Recapping the USL League One club’s last five matches
The last three weeks have been mightily eventful and impactful for One Knoxville SC, but they started with relative tranquility with a 0-0 draw at home versus Corpus Christi FC on Tuesday, March 24. A lingering winter chill hung in the air, but the action on the pitch was hot despite the goalless scoreline, with the reigning USL League One champion pummeling the fledgling franchise with jab after jab yet ultimately unable to land a deciding blow.
Florida Atlantic/UConn product Eli Conway, who has deputized for an injured Nico Rosamilia in the early part of the season, had two glorious opportunities to put One Knox ahead in the 31st and 39th minutes, respectively, but his acutely angled shots, both originating from John Murphy Jr. corners from the right, were neatly rejected by Sharks netminder James Talbot.
Denis Krioutchenkov, the rookie striker who thus far has impressed to such a degree that he recently was named Player of the Month for March, tried his luck from long range in the 43rd, but that effort from a central location beyond the arc was snagged by the goalkeeper, as well.
With five minutes elapsed in the second half, it was Mikkel Gøling’s turn to trouble Talbot. Not giving up on a ball that skittered to a stop near the right corner flag, winger Stavros Zarokostas smoked a low first-time cross into the penalty area that fell into the path of the attacking midfielder, who trapped it nicely and peppered a spicy shot on goal. A slight deflection mitigated some of the heat, but the keeper adjusted well to the recalibrated entry point and parried the ball to his right before smothering it.
A sweet passing movement in the 57th minute included a deft one-two between Conway and Murphy that ended in the former sidestepping a defender and uncorking a left-footed rocket from 25 yards that Talbot had to dive to corral. Nine minutes later, Teddy Baker curled a free kick from about the same distance narrowly wide of the keeper’s far post. Then just two minutes after that, the midfielder worked a give-and-go with Gøling inside the box and unleashed a wormburner that fizzed a few feet wide of the mark.
Stepping into a challenge to stymie a counterattack in the 75th minute, left back Chris Tiao cut inside and rifled a blast that initially looked destined for the far upper 90 but instead kept rising and flew a couple of feet over the crossbar. Substitute Kyle Linhares did well to even direct a header on frame in the first of four minutes of stoppage time, but his twisting effort carried no real threat and was the last move of any significance before play was halted.
After the match, head coach Ian Fuller expressed his disappointment with both the result and the team’s performance. Although his side was dominant in essentially every statistical category, he lamented the lack of creativity and quality in the final third and suggested that reinforcement could be in order. (Given that Braudílio Rodrigues was promptly brought in on loan from Lexington Sporting Club of the Championship and started three days later against the Richmond Kickers, it would seem that the gears of change had already been in motion.)
Noting the two games that were coming up in quick succession, I asked Fuller how much weight he was placing on the next league match as opposed to the following Tuesday’s road tilt against Asheville City SC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and, as a result, how much squad rotation to expect over the next seven days. “We’ve got to pick up points in the league – there’s no question about it,” he replied. “We go after every game. We’ll rotate a few guys, but only because I trust them. We value the cup, and we’ll get to that next week, but we need points at home right now.”
Squeezing in the 7 p.m. Friday kickoff between Big Ears sets, I endured the blustery, damp conditions from the bowl of Covenant Health Park for the entirety of the first half against Richmond before retreating underneath the covered press ledge for the start of the second 45, the majority of which was immersed in a deluge. The feisty encounter featured eight yellow cards and likely could have included at least one sending off, but Knoxville emerged victorious thanks to a late winner from Krioutchenkov.
Rodrigues, starting on the left wing with Conway lining up on the right, almost made an immediate impact when he stole into a pocket of space in the penalty area in the 8th minute and slotted a low drive that Kickers keeper Yann-Alexandre Fillion dove to keep out of the far-post netting. Five minutes later, Johan Garibay, the new starting netminder who performed admirably for One Knox in a backup role last year, reacted well on the other end to a blistering shot from inside the box, swatting it out for a corner.
