Match Recap & Analysis
Fort Wayne Football Club led the defending USL League One champions 2-0 at home before One Knoxville SC head coach Ian Fuller’s triple substitution in the 59th min. turned the night into a 3-2 loss.
Fort Wayne FC 2 – 3 One Knoxville SC · USL League One 🏟 Ruoff Mortgage Stadium 📅 September 16, 2026 ⚽ Musa (9’), Becher (39’); Diop (73’), Baker (74’), Krioutchenkov (88’) 📋 FWFC Record (W-L-D): 10-9-6 · 36 pts · Matchday 25
The Match
For 70 minutes at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, Fort Wayne Football Club was the better team against the defending champions. With Tiago Dias suspended on yellow card accumulation, center back James Musa wore the armband, and he opened the scoring in the 9th min. Taig Healy played a short corner to Emerson Nieto, whose cross was cleared. We won the ball back, and Nieto returned it to Healy, who swung in a left-footed delivery for Ryan Becher. Becher pulled two defenders with him and missed the flick. The ball glanced off the far post into Musa’s path in the six-yard box. Fort Wayne 1 - Knoxville 0. It was his first goal with the club.
In the 39th min., Healy ran at the Knoxville back line, carrying the ball into the box. Knoxville’s defense poked the ball loose and into the feet of Becher, who put Fort Wayne’s second goal into the back of the net. One Knoxville SC went into halftime down two goals and without a shot. By every measure, Fort Wayne was the better side. That changed in the second half.
After the break and in the 59th min., Knoxville head coach Ian Fuller sent on their top scorer Denis Krioutchenkov, a Trinidad and Tobago national player in attacker Real Gill, and Mikkel Gøling, a 6’4” attacking midfielder. It had flashes of the bench depth used in our visit to Spokane earlier this season. Becher had a close-range chance to make it 3-0 and didn’t convert. Fort Wayne FC’s first change came in the 70th min.: Mamadi Jiana on for Healy, with Clarence Awoudor sliding into the 10 role.
Three minutes later, Knoxville forward Momo Diop, who signed his first professional contract with the club on September 1, headed in a Gill cross. Fort Wayne 2 - Knoxville 1. A minute after that, Teddy Baker finished a Krioutchenkov backheel in the box. Fort Wayne 2 - Knoxville 2, a devastating blow for a Fort Wayne side that dominated most of the match.
Noticing a change needed to be made, Mike Avery called on Jeremy Garay to replace Nieto in the 80th min., and Jayden Smith to replace Kabiru Gafar a minute later. The final blow came in the 88th min. Gøling headed a ball into space between our two center backs, Musa and Solís. Krioutchenkov took the space well, beating Bernd Schipmann for the winner. Fort Wayne 2 - Knoxville 3. Jack Thomas and Logan Neidlinger came on in stoppage time. A little too late to impact a match we had already let slip away.
The Defender’s Verdict
Ian Fuller won this match from his bench depth. Depth. At this point, you’ll already know how important this is for a USL League One squad with playoff and trophy ambitions.
We controlled the champions for 70 minutes. Knoxville didn’t get a shot off in the first half, and we created enough chances to put the match away. The final data pull from this match had Fort Wayne at 2.04 expected goals to Knoxville’s 1.22. And if you take into account Knoxville generated 0 expected goals in the first half, this match was truly a tale of two halves.
Fuller made the first move. He sent on three players at once in the 59th min., and all three had a hand in Knoxville’s goals. Krioutchenkov hadn’t scored since August 1. He came off the bench and set up the equalizer before scoring the winner. Knoxville had never won a match this season if they were down at the half. They were down by 2.
This is one match our coaching staff would like back. The match was already missing Fort Wayne FC’s captain, Tiago Dias. With limited center back options, Juan Solís got the start, and it was shaky. The last time he saw a full 90 min. was back in July. And for 70 minutes the storyline was about an impenetrable Fort Wayne FC backline. However, that’s not how it ended. Our only other tested center back in the gameday squad was new signing Aleksandar Vukovic, who has USL Championship experience. He watched from the sideline as the defense came apart, still awaiting his debut in the Autumn Gold & Black. We subbed off Healy in the 70th min. and never fully looked like ourselves in the attack after that sub. Healy is our all-time leading scorer and the link between our midfield and Becher.
Fourteen of Knoxville’s league goals this season have come in the final 15 minutes. Fuller’s triple change should have been a warning. After Healy, our next subs entered the match in the 80th. At that point the lead was lost, and the match was level at two apiece. For me, our subs were used too late into this match. Fort Wayne FC was on the ropes, and you could see tired legs on the field.
We had been here before. In July at Spokane, we led early and conceded three second-half goals, two of them in the final ten minutes. That’s twice now against playoff quality teams, which is concerning.
While we’re still in the hunt for the 8th and final playoff spot, teams like Corpus Christi and AV Alta are watching for Fort Wayne to slip up. There’s not much margin for error in these last seven matches, and with a quick turnaround for another match this Saturday, Mike Avery and staff will have an opportunity to put this Knoxville match behind them, and quick. It was a bad loss. Don’t let it turn into something more than that. The final playoff spot is ours for the taking.
Always FWD