Official Kickers match summary
RICHMOND KICKERS 1(6) 24′ Sukow (Terzaghi)
SOUTH GEORGIA TORMENTA FC 1(5) 7′ Watson
The Richmond Kickers (1-3-3, 3-0, 9 points) won a penalty shootout 6-5 against South Georgia Tormenta FC (0-3-4, 2-2, 6 points) on Saturday night after the Kickers had reached a 1-1 draw in regular time in the 7th round of the USL Jägermeister Cup.
After a missed shot, the Kickers trailed 4-3 in the shootout and goalkeeper Ryan Shellow went to work. Tormenta’s Jackson Khoury placed his shot to the left and Shellow dove to grab the shot with both hands and confidently save it.
Adrian Billhardt and Tormenta’s Tavio D’Almeida shot at each other before Justin Sukow equalized at 5:5. On Tormenta’s next attempt, Daniel Steedman went with a low and fast shot to the right and again Shellow parried the shot confidently with both hands.
With the penalty shootout still in full swing and the Kickers in control, Ryan Sierakowski sent Tormenta’s goalkeeper Drew Romig the wrong way with a stutter step and then fired his penalty into the left side of the net, giving Richmond the shootout victory.
The first 90 minutes of the game proved to be a typical duel between Richmond and South Georgia: fast and physical.
Nil Vinyals received the ball in the ninth minute and dribbled down the touchline before being trapped on the sideline. The midfielder dribbled away from the two defenders with a clever move, but was caught in the top right corner of the box and drew a foul. His free kick flew straight at the head of Emiliano Terzaghi, but the rebound was intercepted too late and went wide of the goal.
In his first appearance of the season, Landon Johnson won possession in the 13th minute and sent Chandler O’Dwyer off to take another free kick. Vinyals took it and found Sukow at the far post, who crossed, but the ball was ultimately saved. Tormenta forced a corner a minute later, but newly-professional Griffin Garnett prevented his marker from touching the ball.
In the 21st minute, a ball from Johnson found O’Dwyer just inside the box, who found Zaca Moran and then Terzaghi. The striker received the ball in the middle of the box and, with his back to goal, dribbled past three defenders before firing a low shot that flew across the turf, beat the goalkeeper but went just wide of the far post.
In the 24th minute, Terzaghi received the ball on the edge of the final third. The striker played the ball to Sukow, who stormed through the middle and broke away from his defender. The midfielder took the ball cleverly with his chest and caught it with a half-volley that shot towards goal. Romig got the ball with his hand, but it was too fast and it deflected into the net anyway.
The pace of play remained high, but the score remained constant for the rest of the game. In the 77th minute, the Kickers almost took the lead.
Billhardt sent a corner into the six-yard box that forced Romig to punch out, but the ball bounced into the air and stuck in the danger zone. Nathan Aune received the ball and fired a shot when Romig was out of position, but Tormenta was able to clear the potential winner off the goal line at the last second.
Terzaghi forced a loss of possession in the 81st minute by stealing the ball from a defender and sending it forward. João Gomeiro ran and fired a low shot that flew into the near post, but Romig was there in time.
The shootout victory was the third for the Kickers, who were nearly perfect from the penalty spot, converting 16 of their 17 possible penalties. They previously won 5-3 at Greenville Triumph SC in the very first round of the Cup before winning 5-4 in Charlotte in June.
The Kickers will travel to Greenville and Omaha over the next two weeks before returning to City Stadium on Thursday, August 29th to host Spokane Velocity in Round 8 of the USL Jägermeister Cup. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
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