Last season’s top scorer Babacar Diene was fed a tidy through ball by Rodrigues in the 23rd minute but was unable to lift it over an onrushing Fillion, who slid out to deny the striker and then grabbed the ball before it hit the turf. The attacking duo linked up again in the 39th, with Rodrigues putting Diene in on the left. Fillion got just enough on the forward’s powerful effort to send it scuttling over the endline.
Frustration over perceived lax officiating largely benefiting the away side culminated in an extended conversation between Fuller and referee Kevin Broadley in first-half injury time followed by an incensed Jordan Skelton being shown a caution for dissent when Sean Vinberg appeared to lead with an elbow as he crashed into Garibay. The skipper had to be held back from Broadley by his goalkeeper, but cooler heads ultimately prevailed, although tense talks continued after the halftime whistle was blown.
A teeming downpour greeted the teams as they reemerged for the start of the second half. Diene had a chance to break the deadlock early in the frame when he went in on goal in the 47th minute via a clever pass slipped through the backline by Gøling, but Fillion again came up with a sprawling save.
Kickers forward Joshua Kirkland was an irritant throughout the first half and already could have been sitting on a yellow when Broadley finally flashed a card in his direction in the 53rd for a deliberate, hazardous and wholly unnecessary push into the back of Finn McRobb that sent the defender careening into the advertising boards as he shielded the ball over the endline. Visibly upset and glaring at his aggressor, McRobb spiked the ball but otherwise maintained his composure.
Garibay again was called into action when a deep free kick by Austin Amer flew over the Knoxville wall and dipped toward his near post in the 58th minute. The keeper seemed to read it late but got low quickly enough to push it away to safety. On the ensuing possession following substitutions by both teams, Krioutchenkov, on for Conway, attempted to sight Fillion by shaping a shot around his defender, but the keeper anticipated it adroitly and made the stop.
Although One Knox controlled the bulk of possession and made a few inroads, it looked susceptible to the counterattack, and the teams traded a pair of half-chances over the next 20 minutes. On the cusp of the 85th, Zarokostas freed himself with some nifty individual work along the right touchline and bent an inviting ball to Krioutchenkov, who was awaiting it on the edge of the goal box. Fighting off a couple of defenders, he was able to get his head on the cross, but the effort lacked both pace and direction and did not bother Fillion.
The next time the home side controlled the ball, however, it punished the Kickers with absolute precision. Avoiding Richmond’s high press by passing incisively around the backline, Jaheim Brown eventually sprang loose on the right flank with ample space into which to run. His inch-perfect delivery to the back stick caught Fillion between two minds, and the keeper’s positioning was exposed by the lanky Krioutchenkov, who rose easily over his defender and nodded the ball into the gaping net.
One Knox was able to hold onto its slim lead for the rest of regulation and an additional four minutes of extra time to secure an important three points and a confidence boost ahead of traveling over the Blue Ridge for its U.S. Open Cup meeting with League Two’s Asheville City. Beating its traditional rival would mean claiming the Smoky Boot – a trophy designed by artist and native Knoxvillian Alex Magnuson – and progressing to face a then-unknown Major League Soccer club in the competition’s round of 32.
Televised to a national audience on CBS Sports Network and streamed on Paramount Plus, the March 31 knockout at Greenwood Field between regional foes was a hard-fought rollercoaster of a match that dragged on for 120 minutes and was decided in a penalty shootout. Although notionally a semi-professional side, Asheville’s roster featured several recognizable names including Kameron Lacey, Alejandro Padilla and Angelo Kelly, the latter of whom played three seasons in the Scruffy City before departing in the offseason.
