North Carolina FC 2- 1 Richmond Kickers
Cary, NC-In the end, it was more of a nail-biter than it should have been, but North Carolina FC stowed away all three points in their match against the Richmond Kickers.
Both clubs were coming off of mid-week losses. For North Carolina, though, their loss in Charleston was particularly galling. Deadlocked at zeros, Charleston scored two stoppage-time goals (91st and 94th minutes) to steal all three points.
Despite the loss at Charleston, NCFC’s run of two wins and a tie had them sitting just two points out of a playoff spot going into Saturday’s match against the Kickers. For North Carolina, this was as good as a knockout round game.
From the opening kickoff, it looked like North Carolina was on a mission. They opened up the game and gave themselves a couple of early looks at goal. But it was the visiting team that opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark. Austin Yearwood brought the ball into the North Carolina 18-yard box but as he got near the goal line he tried to hook a pass back to a teammate. The ball pinged off of NCFC’s Wuilito Fernandes right to Prince Agyemang who made no mistake on the finish.
Kyle Bekker would pull the home team even nearly ten minutes later. Zach Steinberger brought the ball past midfield and lofted it toward the goal. Donovan Ewolo challenged Richmond defender Mekeil Williams and goalkeeper Trevor Spangenberg in the air but the ball slipped past all of them. Bekker, unmarked at the far post, watched the ball land at his feet and then planted it in the far corner to level the game in the 39th minute.
North Carolina wasn’t going to make this an easy night for themselves, falling behind again just before halftime. Richmond forward Brian Shriver played a lead pass to Heviel Cordoves, who was making a run into the penalty area. Cordoves’ toe-poke beat NCFC goalkeeper Alex Tambakis near post.
Coming out of the halftime break, North Carolina FC was facing the biggest 45 minutes of their season. To hold onto a chance of staying in the playoff hunt with three games left after tonight, they needed to dig themselves out of the hole.
Bekker, looking for his second goal, had his shot blocked in the 53rd minute. Less than a minute later, NCFC defender Aaron Guillen looked like he might score his first goal of the season, but Spangenberg came up with the block to preserve Richmond’s one-goal lead.
North Carolina was enjoying a spell of possession deep in Richmond’s end of the field; their attack earned them three successive corner kicks. In the 61st minute, Bekker took a long corner that found the head of Austin da Luz right in front of the goal. Da Luz had Spangenberg dead to rights and once more NCFC had come from behind to tie the match.
In the 73rd minute, NCFC midfielder Tiyi Shipalane carried the ball into the Kickers’ end of the field and switched the ball to Bekker. Sitting about 20 yards out, it was clear Bekker would not be denied his brace. He took a touch, then launched a hard shot that got past Spangenberg and bounced in front of the goal before bouncing off the inside of the goalpost and into the back of the net.
After dominating play through much of the game, North Carolina FC finally had a lead to show for it. But the last 18 minutes were not without some nervous moments.
In the 79th minute, NCFC captain Connor Tobin challenged Cordoves, who went down just inside the penalty area. However, instead of awarding Richmond a penalty kick, referee Kevin Broadley ruled that Cordoves, already on a yellow card, took a dive and issued him a red card.
Two minutes later, with the home team hanging onto a 3-2 lead, NCFC gave themselves a scare when Richmond’s Shriver stripped Fernandes of the ball and broke through the North Carolina defense all alone. The former Carolina RailHawk took a touch around NCFC captain Connor Tobin and, after drawing Tambakis off of his line, slid a pass to Yudai Imura who was making a run. Tambakis blocked Imura’s shot but Shriver beat the NCFC defense to the ball. Shriver’s follow up shot sailed over the crossbar and the 8,000 North Carolina faithful exhaled.
North Carolina FC took all three points and, for the moment, are perched on that final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Final Notes
- Although North Carolina FC has been missing leading scorer Daniel Rios for the last few games, they’ve had contributions from several players, including Donovon Ewolo, who scored four goals in their 6-1 rout of Atlanta United 2 on September 26th.
- Saturday’s match was the third time North Carolina and Richmond faced each other this season. The previous two matches were at City Stadium in Richmond where the teams split the results.
- NCFC will play one final home match in 2018 against the New York Red Bulls II on Saturday, October 6th. They will then close out the season on the road at Louisville and Charlotte.
Lineups
North Carolina A.Tambakis; A. Guillen, C. Tobin (c), W. Fernandes, D.J. Taylor; K. Bekker, A. da Luz, Z. Steinberger (V. Igbekoyi 84’), G. Smith; T. Shipalane (S. Miller 88’), D. Ewolo (D. Ríos 66’)
Richmond T. Spangenberg; B. Eaton, A. Yearwood (Y. Imura 77’), M. Roberts, M. Williams; O. Umar, G. Boehme (R. Gonzalez 64’), P. Agyemang; L. Fernando, B. Shriver (c), H. Cordovés
Scoring
North Carolina K. Bekker (39’ unassisted), A. da Luz (61’ K. Bekker), K. Bekker (73’ T. Shipalane)
Richmond P. Agyemang (30’ unassisted), H. Cordoves (44’ B. Shriver)
Discipline
North Carolina D. Rios (YC 90+’)
Richmond H. Cordoves (YC 12’, YC/RC 79’), G. Boehme (YC 45+’), B. Eaton YC 50’), R. Gonzalez (YC 89’)
Attendance: 8,004
North Carolina FC
USL
