Welcome, welcome to Richmond Kickers Weekly. My name is Darrell Grove and I'm joined as ever and as I was at City Stadium on Saturday by Mr. Taylor Rockwell. Hello. Hello. How you doing, buddy? Pretty good. Yeah. Good. Except that we're here to talk about the Richmond Kickers, Nell Chastanuga Red Bulls 2. Yep. That's a home defeat for the Richmond Kickers. It is. I understand your consternation and your tone in beginning this one. I will say we found a good vantage point at City Stadium. We did. We did, right? So we're media, but we don't normally go in the press box because we want to get some of that atmosphere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We found a nice spot in the middle on the Comcourse. Also boos. Overlooking the field, right? So actually, this is the game we've watched the most closely in stadium and then re-watched in the studio.

Yep.

Yeah. spot in the middle on the concourse. Also boos. Overlooking the field, right? So actually, this is the game we've watched the most closely in stadium and then rewatched in the studio. Yep. Yeah? So we're prepped. We're prepped for this one. I think we are, which was important because we said coming into this one that this was sort of a make or break game, a very important game, particularly critical game for the United States, for the Richmond Kickers. We're preparing for the U.S. versus Guyana as we record this. And because given the kickers kind of slide, their fall down the table, we felt like this was an opportunity to turn it around against a team that were level on points. I think right around the same goal difference, two teams that were relatively evenly matched, the kickers beat Chattanooga earlier this season. And in the end, it ends up with another loss for the kickers. And now the Red Wolves are up to fifth and the kickers are eighth out of ten, with 12 points after 12 games. I'm sure you can work out the average points big game. Not many. It's one. So we're going to talk about the two Red Wolf's goals and sort of how we think they happened. And then we're going to get into, because it's 12 games in, we're going to talk about maybe what we think might not be working for the kickers. And we're going to have some suggest things that we would do maybe to try and make things better. Sure. We'll do it with some humility, right? We know we're not professional coaches. we're guys that watch the games but we still have some ideas and we're going to share them with

with we'll do it with some humility right we know we we know we're not professional coaches we're guys

that watch the games yeah but we still have some ideas yes we're gonna share them with with kickers

fans and listeners we are we are and we will and they do sort of relate to the way this game went

because kickers i would venture to guess don't have the statistics in front of me i'm going to guess

they probably had a decent percentage if not the lion's share of possession. They usually do, possession team. But both of these goals come from sort of the ruthlessness of the counterattack and Chattanooga being very efficient and the kickers maybe not being quite as up to the challenge in that moment. And I'd even argue, so the first goal, 63rd minute, it's Paneda. It starts with the kickers in possession, but it all going wrong. We're in possession in Chattanooga's third, we're in the attacking third. It's a throw-in received by Josh Hughes, and Hughes is dispossessed because he's sort of forced towards the end line and then surrounded by, I think, three Chattanooga Redwoods players. And several kickers players who stand there.

That's the problem, right? It's not Hughes's fault. He receives the, he sort of checks two for the throw-in, receives the ball, and then if you watch through the next few seconds, none of the many kickers players around him move. There is no movement. No one is getting... It's not about movement just for the sake of movement. it's about getting free to receive the pass from Hughes.

Someone should have been making themselves open to receive the pass from Hughes. He said he has no option except to get sort of pushed to the, just push to the end line and dispossessed. Or just to take defenders away. If you make a run, maybe you pull that defender. If you drop off a little bit, maybe that defender goes with. and it's just a few more yards of space for Josh Hughes. So you open space for Hughes to move into, if you can't find a pass, he can move into space.

Yeah, but in the end, make if you drop off a little bit maybe that defender goes with and it's just a few more yards of space for josh hughes so you open space for hughes to move into if you can't find a pass

he can move into space yeah but it but in the end he basically controls it has to go back towards the thrower chattanooga kind of collapse and he ends up getting dispossessed because there's not much there to help him yeah but then it's not as though chattanooga then build quickly and have this rapid counterattack necessarily.

It's a pretty big counter. Oh no, because it's just a clearance to begin with that turns

into counterattack. That's the worrying thing, right? They just go along. I don't think they're aiming for their striker, number nine, which was, yes, Mare. Instead, I think it's just trying to get clear. And, Kottor Shannoski does well to make a play on the ball. Steps, heads the ball.

But the header itself, not so great because it basically goes right to the feet of Paneda, who then launches the counterattack. Yeah, this is where that's when it all starts. Yeah, and this is contrasting with the kickers. This is a thing that we don't necessarily often see from the Richmond kickers, which is the sort of momentary recognition of, oh, I've caught them in a state of transition.

It's on.

We've bypassed a lot of their players, the counterattack is on. Because when Paneda received Shinovsky's header, what he does immediately is play it down the line tomorrow. And then because Shonoski's out of position, because he's stepped up to win the header, so it's not his fault, really.

He's done his job by stepping and winning it.

Except I would interject to say that he wins the header, it goes to Paneda. He's aware that now he's basically between Paneda and Mare, and he chooses to step to Paneda, even though there's already cover there from Ratzlaf. So I think maybe... So maybe the wrong decision? maybe, but then again, I don't, I mean, Kutashanovsky, no disrespect, his game is not built on speed.

So I don't know if he's ever going to be able to make up that that amount of

distance so maybe he's just trying to put uh pinna under a little bit of pressure yeah do you know what if i'm

shnowski and i know i'm not covering that ground that quickly maybe the best bet is stop the danger here

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