When the Richmond Kickers stepped on the pitch at City Stadium on Saturday night, they knew they had to bring their "A" game.
While other teams have come on strong in the final weeks of the USL PRO regular season, the Kickers have stumbled a bit. They had to defeat Dayton to stay on track for a favorable playoff berth.
For the first 20 minutes, they had their hands full against the Dutch Lions, but William Yomby and Matthew Delicate each scored a goal in a six-minute span in the middle of the first half to put Richmond ahead and the Kickers coasted the rest of the way to a 3-0 victory.
The win comes at a crucial time, as Richmond ends the regular season on the road next week with one game in Wilmington and two in Los Angeles. The Kickers currently are in third place in the American Division behind Orlando City and Wilmington. Charleston and Charlotte trail the Kickers by three points in the division standings.
"We all knew, especially with the results last night, that this was a must-win," Delicate said. "If we did not win this game, we were going to put ourselves in serious pressure going into three road games. So now we can go into Wilmington and try to take something out of Wilmington, and then head to L.A. and finish and get ourselves into the playoffs."
Kolby Lacrone missed a good chance to give Dayton the first score early in the game, but Richmond goalkeeper Ronnie Pascale's 60th save of the season kept the Kickers from falling behind.
The Kickers' attack began to coalesce toward the middle of the half, and Nozomi Hiroyama, charging down the left side, fed a high crossing pass to Yomby, whose kick found the center of the net in the 24th minute.
Six minutes later, Delicate and Stanley Nyazamba traded passes before Delicate added an insurance goal with a header off Nyazamba's feed. Delicate completed the scoring with a penalty kick nine minutes into the second half.
For most of the game, the Kickers did a good job of working the ball around the field, probing Dayton's defense and trying to find an opening. Dayton coach Ivar van Dinteren complimented Richmond's style.
"I've seen lots of teams that just kick the ball along, try to force a goal and then sit," van Dinteren said. "These guys did really good. They made some nice goals."
The win capped an effort to get the Kickers out of a rut they've been in the past couple of weeks.
"We had a really good week of training — tried to get refocused after the last couple of weeks," Pascale said. "We focused on the little details that we need to do to get ourselves moving in the right direction for the playoffs."
Dayton
0
0
—
0
Richmond
2
1
—
3
R: Yomby 1 (Hiroyama), 24th minute; Delicate 1 (Nyazamba), 30th; Delicate (penalty kick), 54th
Shots: Richmond 14-5
Saves: Leerdam (D) 5; Pascale (R) 2 A: 4,742
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