May 18, 2024 – United Soccer League One (USL1)
Richmond Kickers News Release
Richmond Kickers’ Nil Vinyals in action
(Richmond Kickers)
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…