Men draw 1-1 May 9, ladies lose 1-0 the following afternoon in tight league play
Almost two months to the day after the club announced its establishment, the One Knoxville SC women’s team began its first season with a home match against Asheville City SC – the same organization the men’s side faced in its inaugural game in 2022 – on Saturday, May 10. Although the 4 p.m. kickoff at Covenant Health Park was sparsely attended, the Scruffs were in good voice throughout, providing rhythm and additional gravitas to a competitive, hard-fought match that featured solid team play and several crunching tackles from both sides.
Instituted three years ago, the W League, the massive pre-professional women’s wing of the United Soccer League, comprises nearly 100 franchises grouped into 15 regional divisions under the umbrella of four main conferences. One Knox competes in the South Central Division of the Southern Conference against six other teams, two of which are also located in Tennessee, and one apiece hailing from the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama. The short regular season, lasting the entirety of May and June, sees each club play home and away against all the squads in its division, with qualifying teams beginning postseason play in July.
Prior to helming One Knox, manager Simon Duffy coached at the college level for 20 years. The Irishman most recently served as the head coach for the Carson-Newman women’s program, guiding the Eagles to an overall record of 77-31-14 and securing three NCAA Tournament berths in eight seasons. In 2017, his first year in charge in Jefferson City, he led the team to the Division II Final Four. If his first game with Knoxville were any indication, Duffy shares some stylistic similarities with Ian Fuller, the manager of the men’s side.
From the start, One Knox showed a willingness to cede possession of the ball and absorb pressure defensively. Generally forming a medium block in the first half, the squad protected well as a unit and, more often than not, correctly chose when to press more aggressively. When it regained possession, though, the team encountered some difficulty linking passes beyond the midfield; too often, attacks were directed centrally and didn’t involve wide options making runs to open up the channels.
Asheville City, however, was active on the flanks and consistently found players making diagonal runs to the corners in the final third. A dangerous cross in the 15th minute forced One Knox (and rising University of Tennessee senior) goalkeeper Ally Zazzara to sprint off of her line and smother an attempt from the Asheville attacker. Later, in the 38th, she was able to get a finger onto a screamer from outside the penalty area and tip it up onto the bar and out of play. For these contributions, as well as for a few more key stops in the second half that included another tip over the bar on a dipping shot in stoppage time, Zazzara would earn Peaceful Side Player of the Match honors.
One Knox had a great opportunity to get on the scoreboard late in the first half when a switch of play from the left resulted in a cutting through ball that released an attacker down the right side. Though the winger made decent contact on the shot and put it on frame, the Asheville keeper was able to make a diving stop and prevent a rebound opportunity, much to the audible chagrin of the contingent gathered behind the goal at the Modelo Watering Hole. The referee then brought the half to a close after two minutes of extra time.
Knoxville came out in less of a defensive shell and employed a higher block at the start of the second period. The strategy proved to be effective in stymieing Asheville’s wide forays and allowing the home side to come more into the match on offense. Still, it couldn’t muster any clear scoring opportunities and conceded a counterattacking breakthrough to its opponent in the 69th minute.
A flighted pass split the One Knox backline and was touched around a defender by Juliana Viera, who quickly finished with the outside of her foot to the left of Zazzara, who was rooted to her spot but wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway given the perfect placement of the shot into the bottom corner. Though disappointing to the home fans, it was a brilliant move that was deserving of a goal.
The tally also set up an exciting finish to the match. Throwing caution to the wind, One Knox launched multiple attacks in an effort to tie it up in the final quarter of an hour, though only a couple came close to resulting in a score. A powerful yet always-rising shot from the right side of the penalty area flew over the bar in the 84th minute, and a towering header on a cross from the left flashed just wide of the right post four minutes later. That would be the last chance for the home side to earn a point, though, as Asheville was able to hold possession near the corner flags through much of stoppage time to earn a narrow victory.
