| USL LEAGUE ONE MATCHDAY 6 | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| ONE KNOXVILLE SC (3-1-2 | 11 PTS) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PORTLAND HEARTS OF PINE (1-1-2 | 5 PTS) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
PORTLAND, Maine – One Knoxville SC continued to show its mettle away from home on Saturday night. The squad pushed its road match unbeaten streak to five straight, by earning a hard fought point in a 0-0 draw with Portland Hearts of Pine amidst a crowd of over 6,000 at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
“It’s a difficult place to play in,” said Head Coach Ian Fuller after his club pushed its USL League One points total up to 11.
“I thought we handled the environment really well. On a different night, we could’ve come up winners, but to get a clean sheet with all of the outside factors in play, I thought we were brilliant.”
It was a bit of deja vu for One Knox who for the second straight season played to a draw with Hearts of Pine in the latter’s home opener. And both teams likely come away from this latest meeting feeling that the share points was a deserved result.
Possession was almost even with the visiting side narrowly holding the advantage at 51.8%. One Knox tallied 16 total shots to Portlands 13, but the home side had a slight advantage in shots on target at 5-3.
Still, there were moments where One Knox had its sights set on the full three points, particularly as it grew into the match. Knoxville led the way 77 final third entries and 26 touches in Portland’s box, but was unable to find that final ball to change the scoreboard.
“You’re not going to create a lot of chances on the road and I thought our decision making lacked a little composure,” Fuller explained. “Whether it was the wind, the turf or just anxiousness to get a goal, we have to do better in that area.”
One Knox’ Mikkel Gøling found the most joy in the attacking third. The Danish midfielder led the way with five total shots, including two of the club’s three attempts that forced Portland goalkeeper Hunter Morse into action, including a free kick from just outside the top of the box right before the final whistle.
On the other end of the pitch, Johan Garibay once again came up big in goal for One Knox with five saves on the evening en route to his third clean sheet of the season. It was a welcome, yet familiar, performance from Fuller, who’s squad has now allowed just one goal from the run of play in its last five matches across all competitions.
“He’s growing into a role where he understands to not only keep the net clean but also how to manage the game,” Fuller said of Garibay. “He did extremely well on crosses and was connected at all times with our backline. We’ve felt very secure over these last few weeks.”
Unfortunately, one of Garibay’s saves led to a lengthy stoppage of play in the first half as the One Knox keeper made a diving stop, but collided with Portland’s Masashi Wada in the process. The result was an apparent lower-body injury for the Hearts of Pine forward, who was alert but had to be taken off the pitch by ambulance.
“The shock of what happened to Wada, it’s just a tough situation and we hope he will be alright,” recalled Fuller. “You have to give the player and team the moment to figure out what they’re feeling. And then you have to also reset and refocus the team, because the players probably thinking ‘what if that happens to me?’ You have to find a way to click their way back into game mode and I thought our guys did a decent job at that.”
Due to the stoppage, the two sides played through 15 minutes of added time to conclude the first half.
> MATCH DETAILS
LINEUPS
KNX: Garibay – GK, Tiao, Skelton – C, McRobb, Brown (Perkins 82′), Gøling, Caputo, Murphy Jr. (Conway 82′), Rodrigues (Baker 68′), Gill (Zarokostas 64′), Krioutchenkov (Diene 45′)
POR: Morse – GK, Washington, Green, Faye, Jones-Riley (Scarlett 62′), Mohamed, Poon-Angeron (Kunga 76′), Lopez – C (Barbosa 62′), Kamara, Wright (Camara 76′), Wada (Kidd 23′)
GOALS
KNX:
POR:
DISCIPLINE
KNX: Krioutchenkov (Yellow) 34′; Rodrigues (Yellow) 65′
POR: Wright (Yellow) 9′; Faye (Yellow) 31′; Mohamed (Yellow) 45+3′; Jones-Riley (Yellow) 48′; Scarlett (Yellow) 81′; Washington (Yellow) 89′
NEXT UP
Sitting in good position in the USL1 table, One Knox can now turn its full attention to its big Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match when it takes on Major League Soccer’s DC United in the Round of 32.
“We’ve got a massive test on Wednesday,” Fuller said. “I don’t care who we play, our desire to win has always got to be there. We’ll get over tonight, get our guys well rested and get back at it.”
Kickoff from Audi Field in the nation’s capital on Wednesday is set for 7:30 p.m. ET. It will be the first time in club history that One Knox squares off against a club from MLS. One Knox will resume USL1 play on Saturday, April 18 as it returns to Covenant Health Park to face the Charlotte Independence (tickets).
