The Richmond Kickers soccer club will enter 2010 with a new organization and hierarchy but with an unchanged mission: winning USL-2 championships. For the past nine years, the Kickers’ professional team and a satellite youth soccer organization carrying the same name have existed as related but independent entities. No longer. The pro team has been formally acquired by the Richmond Kickers Youth Soccer Club, a thriving nonprofit operation with more than 6,000 players ranging in age from 3-19.

Text of cutline . . . Kickers coach Leigh Cowlishaw has no concerns about playing an exhibition during a grueling stretch. If Richmond Kickers coach Leigh Cowlishaw is concerned about the timing of tomorrow’s high-profile exhibition against Guatemalan National League champion Club Social y Deportivo Comunicaciones, he is concealing it well. The Kickers, snarled in a three-way scramble for the USL-2 regular-season championship, will interrupt the make-or-break portion of their league schedule to play host to Comunicaciones, a capable and creative club that is preparing for an appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League playoffs. Richmond is tied for first place in USL-2 with Wilmington and Harrisburg. The Kickers lost 3-2 at Wilmington on Wednesday and will travel to Harrisburg next Wednesday.

For 45 boisterous minutes, the Richmond Kickers lived high on the hog. To be exact, they lived high on the Bermuda Hogges. The Kickers, scoring almost at will, filled the Bermuda net with five first-half goals en route to a 7-2 runaway in last night’s USL-2 match at UR Stadium. The triumph, the Kickers’ fourth in their past five games, improved their record to 7-2-5 and lifted them into a tie for first place with the Harrisburg Islanders.

The Richmond Kickers didn’t bring cherry bombs or ladyfingers to their Fourth of July matinee with the Charlotte Eagles. They did, however, bring the next best thing: forward David Bulow. Bulow, hotter than a proverbial firecracker, scored a pair of first-half goals to carry the Kickers to a 3-0 victory over Charlotte yesterday at University of Richmond Stadium. Bulow’s goals, his sixth and seventh of the USL-2 season, lifted Richmond into sole possession of second place in the USL-2 standings. The Kickers (6-2-5, 23 points) trail front-running Harrisburg by only three points.

So powerful was the first impression made by Leigh Cowlishaw upon Kenny Cutler that Cowlishaw is now getting the opportunity to make a second impression. Cutler. a skilled and savvy midfielder/defender, joined the Richmond Kickers in March after four seasons with Real Salt Lake of MLS. In the process, he reestablished connections with Cowlishaw, the Kickers’ veteran coach. Cowlishaw worked as a Richmond Strikers youth coach while attending the University of Richmond in the early 1990s. Cutler, then a pre-teenager, was one of his players.

Once again, the Richmond Kickers were fit to be tied. Despite playing with a one-man advantage for the final 35 minutes of the second half, the Kickers settled for an unsettling 1-1 stalemate with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in last night’s USL-2 professional soccer match at UR Stadium. “The goals will come. I’m not worried about that,“ said Kickers forward Joey Worthen. “The thing is, we’re letting a lot of points get away, and we can’t keep doing that—especially when we’re playing at home.“

Midfielder/defender Aziz Souare, signed late last week, has joined the Richmond Kickers’ roster and is expected to be available for Saturday night’s USL-2 home game against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Souare, a native of Morocco who grew up in Paris and calls Guinea home, did not dress for last week’s game against Harrisburg while awaiting international clearance.

Richmond Kickers coach Leigh Cowlishaw made no attempt to conceal his enthusiasm. He likes—no, he really likes—the potential he sees in the team he will put on the field in 2009. “The dismantling of the MLS developmental system basically flooded the market with very experienced and capable players,“ Cowlishaw said. “I’ve been able to pick up some very talented individuals. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t have thought two years ago that we’d be able to put together a team of this caliber.“

Midfielder Mike Burke, entering his 10th season with the Kickers, holds the franchise record for assists (48) and is third in goals (33). Baseball? Gone. Hockey? Gone. Indoor football? Gone. Men’s and women’s basketball? Gone. The Richmond Kickers, the city’s 17-year-old soccer franchise, are suddenly the only professional game in town.

No one is more interested in seeing how the Richmond Kickers perform Saturday against the Carolina RailHawks than coach Leigh Cowlishaw. The 7 p.m. exhibition at Sports Backers Stadium vs. the United Soccer Leagues First Division side will give Cowlishaw his first real look at the USL2 squad this season. “We’re getting very close to making some tough decisions,“ Cowlishaw said of the roster, which will need trimming before the regular-season opener April 18 against the Harrisburg City Islanders at UR Stadium.