The Opposition Report: Athletic Club Boise
An expansion side built with seasoned lower division soccer professionals. A true test in philosophically different roster builds.
The Opposition Report — MD9 vs Athletic Club Boise
Fort Wayne Football Club crosses two time zones for the first meeting of USL League One expansion clubs as fourth-place Athletic Club Boise hosts at the Stadium at Expo Idaho.
Saturday, May 23 | 9:00 PM ET | Stadium at Expo Idaho, Boise, ID | ESPN+
The Profile
Athletic Club Boise sits fourth in USL League One eight games in. Head coach Nate Miller has run a version of a 3-4-3 from the first whistle of the inaugural season. Three center backs build out, two wingbacks push high to provide width, and a midfield that compresses the central channel. They are comfortable in possession and ruthless when their attackers find space behind the back line. Jonathan Ricketts and Nick Moon have shared time at right wingback, with Ricketts already at three assists from that side.
Denys Kostyshyn, the 28-year-old Ukrainian No. 10, is the headline. A Dynamo Kyiv academy product with a season at El Paso Locomotive on his resume, Kostyshyn was voted USL League One Player of the Month for April and sits tied for third in League One scoring. He plays as an attacking midfielder behind Thomas Amang, a Cameroonian striker signed from New Mexico United. The pattern: Kostyshyn finds pockets between the lines, slips a runner in behind, or shoots from distance. His goal against Westchester from outside the box drew Goal of the Week consideration.
Boise’s left side combines a hometown story with USL Championship pedigree. Blake Bodily is the 27-year-old Boise native and first signing in club history, returning home after seasons with the Portland Timbers in MLS and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The Pac-12 Men’s Player of the Year at the University of Washington in 2019, he plays as the left wingback with two assists in League One play. Ahead of him in the attacking phase, Tumi Moshobane drifts wide left. The 31-year-old South African brings multiple USL Championship seasons at San Diego Loyal SC and El Paso Locomotive FC, plus All-League First Team honors from League One’s 2019 season at Lansing Ignite. He scored Boise’s opener against Westchester in April. The pairing is the kind of experienced wide combination most League One teams would envy.
The back three has been their strength, anchored by Jake Crull on the left and Jake Dengler’s 6-foot-5 aerial presence alongside him. Rookie goalkeeper Jonathan Kliewer is in his first professional season and has been steady, including a penalty stop at Charlotte. The vulnerability is structural: when both wingbacks commit, the space behind them is exposed, and a team that moves the ball quickly to the wide channels can find chances.
The Matchup
Saturday is the first meeting of two expansion clubs that built their rosters from opposite ends of the lower-league talent pool.
Boise built top to bottom from in-prime lower-league professionals. Every starter, from Bodily and Moshobane on the left to Kostyshyn at No. 10 to Crull and Dengler at the back, has multiple seasons of USL Championship or League One minutes. The head coach reflects the philosophy. Nate Miller comes to Boise from the USL Championship, where he led San Diego Loyal SC as head coach in 2023.
Fort Wayne Football Club built from a different direction. A club anchored by USL League Two pre-professionals including Reid Sproat, the only player to appear in every season of FWFC’s existence. Captain Tiago Dias was the 2025 Valley Division Player of the Year. Goalkeeper Aurie Echevarría brings three Valley Division titles and the 2023 Golden Glove. Anthony Hernandez came up through the same program. The attacking unit was built from top college talent. Leading scorer Taig Healy was First Team All-ACC at NC State and reached the 2025 College Cup Final. Lilian Ricol was Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year at UCF. Clarence Awoudor was an All-American at UCF after All-Pac-12 honors at Oregon State. Jack Thomas was the 2025 NAIA Player of the Year at LSU-Shreveport. A handful of players with MLS Next Pro and USL Championship pedigree round out the rest. The head coach mirrors the build. Mike Avery comes to League One after 13 seasons at Valparaiso and five years leading Fort Wayne in USL League Two with three Valley Division titles. He is a college and League Two coach in his first year leading a professional club.
The sharpest illustration of the two philosophies sits at the local-pro signing. Boise’s first signing was Blake Bodily, a Boise native with MLS pedigree returning home. The Fort Wayne equivalent would be Canterbury alum Akil Watts, the 26-year-old who has been without a club since January after seasons with St. Louis CITY in MLS. The type of signing that signals a level of on-field ambition right out of the gates.
This is the kind of comparison that gets sharper with results. A win and we sit ahead of Boise on points. A draw keeps us within arm’s length down the table. A loss starts to separate the two philosophies on the standings page. Boise closes Season One in Fort Wayne on Saturday, October 24. Two meetings, one away and one home, bookending the inaugural professional season. The October return match finalizes the philosophical comparison between two roster builds. Another measuring stick for these expansion clubs.
The Defender’s Verdict from Wednesday match framed this one already: ugly, any means necessary, road points. Saturday at the Expo is a road points match, in front of a likely sold-out crowd that has not seen Boise lose at home in any competition. For me, this match is the most exciting USL League One game we will have played this season. A real test with real playoff consequences nine games into the season. Game on.
Always FWD