Even though it lost the game, One Knox was roundly applauded by the home supporters after the final whistle – and for good reason. In their first official action together, the players put in a solid effort against an experienced team that has been in existence since 2017. With not much turnaround until the next match (another close loss, 2-1, May 14 in Greenville, South Carolina), they lingered on the pitch for a bit to relish the historic debut before withdrawing to the dressing room to recover, refocus and prepare for the duel with Liberty SC. Two games, both at 6 p.m., precede the away rematch on May 28. The first is May 21 at Covenant Health Park against Birmingham Legion FC; the second is May 25 at Carson-Newman versus Tennessee SC out of Nashville.
The previous evening, the One Knox men took on Wisconsin club Forward Madison FC in the first League One action at the new stadium. Returning to the Scruffy City after a slog of a match in cool, damp conditions in Portland, Maine, on May 4, the friendlier confines did not result in a more favorable scoreline than what One Knox managed on the road against the Hearts of Pine, as both games ended in 1-1 draws.
Stavros Zarokostas, who would be named to the Team of the Week after the 10th round of matches, continued his hot start to the season with an early shot on goal in the 6th minute. Collecting a weighted pass down the right flank, he cut the ball across his defender and onto his left foot, from which he curled a far-post effort that seemed destined for the upper 90. Madison keeper Bernd Schipmann was just able to get a paw on it, however, and rookie Nico Rosamilia, making his first start for the club, was unable to find the net from a narrow angle on the follow-up.
The first half remained largely uneventful, with possession mostly concentrated in the middle of the field and disrupted often by restarts and balls out of play. Knoxville came close in the 37th minute off of a long throw-in by right-back Jaheim Brown that somehow eluded everyone in the box and bounced to Sivert Haugli, whose loping header hit the post and was cleared by a defender. Schipmann initially looked to have it covered but misjudged his positioning and was lucky not to concede. Just before the break, Madison threatened with the best move of the half by either side that featured a lovely floated ball over the top from Devin Boyce that found an onrushing Juan Galindrez, but the forward’s shot sailed over the goal, and he was ruled to have started his run early regardless.
With the stagnation continuing upon the resumption of the game, One Knox opted for a triplicate of substitutions a couple of minutes shy of the hour mark. The personnel changes paid immediate dividends, as a quick restart after a foul led to Angelo Kelly, just on for Callum Johnson, springing Zarokostas with a precision through ball into the penalty area. Without taking a dribble, he whipped a low cross centrally and found the right instep of Rosamilia who, having created separation between himself and a defender, touched it into the open net. Replacing Mark Doyle – the big left-winger pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury in the first half against Portland and likely will miss some time – in the lineup, the Rutgers product began sprinting for the corner flag before doing a U-turn to celebrate with the Scruffs.
The crowd was still abuzz when Madison evened the score barely two minutes after Rosamilia had opened it with his first professional tally in the 59th. Backup netminder Johan Garibay, in for the injured Sean Lewis, did well do charge out and force a hurried effort after a contested header fell to a Madison attacker, but the blocked shot ricocheted back to the edge of the penalty area to Jacob Crull, who popped the ball up and volleyed a deflected drive into the open net. There were questions of offside on the player who played the original pass into the box, but the goal was allowed to stand.
Garibay was almost wrong-footed in the 70th minute but was able to awkwardly shepherd a shot from close range away from danger with his trailing right foot as he moved to his left. On the other end, an attempted cross from Zarokostas deflected off Crull and tested Schipmann at his near post five minutes later. Two minutes after that, a clever Cruyff turn released Babacar Diene, who had replaced an ineffectual Kempes Tekiela earlier in the half, and the Senegalese striker unleashed a blast from 20 yards that looked good coming off his right peg but which didn’t trouble the keeper.
