Match Recap: Richmond Falls On The Road at North Carolina; Gallegos Makes Debut Off The Bench

RICHMOND, Va. — The Richmond Kickers (4-5-4) fell on the road to regional rival North Carolina FC (2-7-3) after a quick turnaround for the midweek match — their second match in a three matches in seven-day span. Richmond United academy product Damian Gallegos made his professional debut for the Reds when he came on for Emiliano Terzaghi in the 85th minute.

The match started off with kinetic back-and-forth energy. At the four-minute-mark, North Carolina’s Jay Tee Kamara sprinted down the wing at Richmond’s goal and made an incisive through-pass to Robert Kristo who struck a shot at goal, but Akira Fitzgerald was calm and collected the shot with ease. 

At 13 minutes, Matt Bolduc sprinted towards the corner with the ball at his feet and curled a ball into the North Carolina box. Oalex Anderson soared in the air to meet the cross and rattled off a powerful header at the far post but it was wide of the goal. 

Shortly after, North Carolina recovered a Richmond-headed clearance and recycled the ball out wide to Nelson Flores who curled the ball into Kristo who aimed a lofty header towards the far post and just over the Richmond defense to make the scoreline to 1-0. Just before the first half would come to a close, Kristo received a long ball at the center of the field and cranked out a half volley shot that unluckily found the back of the net to bring the scoreline to 2-0 in North Carolina’s favor. 

Richmond came out of the dressing room pressing for a goal to halve the NCFC lead. However, NCFC found room to initiate a counterattack in the 48th minute. Josh Coan received the ball wide in the Richmond box and fired a shot towards the far post that would just make it past Fitzgerald to make the scoreline 3-0. 

With the addition of some fresh legs from the Richmond bench in the 64th minute, the Kickers looked to close the gap adding Luke Pavone, Stanley Alves and Jonathan Bolanos into the mix. Stanley Alves received a long ball outside of the box, controlled it with a superb first touch, and fired off a rocket of a shot at the North Carolina goal but unfortunately, the attempt would hit the woodwork and bounce out of play — a theme for the night as the Kickers were unlucky and saw several shots either hit the post or just miss it.

In the 85th minute, NCFC would find space on the counter as Kristos was trailed by two Kickers defenders. Ivan Magalhães made a last-ditch attempt to stop the attack but brought down Kristos in the process and the defender received a red card for the last-man tackle. After six minutes of extra time was added to the clock, Coan made an incisive run at the Richmond goal and was able to find the back of the net for the final tally of the night. 

Richmond caps off its busy week of three matches at South Georgia Tormenta FC on Saturday night. The last time the Kickers faced Tormenta was at City Stadium when the Reds earned a 2-0 result thanks to a brace from Emiliano Terzaghi in the final 10 minutes. Kickoff for the match in Statesboro, Ga. is set for 8:00 p.m. 

Stay up to date with the latest news from the Kickers at www.richmondkickers.com and on the official team app.

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

Richmond: Akira Fitzgerald, Chris Cole, Ivan Magalhães, Jalen Crisler(77‘ – Mumbi Kwesele, Esteban Calvo(64‘ – Luke Pavone), Zaca Moran, Victor Falck(64’ – Stanley Alves), Matt Bolduc, Nil Vinyals(65’ – Jonathan Bolanos), Emiliano Terzaghi(79’ – Daman Gallegos), Oalex Anderson

Unused Substitutes: Austin Causey, Hernan Gonzalez, 

North Carolina: Jake McGuire, Shermaine Martina(84’ – Malick Mbaye), Nelson Blanco Flores, Nelson Martinez, Max Flick, Nazmi Albadawi, Joshua Coan(90’+3 – Marvin Mariche), Selmir Miscic(76’ – Robert Frame), Peter Pearson, Jay Tee Kamara(76’ –  Luis Arriaga, Robert Kristo

Unused Substitutes: Nicholas Holliday, Britton Fischer, Malyk Hamilton, 

STATISTICS

SCORING SUMMARY

CAUTIONS SUMMARY

EJECTIONS SUMMARY

85’    RIC    Magalhães   

MATCH INFORMATION