And it was Kelly who inadvertently helped his former team by straying just offside to deny City a goal after 23 minutes. Evan Southern scorched a shot from the edge of the 18-yard box that backup keeper Jonathan Burke palmed into the path of Dante Huckaby, who instinctively side-footed the ball into the far-post netting. Kelly was ruled to have been obstructing from an offside position for the entirety of the move, however, and the goal was disallowed posthaste.
Ten minutes later, the visitors took the lead when Abel Caputo spotted the run of left back Dani Fernández and lobbed the ball to him. Chesting it to his feet, the versatile defender drilled a low cross into the box that was trapped and slotted past Asheville netminder Andrew Pannenberg in one fell swoop by Rodrigues for his first tally for Knoxville. It was a silky finish to cap off a progression that was rather reminiscent of several that emanated from the same side of the pitch during the last campaign.
The 50th minute was a hugely pivotal moment in the match, as One Knox went from nearly doubling its lead through Krioutchenkov – sent in on goal via a brilliant looping entry pass by Diene with the ball needing to be cleared off the line by a sliding Ryan Holmes – to going a man down when, in the immediate aftermath of the scoring opportunity, Zarokostas was judged to have struck a City substitute warming up on the touchline and was shown a straight red card.
Replays of the incident, however, suggested that the Asheville player had more than embellished any potential contact that may have been made when Zarokostas yanked the ball out of his hands and that he had fallen to the ground in an apparent attempt to deceive referee Joe Surgan. The officiating crew had appeared to be in over their heads since the opening kickoff, though, and it was fooled by the disgraceful – albeit effective – playacting.
Reduced to 10 men, the away side reverted into a defensive shell as the half wore on, Fuller replacing attacking talent with more defensive-minded charges. One Knox was mostly effective in avoiding disaster, except on two occasions. The first occurred when Southern brushed aside Scott McLeod to pounce on a long ball in the 61st minute. His volley from point-blank range was saved by an outstretched Burke, who scrambled to his feet and fully extended himself again to stifle the follow-up by Lacey from even closer in.
The second occasion resulted in a penalty that was converted in the 67th minute by Simon Carlson after a swift movement ended in Southern cutting inside of Skelton and going down in the area. Whether it should have been awarded is another story. The spot kick was given for a handball on the captain, although the International Football Association Board (IFAB) law stipulates that a ball touching a supporting arm holding a player up from the ground should not be considered an infraction. Regardless, the call stood, and Carlson tied the match for City by sending Burke the wrong way.
A “cupset” on the campus of UNC Asheville looked even more in the cards when Baker, already on a yellow, lunged in with a challenge from behind on Raí Pinto in the 90th minute and failed to make contact with the ball, resulting in a second sending-off for Knoxville and forcing the away team to play at a two-man deficit for half an hour and some change until Johnny Fenwick was given his marching orders on 120 minutes for a debatable DOGSO. The remaining core was disciplined and resolute throughout the extra period, however, and the result had to be decided on penalties.
Building on his earlier heroics, Burke was the primary influencer of the shootout, as well: He atoned for allowing Carlson’s make from the spot in regulation by stoning the midfielder in the first round of pens; he rebuffed Pinto, the instigator of Zarokostas’ red, in the fourth; and he shut the door on Holmes in the fifth to win it for One Knox before sprinting the length of the field to celebrate the unlikely shorthanded victory with the small group of Scruffs who had traveled the two hours to root for the away side.
Burke’s acrobatic second-half double stop was the runaway winner for Save of the Round, and the player also was selected to the Team of the Round. For their part, the penalties taken by Skelton, Conway and Henry Cordova were unstoppable, all dispatched into the roof of the goal where Pannenberg would have been powerless to stop them even if he had correctly surmised their direction. Only Gøling missed his try, with the City keeper’s trailing leg just preventing his attempt down the middle from finding the net.
