Richmond Kickers 0, Greenville Triumph SC 1
| RICHMOND KICKERS | 0 | |
| GREENVILLE TRIUMPH SC | 1 | 85’ MacKinnon (Schultz) |
RICHMOND, Va. — The Richmond Kickers (1-4-2, 5 pts) fell at home, Saturday night, in a tightly-contested rivalry match against first-place Greenville Triumph SC (5-2-1, 16 pts).
As expected in a matchup between Richmond and Greenville, the match was a defensive, physical contest. In this iteration of the rivalry, the Kickers were largely in control while Greenville was left without the ball.
In the 18th minute, Nil Vinyals dribbled away from his marker in the middle of the pitch and found Simon Fitch on the right wing. The defender had space to take a shot from outside of the box but his attempt went just over the crossbar.
Maxi Schenfeld dribbled through defenders 10 minutes later and drew a foul outside of the box on the left wing. Vinyals played an inswinger toward the back post to Dakota Barnathan but the header went over the crossbar.
Richmond continued to tighten the screws as halftime approached.
Schenfeld intercepted the ball at midfield in the 44th minute and countered quickly, playing a give-and-go before finding Chandler O’Dwyer in the box. O’Dwyer’s shot was blocked but fell to Justin Sukow who was alone in the box and took a shot on target that forced a save.
In the first minute of stoppage, Zaca Moran ripped a shot from outside of the box that was headed on frame as it skipped off the ground, but the shot was deflected out for a corner.
Moments later, Fitch played a deep cross to the left post where Barnathan rose up and headed the ball to Sukow in the box. The midfielder had enough space to get a shot off but it went just over the crossbar.
Kickers held Greenville without a shot on target in the first half while dominating possession 58-42. Meanwhile, offensively, the Kickers had 31 final third entries to Greenville’s 23.
The second half started with Greenville creating some early chances. Leo Castro received the ball in space and fired a shot on target, but Ryan Shellow made a diving save to deny the veteran forward.
Greenville’s Daniel Wu appeared to have scored the first goal of the night in the 51st minute after volleying a cross but he was ruled offside.
The Kickers responded six minutes later. Vinyals sent a corner kick into the penalty area. Fitch beat his marker and headed the ball into the ground toward goal, but the ball took too strong of a bounce and ricocheted off the crossbar and out for a goal kick.
In the 69th minute, Adrian Billhardt received the ball on the counter and shed his marker before launching a cross into the box to Ryan Sierakowski. The forward connected with a header and forced a save from the keeper.
The league’s leading scorer, Lyam MacKinnon broke the stalemate in the 85th minute. After receiving a long ball over the top, the forward drove into the box in a one-on-one with Shellow. MacKinnon fired a shot that Shellow got his hand to, but the shot had enough power to still make it into the net.
The Kickers are on the road next week on Saturday, May 25, when they face South Georgia Tormenta FC in Round 3 of the USL Jägermeister Cup. Richmond currently sits tied for second in the East Group, one point above Tormenta.
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