By Chloe Notowich
June 22, 2024 (7:00 p.m.) – Two players down in the second half and a failure to capitalize led to a 2-0 defeat for One Knoxville SC against number one Greenville Triumph SC.
One Knox coach, Mark McKeever, emphasized why there has been an issue in turning opportunities into more scoring.
“Lots of injuries probably takes away from the cohesion…and so I hope now that as the players start to come back, we can start to get a little bit of cohesion, which I hope, in turn, leads to a little bit of consistency,” he said.
Ball possession sided with Greenville at 57% while One Knox showed 43% overall possession. Both teams had a total of 15 shots and 10 of those were taken inside the box for One Knox.
The first half showed even competition between both teams. They both started with high levels of intensity and created opportunities.
In the 27th minute, Greenville player, Daniel Wu, received a cross from Ben Zakowski. He passed it to Lyam MacKinnon who shot the ball from outside the box and One Knox goalie, Sean Lewis, punched it out in the bottom left corner, where it was finally cleared.
In stoppage time, One Knox player, Stuart Ritchie, crossed the ball and Kempes Tekiela headed it in from the center of the box, but it went out wide to the right.
Although One Knox had six total shots and Greenville had three, no one capitalized and the half ended at 0-0.
During the second half, Greenville began to dominate the game.
In the 48th minute, McKinnon crossed the ball and Leonardo Castro shot it from the center of the box into the center of the goal, beginning their lead at 1-0.
One Knox still attempted to capitalize on their chances in the final third.
In the 60th minute, Ritchie dribbled and passed to Kingsford Adjei in the middle who shot it from outside the box, but it went just above the goal.
One Knox took a hit in the 72nd minute.
Lewis is shown a red card after a one-on-one with a Greenville player. As Lewis slid and reached out for the ball, his hands crossed the penalty area, leading to a handball. Because he
had to exit the game, goalkeeper Johan Garibay replaced another player, James Thomas, leaving One Knox with 10 players.
Another hit was taken in the 87th minute after Sean O’Hearn received a second yellow card for a bad foul and had to exit the game, now leaving One Knox with nine players.
This was One Knox’s third time with 10 players and their first time with only nine. Angelo-Kelly spoke about dealing with being down two men on the field.
“We still gotta risk it, you know, tie the game… at that point, you know, unfortunately, we got another red card, but it’s a part of the game,” he said.
As One Knox was put on the defense, Greenville capitalized on having more players and scored another goal in stoppage time.
Zakowski flicked it on for MacKinnon who broke away and shot the ball to the bottom right corner.
The game ended at 2-0.
McKeever spoke highly of Greenville after the game.
“We get an example of a team that has cohesion, consistency, a team that, as a club, they have the history, and they’ve been able to recruit off that. We’re building and we’re getting better and we’re getting stronger, and we’re just going to keep forward and hopefully, in the near future we can be where they are,” he said.
Current standings show One Knox at number five and Greenville at number one.
The next home game is Saturday, June 29 versus Forward Madison FC at 7:30 p.m. at Regal Soccer Stadium. Come out to kick off July 4 with a fireworks show right after the game!
Click here for tickets.