Knoxville’s reward for escaping the second round of the U.S. Open Cup intact is a midweek trip to the nation’s capital, where it will face D.C. United at 7:30 p.m. on April 15. A founding member of MLS, the club shares the distinction as the most decorated franchise in American soccer with four MLS Cups, four Supporters’ Shields and three titles in this particular competition. Never before has One Knox played a team from the top domestic tier of the sport, but the squad will look to make more history at 20,000-seat Audi Field and in front of another national audience watching on Paramount Plus.
Before that momentous contest is to commence, however, there was the matter of two more League One fixtures which needed to be settled in the interim. First up was the first-ever away game against Sarasota Paradise on April 4. Like Knoxville in 2022 and ’23, respectively, the Florida franchise started out as a League Two club in 2023 before making the jump ahead of this season. It also is ushering in its sophomore year at a new facility, the Premier Sports Campus.
Despite the pristine playing surface, chances were few and far between in a first half that saw much of the action constricted to the middle third of the pitch, with a handful of shots going either high or wide of goal. The early stages of the second frame found Sarasota maintaining large spells of possession and probing the left flank for cracks in the One Knox defense.
One such attack in the 54th minute was led by Jonathan Bolanos, a menace to the away side all evening. He rounded Will Perkins (on as a first-half substitute for Brown, who was unable to shake off an injury) near the endline and centered to a wide-open Jørgen Pettersen, who leaned back and sailed his effort well over the bar. Danger averted, Knoxville immediately raised the level of its play and fashioned a breakthrough straightaway from the ensuing goal kick.
Trading passes with members of his backline, Skelton then played a searching ball forward to Gøling, who squared it into the path of Caputo. Real Gill stepped over the midfielder’s forward pass, allowing it to run through to Diene. Looking up, the striker found Gøling trucking into the channel on his right and hit him in stride. The Dane lofted a first-time cross that arced over the Paradise goalkeeper and defense and fell onto the foot of Rodrigues, who thumped it from the back stick into an empty net.
It was an astonishingly efficient and gorgeous move that recalled the magic surrounding some of the better goals scored during a successful 2025 campaign in which Knoxville secured a double, and it marked the newcomer’s second tally in back-to-back games. And less than four minutes later, it was 2-0 thanks to more fine work from the loanee.
McRobb played a ball over the top to Tiao, who had broken free down the wing. The full-back’s cross was scuffed, but the ball still made its way to Rodrigues, who shimmied to his left and flicked it with the outside of his right boot centrally to Diene. With his back to goal and in a singular, smooth motion, the striker pushed it to his left, swiveled and crushed a shot that lodged just inside of the far post. Nominated alongside a solid crop of standout finishes, the technical masterstroke won Goal of the Week honors with 56% of the vote.
What should have been three points done and dusted turned into a bit of a nailbiter, though, as the home side pressed forward looking for a way back into the match. In a sequence that mirrored his save against Richmond, Garibay dove to his right to repel a free kick that crept up and over his wall in the 66th minute. Three minutes later, he came off his line to snatch a long ball just before Sean Karani could get on the end of it.
The netminder wasn’t as lucky in the 74th minute, however, when Karani sent a ball over the top of the One Knox defense that Bolanos, having easily beaten Skelton for pace, touched past the approaching keeper and buried into the open goal before the sliding skipper could foil him. It was simple, Route One stuff, but it halved the home team’s deficit and woke up what to that point had been a listless crowd.
A late sub, Krioutchenkov showed off his dribbling skills and acceleration as he motored around a defender and created separation en route to firing a low shot that demanded an alert near-post save in the 90th minute, but that was the last noteworthy action of the game, which ended 2-1 in favor of the visitors. The win propelled Knoxville into second place in the league table after the fifth round of matches and set up a blockbuster meeting with Portland Hearts of Pine on the Atlantic coast of Maine on April 11.
Unfortunately, what should have been an intriguing matchup in front of another electric capacity crowd at Fitzpatrick Stadium was marred early on by a gruesome injury to one of Portland’s best players, and, understandably, the atmosphere never fully recuperated.
