A Triumph at the Halfway Point
MD16 — Fort Wayne FC vs Greenville Triumph SC — 2026
Match Recap & Analysis
Fort Wayne FC beat Greenville Triumph SC 3-0 on the inaugural John Bellio Tribute Night, finishing a tight match like a great team, giving a Fort Wayne kid his professional debut, and closing the first half of Season One in the playoff hunt.
Fort Wayne FC 3 – 0 Greenville Triumph SC · USL League One 🏟 Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, Fort Wayne, Ind. 📅 July 18, 2026 ⚽ FWFC: Ryan Becher (16’), Lilian Ricol (35’), Kabiru Gafar (57’) 📋 FWFC Record: 7-3-6 · 27 pts · Matchday 16
The Match
Fort Wayne Football Club returned to Ruoff Mortgage Stadium without the suspended Javier Armas. Mike Avery set up in a 4-1-4-1, with Emerson Nieto screening the back four and Ryan Becher pushed higher ahead of him, against a Greenville Triumph SC side that lined up under head coach Dave Dixon with a five-man back line.
The opening goal came in the 16th min. Michael Rempel struck a free kick with his left foot from just outside the penalty area, and Becher met it with his head near the six-yard box.
Fort Wayne FC doubled the lead in the 35th min. Taig Healy shielded his marker near midfield and released Lilian Ricol into space behind. Ricol saw Greenville goalkeeper Amal Knight off his line and struck from more than 40 yards, beating him as he scrambled back toward his goal.
The third arrived in the 57th min. Ricol won possession inside Fort Wayne FC’s own half and played Kabiru Gafar through down the right. Gafar held off the recovering defender and finished with the outside of his right boot.
Dixon made a triple change in the 64th min., introducing Azaad Liadi, Ivan Agyaakwah and Kimito Fritz for Chapa Herrera, Rodrigo Robles and Muba Nour. Greenville’s best chance followed in the 84th min., when Liadi curled a free kick toward the upper corner and Bernd Schipmann pushed it away. Fort Wayne FC closed out the match 3-0, picking up three points in the League One standings.
The Defender’s Verdict
Three goals on Bellio night was the best possible outcome, and not only for the table. Ruoff Mortgage added $5,000 to Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana for every goal, so Saturday’s finishing was worth $15,000 to a cause this club has now made permanent. On that measure, I will take a flattering scoreline every time.
And it is flattering. Per American Soccer Analysis, we edged the expected goals (xG) battle 1.04 to 0.90, close enough that the model called this near even. On the numbers this was a far tighter match than 3-0 suggests. We were the better side, but not by three goals.
My first instinct was that we were loose at the back and got away with it. Half of that holds up. Greenville put thirteen attempts up and only one of them carried real danger, which is a compact block doing its job rather than a leaky one. The overperformance came at the other end. Ricol’s lob and Gafar’s finish were the kind of shots that go in maybe once in ten tries, and both went in. We did what great teams do and buried our chances. The growth of this team shows up in scoring efficiency. You do not need a pile of shots. You need to hit the target and take the moments that come, and we did that on the night.
Schipmann continues to prove exactly why a young professional club signs a League One veteran. He sits second in the league this season in goals prevented against what the model expected, and Saturday brought another clean sheet, a total no goalkeeper in League One has bettered. He earned this one. Greenville shot from poor positions for most of the night but struck the ball cleanly when the chance came, and Schipmann answered with a handful of heroic stops.
Another positive on the night is that Johnny Aye made his professional debut. Sixteen years old, from Fort Wayne, a Northrop junior in the fall, and the youngest player ever to appear for this club at this level. On the night we honored John Bellio, one of the people who made this possible, a kid from this city took the field. A special moment on a special night.
Saturday closed out the first half of Season One. Greenville Triumph was the last of the sixteen League One clubs we had yet to face, and every fixture from here is a rematch. The league knows Fort Wayne, and now we know the league. Sixteen matches played, sixteen to play. Time to take a breather, regroup, and reset for the second half. The goal now should be to make the playoffs. We are in the hunt. Congrats to this club and this team on a first half worth celebrating.
Always FWD
We have yet to play Omaha in League One play, but played them in the USL Cup. We have already played Westchester twice though. Impressive performance by the lads nonetheless!