The Opposition Report II: Spokane Velocity FC
Spokane enters Saturday hot, at home, and now above us in the table.
The Opposition Report II — MD17 vs Spokane Velocity FC
Fort Wayne Football Club travels to ONE Spokane Stadium for the second meeting of the season against Spokane Velocity FC, a two-time USL League One finalist that is nearly unbeatable at home, having won a midweek match Wednesday against third-place Charlotte.
Saturday, July 25 | 9:00 PM ET | ONE Spokane Stadium, Spokane, WA | ESPN+
Prior Proceedings
All-Time vs Spokane (W-D-L): 1-0-0
The Opposition Report
MD14 Recap & Analysis
The last time these two met, Spokane controlled the possession but failed to convert it into goals. They held the ball for long stretches at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium and never forced Bernd Schipmann into a save. Taig Healy took the club scoring record, Jeremy Garay and Lilian Ricol added the rest, and the plan was plain: take a lead, then trust the backline to hold the scoreline. Spokane still created real chances that day, and their inability to finish did part of our work for us. It was a deserved win for Fort Wayne. We had less of the ball and made the better chances anyway, and three goals felt about right. A plan like that gets tested once an opponent has the skill to score from possession.
That opponent may now exist. Anuar Peláez, their leading scorer from a season ago, had not played in nearly two months when the clubs met in July. He is back now, scoring, and Spokane has not lost in any competition since they walked out of Ruoff Mortgage Stadium. The run carried them past Championship opposition to win their USL Cup group, sending them into the knockout stage for the first time in club history and setting up a home quarterfinal in mid-August against Colorado Springs, USL Championship winners two seasons ago. It also brought their first league road win of the year at Richmond last weekend. The front office kept working this week as well, signing midfielder Ali Elmasnaouy on loan from Oakland Roots, and the club says he will debut against us on Saturday. It is not a new team, but with some fresh faces and recent momentum behind them, it is a different version of Spokane than the one that came to Fort Wayne.
The Matchup II
Spokane drew a brutal stretch of schedule this week. This past Wednesday they hosted Charlotte Independence, one of the best teams in the table and the only other League One club still alive in the USL Cup. On Saturday they host us. All three clubs are in the playoff hunt, and Spokane plays both matches on the shortest rest the schedule allows. I went digging into how League One teams handle the Saturday after a midweek league match, expecting the numbers to show tired legs, and they pointed somewhere else entirely. Teams hosting that Saturday match have been fine, even good. The thing the turnaround exposes is state of mind. Sides that win the midweek match tend to carry it into the weekend, while the ones that lose it fail to win the Saturday more often than not. Spokane has lived both halves of that pattern this season. In April they won a Tuesday and Saturday pair at home, and around July Fourth they lost a Wednesday at home before losing to us three days later. This week is tracking with the first version. Spokane beat third-place Charlotte 3-0 on Wednesday, a second straight league shutout with all three goals coming after halftime, so the side waiting for us carries momentum and finishes strong. Any result at their place will take a full 90.
This is a club that reached the USL League One Final in each of its first two seasons, something almost no team has done, and they protect their home ground the way we protect Ruoff Mortgage Stadium. They won every league match in Spokane until late June and have lost there only twice in league play all season. Luis Gil, the former United States international who runs their attack, has his finisher back in Peláez. The possession that looked so harmless in Fort Wayne turns into goals at their place.
Our game plan does not need much tinkering by Avery and Company for Saturday, rather awareness of the new names potentially in Spokane’s lineup. We still play the Fort Wayne way, a defensive unit that is difficult to break down, and as long as we keep our structure and shape, we will frustrate them. It reminds me of the trip to Boise earlier this season. Stay structured and compact, and pick our moments to attack as a unit. This is the away test we thought we were getting at Knoxville before the early red card, a full squad against one of the best teams in USL League One, and a real measure of whether our place in the standings is justified. So grab yourself an early evening coffee, stay up past your bedtime, and see if this Fort Wayne side competes with the best this league has to offer.
Always FWD