Kickers defeat DC (Reserves) yet again.
What a great way to start a season. In spite of a slew of new players in the Richmond squad the team put together a polished performance to easily defeat the reserves of DC United on Saturday night.
The evening began with a feeling of dread as I looked over a rather unfamiliar roster list, only a few names stood out (Jones, Pascale, Burke & Bulow) the rest seemed to be a multicultural mix of new players (Catalano, Chavez, Paschalis, Vercollone, Bumbut…). None of our strikers have returned which left me wondering who was going to score the goals for us this season.
As if that wasn’t enough, the negativity was further compounded by the hoards of DC fans that had made the trip to UR/City Stadium. I’m all for a bit of rivalry, but it’s downright humiliating when visitors come and outshout the home team. It didn’t help that Barra Brava parked themselves right behind the Corner Kicks rendering my shouting pretty much worthless (at least until the third goal went in). Credit to them, they are great fans, but it’s just depressing that we are still struggling to get a corp of fanatical followers at Richmond.
Still, it was nice to be back at a live game - the off-season seems to have gotten unbearably long since the Kickers moved down to D2. And it didn’t take long for the home team to get us in celebratory mood as Mike Burke blasted in the first goal just two minutes after kick-off.
The early lead allowed Richmond to play with confidence and control the game. In the first half I was very impressed with the organization on the back line, United rarely had a sniff at goal as they were forced to take long range efforts and regularly flagged offside (much to the annoyance of the visiting fans).
I was equally impressed with Burkie’s performance, it looks like he will continue the great work of last season acting as the team’s fulcrum; quickly moving the ball from defence to attack with great vision. New guy Ben Hunter looked pretty sharp too, he assisted both first half goals and looked dangerous for most of the game.
After the third goal went in, Richmond kept attacking and could have easily scored more in the second half. United were getting visibily frustrated as the Kickers kept beating their poorly administrated offside trap. If we had a deadlier striker we could have easily ran the score up.
DC brought on Clyde Simms in the 67th minute and the former Kicker received a warm welcome from the Richmond crowd. One can only hope that DC doesn’t take a liking to any of our current crop of players, but I could hardly blame them if they did.
Overall, it was a very solid performance from Richmond and bodes well for the new season. I’m always impressed with the talent Jesse and Leigh dig up and it looks like this season will be no different. It’s just a shame we can’t play DC every week, though that’s probably a good thing for my vocal chords.
3 months ago