Hearts came out like gangbusters in their home opener, pressing high and holding court in the Knoxville end for the first 10 minutes. Ollie Wright on the left and Jay Tee Kamara on the right asserted themselves from the start, threatening their counterparts on the wings with their combined ability to deliver quality balls into the box from wide positions and to cut inside with devastating sharpness for shots with their favored pegs.
However, all of the conviviality was sucked out of what had been a festive environment in the 13th minute when Masashi Wada, who had just earned his side a corner kick, on the resulting play got his left leg caught underneath Garibay, who had extended himself to collect a loose ball near his far post. With the attacking midfielder in obvious agony, players from both teams urgently summoned medical staff, who hurried to render care. A temporary cast was applied; Wada was stretchered into an ambulance that had been driven onto the field; and he was whisked away to hospital.
Although they declined to go into specifics, Portland’s social media accounts confirmed the following Monday that the injury to Wada’s lower leg was significant enough to require emergency surgery on Sunday. The operation was successful, and he is expected to make a full recovery, although his presence will be greatly missed for the remainder of the 2026 season.
Deflated yet undeterred, Wada’s teammates regrouped to focus on the task at hand. But they were unable to muster the vivacity with which they started, and One Knox slowly but surely matched the hosts’ level of intensity. The away side didn’t carve out its first clear opportunity until the 13th of 15 minutes of stoppage time, though, and Krioutchenkov’s fierce shot on goal was aided by Serigne Faye misreading the bounce on the ball after it was lumped up from the back by McRobb.
Play opened up a bit in the second half, with One Knox maintaining a long possession beginning in the 58th minute that featured the team working the ball around the pitch, front to back and vice versa, before Rodrigues slipped Diene into the penalty area on the left. The striker opted for using the outside of his right foot for a shot instead of utilizing his swinger, however, and flubbed the chance.
A Portland corner from the right in the 62nd minute created momentary panic in the Knoxville defense as the ball pinged around uncertainly, but it was eventually cleared to safety. Hearts took a free kick from an advantageous position in the 67th, but it, too, was repelled by a locked-in Garibay. After the keeper snagged a cross stemming from another corner in the 70th minute, he attempted to roll it out to Brown on the right to start a counter, but an observant Wright cut it off and tried to chip Garibay with his first touch. Had he made proper contact with the ball, the netminder would have had no chance, as he was at least 15 yards off his line.
Subbed in for Rodrigues, Baker took over Knoxville’s set-piece deliveries and from deep on the left flighted a promising ball into the right of the area to Gøling in the 74th minute. The attacking midfielder outjumped two defenders but couldn’t beat Hunter Morse in the Portland goal. A few minutes later, Baker volleyed a ball back into the box for an advanced McRobb, who cradled it down nicely but couldn’t direct a turnaround effort on frame.
In the 89th minute, Titus Washington corkscrewed a wicked shot on target that Garibay had difficulty holding onto, but he was able to awkwardly swipe it away. Perhaps frustrated at the outcome, Washington committed a professional foul on Brown that earned him a yellow card. A searching ball into the box on the other end narrowly missed Diene’s head, but it proved to be the final kick of the game. Sadly, a match that started so auspiciously ebbed to a predictably timid conclusion after the horrific injury, with much of it spent around the midfield stripe.
After the nil-nil draw, One Knox sits in fourth place on 11 points, two behind FC Naples and Spokane Velocity FC, both on 13, and one behind Union Omaha. Following the U.S. Open Cup fixture, the club returns to league play at home against Charlotte Independence at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 18.
That will be the last game at the Cove for almost a month, as Knoxville will go on the road to face Championship side FC Tulsa in the Prinx Tires USL Cup on April 25. Should it upset D.C. United, the round of 16 takes place April 28-29. It visits the league leader on the Paradise Coast on May 2, then returns home to entertain Omaha on Wednesday, May 13, at 7 p.m.