One Knox was extremely fortunate to avoid disaster on successive plays 10 minutes before the 90 were up. Rather than letting the move continue, which would have seen Galindrez go in alone on goal, the referee inexplicably halted play to administer a yellow card to Brown after he went through the back of a Madison player with a hard challenge. On the ensuing free kick, shouts of a handball went unanswered when a header back across the box seemed to catch a defender’s flailing arm. It would have been a harsh call given the space between the two players, but the limb was unquestionably in an unnatural position.
Neither team really threatened again before the conclusion of the four minutes of extra time. A Madison player almost got a head onto a bent cross in the 91st minute, and Diene made minimal contact on a good ball from Kelly shortly thereafter but couldn’t direct it on frame. Although the result wasn’t what either side would have preferred, the draw earned both a point and ensured Knoxville’s unbeaten start to the league season continued. It left the team in fourth place in League One with 12 points but with games in hand against the top three clubs in the table.
The first concert in Covenant Health Park history commenced soon after the final whistle. In a cross-promotional appearance in advance of the band’s performance the next day at the Southern Skies Music & Whiskey Festival, Cruz Contreras and The Black Lillies delivered a tight 25-minute set heavy on hits and free of filler. Thankfully, the frontman had recovered from an accident that had mashed his right hand enough to be able to play along – albeit abetted by a huge splint – on keys while Jake Smith provided incendiary lead guitarwork. Although it didn’t seem to be scripted, the group continued to jam as the postgame fireworks began to explode overhead, the improvised instrumental psychedelia nicely complementing the pyrotechnics.
A road matchup against Charlotte commenced a week later on Friday, May 16. The Independence entered the 7 p.m. tilt in third place, having secured 14 points from its first seven games, with 10 of those arriving in its four most recent games. This match proved to be the stiffest challenge One Knox has faced to date, as it fell 3-1 and suffered defeat for the first time in this young season.
That scoreline, however, belies the tenor of the gameplay. In addition to going down in the 19th minute via an uncharacteristic goalkeeping error on a savable shot from a slight angle by the normally sure-handed Lewis in his return to the starting lineup, the away side conceded twice on the counter, the second occurring deep into second-half stoppage time and resulting from a breakaway on a clearance as Knoxville pushed numbers forward in an attempt to score a tying goal.
While Charlotte carved out a couple more decent chances in the first half after its breakthrough, One Knox scored an equalizer in the 36th minute on a set piece. Stuart Ritchie sent in an inswinger from a corner on the right that Jordan Skelton rose high to meet with a powerful downward header. Though the keeper did well to get a hand on it, the captain dove low and nodded the ball across the goal line before anyone else could react to the rebound. The half ended 1-1, with Knoxville giving away more shots than it took but controlling the possession battle.
Skelton had another golden opportunity from close range early in the second half, again from a corner. The ball found its way to him just outside of the goal box, and his lunging effort was just cleared off of the line by the head of a defender. The chance came in the middle of an offensive onslaught that continued until Kelly was stripped of possession on the right flank. Barely more than five touches later, the ball was in the back of the net on the opposite end, having been driven into the top bin at the near post by the Independence’s hulking Christian Chaney. Adding injury to insult was the fact that Dani Fernandez, who made a lung-busting recovery run, slid and missed blocking the shot by just a whisker, had to be subbed off after the play. (Fortunately, he could be seen walking around after the match and showed no outward signs that he had incurred serious damage.)
Even though Charlotte parked the bus once it had eked out a lead, One Knox was creative enough to produce several gilt-edged chances over the course of the succeeding 40 minutes. It was unable to convert any of them, though, as no player could provide a finishing touch to a single one of the pristine buildups. The team’s first dropped three points didn’t hurt it in the standings, however, as it remained tied for fourth. Benefiting from its fourth consecutive win, the Independence climbed to second in the League One table.
The next home match for One Knox is a Jägermeister Cup showdown against Indy Eleven at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 24. The one after that, billed as the city’s biggest happy hour, is scheduled to take place on Friday, June 13, at 6:30 p.m. Details about what exactly that will entail should be forthcoming soon.
