Tuesday night’s loss.

“If you’re at Kentucky, we’re never rebuilding, we’re just reloading,” Cedergren said. “It would be one thing if we didn’t have a good team, then I’d be perfectly fine to say, ‘Hey, you know what, it’s going to be a grind this year.’ But I do think that we have a very good team.”

A look back at last season might at least suggest that these early-season struggles could pay dividends down the road for UK.

In 2022, UK made history by going undefeated during the regular season and Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The Wildcats collected both the Sun Belt regular season and tournament titles, and were given the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

But that didn’t translate to meaningful postseason success: UK was bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 for a third straight season.

UK’s best showing in the national postseason remains a 2018 trip to the Elite Eight.

“We can’t give up on this season. We can’t give up on this team,” Cedergren said. “... I think that we have the pieces, it’s just about getting them to gel and to understand. Maybe we’re trying to be a little too cute, maybe we’re trying to be a little too expansive and we’re giving them 10 or 15 things to do, when, let’s just focus on two or three.”

Porous defending has been the most concerning element of UK’s current form.

Wisconsin outshot UK, 7-3, in shots on target. Louisville had 13 shots on goal to UK’s four, and U of L had 26 total shots in the match.

After Tuesday’s game, Cedergren pointed to UK’s strong track record as a fit, organized and strong defensive team.

That hasn’t shown itself yet in 2023.

“We’re a little late in the press, they’re able to play around us, there’s big gaps and we don’t ever do anything in regard to staying compact,” Cedergren said. “... It’s not like the players that we have here don’t have the quality. Now, it’s just for me and the staff to figure out, ‘OK, what do we need to do to get them to play up a little more to their potential?’”

Next match

Lipscomb at Kentucky

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Records: Lipscomb 1-1-1, Kentucky 2-2-0