Recap: Kickers Take Victory on the Road at Orlando

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — (Wednesday, October 21, 2020) — The Richmond Kickers (8-5-2) earned a victory Wednesday on the road at Orlando City B (1-10-3) at Osceola Heritage Park. Kenji Tanaka put OCB up in the eighth minute. Mutaya Mwape leveled the score in the 36th minute. Stanley Alves scored his first professional goal in the 58th minute to get Richmond out in front. Oalex Anderson added the insurance goal in the 64th minute. 

Orlando scored the first goal eight minutes into the match. Moises Tablante worked his way up the field before slipping the ball through. Kenji Tanaka ran onto the pass and managed to find the back of the net on a tough angle to put the home side up early. 

Richmond came close to finding an equalizer three minutes later. Mutaya Mwape served in a corner kick from the left side that arched over everyone. Wahab Ackwei got to the ball first for a header, putting his shot just over the net.

Matt Bolduc was denied in the 18th minute. Akira Fitzgerald played the ball long over the top as Bolduc was making a run up the left wing. He went one on one with Austin Aviza, only to have the Orlando keeper come up with the save. 

Orlando was reduced to 10 men in the 24th minute. Scott Thomsen picked up control of the ball on the left, quickly playing it to Bolduc. He then fed the ball through to Stanley Alves. The forward then laid the ball back to Bolduc, who went for the one-time effort. The shot was blocked by the arm of Daniel Rosario, forcing the referee to show the straight red card to send Rosario off. 

Richmond leveled the score in the 37th minute through Mutaya Mwape. Thomsen squared a pass to Greg Boehme at the top of the Orlando box. He took a slight touch to create space for Mwape. The Zambian only needed a touch to go for the shot that found the back of the net for the equalizer. 

Akira Fitzgerald came up with a massive save in the 39th minute. Jonathan Rosales went long to get Wilfredo Rivera on a run in behind the Richmond backline. As the Kickers recovered defensively, Rivera put a shot on frame as Fitzgerald pushed the shot over the goal. 

Stanley Alves put Richmond ahead in the 51st minute. Victor Falck found Thomsen out on the left wing, before the defender whipped in a low cross. Aviza managed to get a hand to the ball but it continued to roll through to Mumbi Kwesele. He only needed to take a touch to lay it off for Alves to put in the back of the net for his first professional goal. 

The Kickers would go ahead 3-1 in the 64th minute from Oalex Anderson. After taking the ball off the feet of Franklin Carabali, Anderson turned towards goal making his run into the OCB box. With Thomas Williams coming in to try and make the stop, Anderson slipped his shot between Williams and Aviza for his first goal for the Kickers. 

The Kickers will close out the regular season this Saturday night at City Stadium as they host Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, presented by Rybec Insurance with Allstate. Gates open up at 5:30 p.m. and kickoff is a 6:30 p.m. The match will air locally on WTVR CBS 6.3 (Comcast 206, Verizon FiOS 466) and streaming nationally on ESPN+. Tickets for this match are still available at www.richmondkickers.com/Tickets.

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