Written by Will Ridgard
Richmond Kickers’ head coach Leigh Cowlishaw has praised his ‘top-class and inspirational’ squad after they exited the 2016 USL playoffs on Sunday.
The Kickers lost 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at Louisville City, but not for the want of trying, after being reduced to 10 men with just four minutes on the clock following Samuel Asante’s red card.
“Given the circumstances of playing against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference with 10 men for the entire game, it was a top-class and inspirational performance,” said Cowlishaw, whose side held out until George Davis IV and Chandler Hoffman scored in overtime.
“To be honest, even all the way through into overtime, when we were two goals down, I felt that we had a chance to get back in it – and I think that is testament to what the guys did on the night.
“I’m very proud of the team, and I have been all season. I don’t think there’s been a game where we’ve not been competitive, we’ve put teams on the back-foot a lot of times, and we have a great mentality.
“We’d worked a lot on specific tactics for that match and unfortunately we were unable to execute them on the attacking side (due to Asante’s early dismissal).”
Kickers’ game-plan took a sudden turn just moments into the match when midfielder Asante was shown a red card for a high tackle on Magnus Rasmussen.
Could it have been yellow? Cowlishaw was hopeful, but realistic with his views. “I wasn’t surprised it was red,” said the coach, who was directly in front of the incident.
“Asante has lifted his foot (towards the ball) and has not seen the player. It wasn’t malicious, it wasn’t on purpose, but his studs have gone into the chest of Rasmussen.
“He was pulling away and it was minimal contact. Rasmussen played it up, and it didn’t hurt him, but he stayed down – he did what was needed to do to get Asante sent off.”
Despite the disadvantage, Richmond defended bravely and brilliantly throughout in Louisville, especially during the regular 90 minutes, while carving out some good opportunities of their own.
“We were believing from the first minute that we could do it,” continued Cowlishaw, who also described goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra’s performance as ‘fantastic’.
“I knew the mentality of the guys and I knew how much they wanted to perform!
“We had some chances, and I felt the back four were solid all night and the players in front of them did what they needed to do.
“In the end, we made some subs in hope that they’d win us the game. That might have backfired slightly because it it left us a little bit too vulnerable defensively, but we were trying to find a way to keep the game as short as possible and to nick it at the end.”
While Kickers will now replenish and regather for the off-season, Louisville will host Charleston Battery in the semifinals on Saturday.
Have Kickers potentially lost to the 2016 USL playoff winners? Cowlishaw thinks they might have done.
“Anybody can win it, and I felt that we were good enough to go on and win it,” he said.
“If I was a betting man, I think the winner is going to come from the East Coast because of the home field advantage, but it could be any of those teams who win it – that’s how competitive it has been this year.”
