Match Recap & Analysis
Fort Wayne Football Club controlled Richmond from the opening whistle and needed until the stroke of halftime to break through, but a comfortable 2-0 win on national television moves us into the final playoff place with ten matches to play.
Fort Wayne FC 2 – 0 Richmond Kickers · USL League One 🏟 Ruoff Mortgage Stadium 📅 September 2, 2026 ⚽ Smith (45’), Thomas (75’) 📋 FWFC Record (W-L-D): 9-7-6 · 33 pts · Matchday 22
The Match
Richmond arrived at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium with a number of changes to their usual starting eleven. Six of the side that lost at home to Forward Madison on Saturday did not start this one. Both starting full backs were gone, Hayden Anderson to a suspension after a late red card and Harold Hanson out of the squad entirely. Owen O’Malley, one of Richmond’s center midfield stalwarts, was also absent. Captain Dakota Barnathan and leading scorer Josh Kirkland both began on the bench. Interim head coach Brian Ownby set his side up to absorb, and for forty-five minutes it worked.
The breakthrough came in the 45th min and it was scrappy. Michael Rempel swung in a corner, Richmond half-cleared it, and Javier Armas drove the loose ball back into traffic around the penalty spot. Goalkeeper Yann-Alexandre Fillion got a hand to it and spilled it back into the same crowd, where Jayden Smith was standing over both the keeper and the ball. A bit of a toe poke finds the back of the net, and it’s Fort Wayne 1-0.
At halftime, head coach Mike Avery subbed off Smith for Kabiru Gafar and made a few more changes after the break, maybe none more important than getting Jack Thomas into the match in the 70th min. Eerily similar to how our bench impacted last Saturday’s match against Portland Hearts of Pine, Jack Thomas earned a foul minutes after subbing on, Michael Rempel delivered another left footed set piece into the box, and the sub who generated the foul found the back of the net with his head. It was Jack Thomas’ third of the USL League One season, now having scored against the Richmond Kickers in each appearance this year. 2-0 Fort Wayne FC. That scoreline would hold until the final whistle. Bernd Schipmann picked up the clean sheet that eluded him last match, and now leads USL League One with 8 clean sheets.
The Defender’s Verdict
It was Fort Wayne 2, Richmond 0 back in June, and it was Fort Wayne 2, Richmond 0 in September. Richmond was beatable.
On a night where Fort Wayne FC had a national television audience, the top USL broadcast team on the call, and winning momentum heading into their cathedral called Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, the spotlight was on Fort Wayne. When the spotlight is brightest, can you rise to the occasion? That’s what separates the good and great teams from the rest. It’s what separates playoff teams, and it’s what separated two teams heading in opposite directions on the USL League One table.
The advanced data on the match aligned with what the fans and supporters watched. Expected goals (xG) finished 2.85 to 0.29 in Fort Wayne FC’s favor. We had 38 touches in the Richmond penalty area against 9. Post-shot expected goals (PSxG), which counts only the efforts that reached the goal, finished 1.56 to 0.02. Richmond’s entire threatening output was one shot from distance. Bernd Schipmann was bored, a credit to our defensive structure and team defending. Fort Wayne FC now sits second in USL League One in goals conceded per match. It’s a tough team to break down, a credit to the players and staff in our first professional year.
This puts us in the final playoff place with ten matches to play. Two weeks ago the season was slipping, four straight defeats and five defeats in six. Now with back-to-back wins, and another home match against the traveling New York Cosmos, also on short rest and second from the bottom of the table, Saturday is shaping up to be another key match to collect points in the standings.
Two stories I’m watching are both on and off the field. First, on the field, it was great to see our bench step up once again to impact this match. Jack Thomas knows he’s a starter in USL League One. And it’s that level of confidence which allows him to enter the pitch with a chip on his shoulder. When he scored a header in the 75th min, it was the dagger for Richmond. The Kickers, trailing at half, are now 0-11-1 on the season. Only one point from those twelve matches. Thomas put the game out of reach, exactly what depth creates: impact substitutions.
Second, off the field and in the stands, we saw our supporter section called The Hive, and our supporter group, Three Rivers Regiment, announced themselves to USL. Last time we played Richmond, away, their supporters section displayed a banner that awoke a sleeping giant. As a Fort Wayne native, I wear this city on my sleeve, so when I saw this on the broadcast, it fired me up:
To welcome our Richmond friends at The Ru, on national television, the Three Rivers Regiment offered their salutations in similar fashion: a bed sheet, some black paint and a personalized welcome message. It’s our banner image this week.
This is Fort Wayne. Fight for us, and we’ll fight for you.
Always FWD