USL Feature
Friday, July 8, 2011
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
For a club the size of the Richmond Kickers, the trick has always been to achieve more with less.
And with a smart ownership group, dedicated staff and coaches with an eye for talent and the ability to build a team that can compete year-in and year-out in both the league and U.S. Open Cup, the Kickers have been able to do just that.
“We always try to produce teams that can compete with anybody in the country,” Coach Leigh Cowlishaw said this week. “We’re not really these days able to develop squads that are going to win regular season championships when you have the likes of Orlando and Rochester, who can pretty much have squads that can duplicate 11 players.
“But I do feel that on our day we’re able to compete with any MLS team and also if we’re lucky enough and fortunate enough to qualify for the playoffs then we have the experience, the desire and the talent to beat anyone in a one-game situation where we have a little bit of rest and we can focus on that match.”
The lone non-MLS side remaining in the U.S. Open Cup, the Kickers will face Sporting Kansas City on Tuesday night with a chance to reach the semifinals of the competition for the first time since they won the tournament in 1995. The club has already made history in its cup run this season, though, with the third-round victory against the Columbus Crew the first time the club had defeated an MLS side on its home turf in the tournament.
After getting into Columbus after midnight the night before the game, and being without key midfielders Gerson Dos Santos and Michael Callahan for the contest, the Kickers were still able to pull out the result as attacking talisman Matt Delicâte scored with five minutes to go to send the side through.
“I thought we rode our luck in the first half,” Cowlishaw said, “but I felt we came back strongly in the second half and even if they did not have a man sent off I felt we were very much in the game and I felt they were beginning to tire a little bit, so I thought we had a good chance of winning that tie regardless of the situation.”
Delicâte is among a number of players who have become mainstays for the club through the years. That consistency in the club’s make-up on the field, with a core that also consists of players such as Ronnie Pascale, Yomby William, Henry Kalungi, Luke Vercollone and Sascha Görres, has been an important factor in the team’s continued success. As Vercollone puts it, there is a great sense of pride the players have to be part of the organization and maintain the high standard previous seasons have set for the current team.
It also has a lot to do with the organization finding the right players who will uphold that tradition.
“They have a lot of experience and are able to bring in quality players that fall into their system really well,” Vercollone said, “and then of course the coaching staff does a great job as well in helping the players understand the mission and expectations that the Kickers have. We’ve been a top club for the last number of years and that’s what we expect, and so that’s what the guys expect and get the best out of each player. They do a really good job of bringing in quality guys and getting the best out of them once they’re here.”
At the forefront this season have been the defensive pairing of Kalungi and William. While Cowlishaw has had the opportunity to rotate his midfield and forward lineups to try and keep players fresh for a taxing schedule, the two defenders, along with goalkeeper Pascale, have played every minute this season for the club. The consistency they’ve shown has been a boon for Cowlishaw and the team.
“Those two are fantastic,” Cowlishaw said. “They’re great characters, they believe in the Kickers, they do whatever they can for the club on and off the field, they consistently perform at a very high level. They’re the type of guys who are very close to MLS-level talent, they’re inbetweeners to a certain extent, and to be fair if we’d lost either one of those players with the squad we have and the resources we have it would be very difficult to solve that equation, at least in the short-term.”
The good news for the Kickers is that the return of Dos Santos and Callahan is now near, with Cowlishaw saying both could be available for Friday’s contest against the Charlotte Eagles. With only a little more than a month to go in the USL PRO regular season, the Kickers will be aiming to raise their game and take their fourth USL Championship.
“Absolutely, we definitely feel that with the talent we have … we definitely feel like we can beat anyone,” Vercollone said. “It doesn’t mean that Orlando won’t be tough, but I’m sure every team in the league thinks that they can beat everyone. I mean, it’s not going to be an easy walk through to the league finals with Orlando, or however it shakes up, Charleston, Wilmington, Charlotte, all the teams in our conference are very tough on any given night.”
But as the Kickers have proven in the past, they’ll be right there as the championship gets decided.