Violent midwestern weather and a red-hot opponent took their best shots at the Richmond Kickers, but to no avail.
The Kickers continued their improbable march through the U.S. Open Cup bracket by enduring heavy rain, lightning and a blizzard of shots in Tuesday's 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Sporting Kansas City, an MLS team that was riding a 12-game unbeaten streak. Richmond, a USL PRO franchise, has defeated a pair of MLS clubs in the 2011 tournament. It will face a third, the Chicago Fire, in the Aug. 30 semifinals. The Kickers are the only non-MLS club remaining in the tournament.
"If you do your homework and you put together a good plan and then you go out and execute that plan, well, you never know what might happen," said Kickers goalkeeper Ronnie Pascale. "On any given night, you know? That's what makes March Madness great and it's the same thing that makes this tournament great."
Sporting Kansas City dominated Tuesday's statistics. It outshot the Kickers 22-7 and created six corner opportunities to Richmond's three. But solid work by the Richmond's back line rendered most of those shots harmless. Pascale contributed five saves. The 13-year pro was unflappable in the second half when SKC began pushing frantically to score.
The Kickers were willing to give up possession and shots for numerical superiority behind the ball, Pascale said. Translation: "No easy goals. No stupid mistakes. Whatever they got, we wanted to make them earn it."
Richmond already had achieved the tone and tempo it desired when a line of fierce storms swept across Kansas City, halting the then-scoreless match in the 65th minute. When play resumed following an 82-minute delay, the Kickers flung a thunderbolt at their hosts. Richmond forward Shaka Bangura scored almost immediately off a deep pass. His shot struck sprawling SKC goalkeeper Eric Kronberg and caromed into the net.
Seventeen minutes later, Richmond's David Bulow scored on a penalty kick created when Jamel Wallace was chopped down in the box by SKC defender Aurelien Collin. Bulow's goal, the 14th of his Open Cup career and his sixth of the 2011 tournament, made him the most prolific scorer in the event's professional era.
Kickers coach Leigh Cowlishaw said the delay might have worked in the Kickers' favor on several levels.
"It gave us a chance to change tactics and regroup" at a moment when fatigue was becoming an issue, he said. "We talked about what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it." They talked, too, about what they didn't want to do.
"The last thing we wanted was overtime," said Cowlishaw, whose club was playing its third match in five days. "I had absolutely no interest in playing overtime."
In addition, he said, he sensed that the interruption "made [SKC] a bit irritable. They've got some very important matches and exhibitions coming up and I think they just wanted to get the game over with and get the Kickers out of the way."
Pascale said Cowlishaw stirred his team's emotional fire as the weather delay was ending.
"Leigh said, 'Look, let's just go for it,'" Pascale said. "He said, 'We're not playing overtime. We're going to win or lose right here. So let's go for it.'"
Richmond played without forward Matthew Delicate, its top scorer. Delicate tweaked a hamstring in last Saturday's match at Charlotte. His availability for Saturday's USL PRO home match against Antigua is uncertain.
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Richmond
0
2
—
2
Sporting KC
0
0
—
0
R: Bangura (Bulow), 66:00; Bulow (PK), 83:00
Saves: Pascale (R) 5, Kronberg (KC) 2
A: 4,794
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