April 20, 2024 – United Soccer League One (USL1)
Richmond Kickers News Release
RICHMOND, Va. – – The Richmond Kickers (1-3-1, 4 pts) fell to Spokane Velocity FC (3-2-1, 10 pts) 0-2 on Saturday evening, capping off the Kickers’ third match in seven days that included a midweek Open Cup match that went 120 minutes.
The Kickers welcomed 5,368 fans to City Stadium as they celebrated For The W (League) Night with Richmond Ivy SC – Richmond’s pre-professional women’s soccer team kicking off their inaugural season on Saturday, May 11.
In the eighth minute, Chandler O’Dwyer received a pass on the left wing from Arthur Bosua. The Englishman drove the ball to the top of the box before cutting the ball on his right foot and dragging a shot back toward the left post that went just wide.
Nil Vinyals carried the ball up the middle in the 24th minute. He found O’Dwyer on the left wing who crossed it to the far post to Ryan Sierakowski who headed the ball back to Vinyals. Vinyals took a shot, had it blocked, got the rebound, and fired another with his left that was blocked at the last second and out for a corner. The subsequent corner found O’Dwyer at the near post but his header went wide.
Sierakoski found Vinyals again in the 28th minute, this time up the middle from the right wing. Vinyals primed a shot from outside the box that beat the keeper but went just wide of the right post.
In the 32nd minute, Spokane’s Collin Fernandez sent a long ball in that found the feet of Romain Métanire. The right back struck from out wide and his shot bent just out of Pablo Jara’s reach to bring the score to 0-1.
Playing out of the back shortly after that, Zaca Moran wasted no time and broke through a tackle to find O’Dwyer up the middle in the 34th minute. O’Dwyer found Simon Fitch on the wing who crossed it to the middle and forced a corner. The subsequent corner was well placed but the Spokane defense got under it in time to clear it away.
Vinyals found Fitch who took the ball up the right side in the 42nd minute before playing a cross into the box as Bosua wrestled to shed his marker. The forward flung himself at the ball but was just inches from making contact to redirect the cross past the keeper.
The Kickers shut down the scoring for most of the second half, but as the Kickers chased an equalizer, Velocity found a second in the 72nd minute when Andre Lewis found an opportunity on the counter.
On the attack again three minutes later, Fitch crossed the ball in from the right side…