2021 Richmond Kickers season explained

The 2021 Richmond Kickers season was the club's 29th season of existence, their third season in USL League One, and their 17th season in the third tier of American soccer. The Kickers were led by second-year head coach, Darren Sawatzky, and looked to improve on their 4th-place finish in 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated vaccination rollout, the season began on April 17, 2021. The season concluded on October 30, 2021. Due to the pandemic, the U.S. Open Cup was truncated and subsequently canceled due to the pandemic. The Kickers finished the USL League One regular season in 5th place, qualifying them for the USL League One Playoffs, making it their first appearance in the playoffs since 2016. There, the Kickers were eliminated in the first round against FC Tucson.

Background

The 2020 season was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The season, originally slated to begin on March 28, 2020, did not begin until July 25, 2020. The season originally was slated to end on September 30, 2020, but concluded on October 24, 2020. The 28-match season was abbreviated to 16 matches, and the playoffs were reduced from a four-team playoff, to a single game championship. During the truncated season, the Kickers had a good turn of fortune, finishing fourth in the league table, and having a winning a record. It was the Kickers' best regular season performance since 2014. Despite the record, the club on the final day of the season failed to reach the USL Championship Game after losing at home to Chattanooga. Striker, Emiliano Terzaghi, scored 10 goals during the season, which was the best performance by a striker for the Kickers since Yudai Imura in 2016. Terzaghi had a 0.63 goals per game average, which was the best performance by a striker for Richmond since Robert Ssejjemba in 2006.

On October 30, 2020, Matt Spear stepped down as the club's president to focus on family reasons.^[1] Spear had been the club's president since 2019.^{[2] [3]}

Transfers

Transfers in

Date	Position	No.	Name	From	Fee/notes	Ref.
February 9, 2021	DF	20	Esteban Calvo	FC Tucson	Free	[4]
February 11, 2021	MF	10	Nil Vinyals	Tormenta	Free	[5]
February 15, 2021	GK	44	Austin Aviza	Orlando City B	Free	[6]
February 18, 2021	DF	15	Jalen Crisler	Forward Madison	Free	[7]
February 18, 2021	DF	24	Nathan Aune	Union Omaha	Free
February 22, 2021	FW	19	Hernán González	Juventud Unida	Free	[8]
February 24, 2021	MF	6	Zacarías Morán	River Plate	Free	[9]
March 4, 2021	DF	2	Juan Pablo Monticelli	Orlando City B	Free	[10]
March 8, 2021	MF	88	Cameron Vickers	FC Motown	Free	[11]
April 6, 2021	GK	13	Austin Causey	New England Revolution II	Free	[12]

Transfers out

Date	Position	No.	Name	To	Fee/notes	Ref.
August 6, 2020	DF	5	Conor Shanosky	Retired	Retired
December 31, 2020	DF	12	Kyle Venter	Retired	Retired
December 31, 2020	GK	20	Lee Johnston		Released
December 31, 2020	MF	21	Greg Boehme		Released
December 31, 2020	DF	22	Hassan Pinto	Loudoun United	Released
December 31, 2020	MF	80	Mutaya Mwape		Released
December 31, 2020	MF	93	Gianluca Cuomo		Released
December 31, 2020	GK	94	Matt Broomall	Ballymacash Rangers	Released
December 31, 2020	MF	98	Ryley Kraft		Released
December 31, 2020	MF	77	Charles Boateng	WAFA	End of loan
February 11, 2021	DF	18	Wahab Ackwei	Loudoun United	Free
March 27, 2021	MF	8	Amass Amankona	South Bend Lions	Released
April 6, 2021	MF	11	David Diosa	New Amsterdam	Free

Competitive

USL League One

See main article: 2021 USL League One season.

Match results

U.S. Open Cup

See main article: 2021 U.S. Open Cup.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only one team from USL League One (league champions), qualified for the 2021 U.S. Open Cup. However in July 2021, the Open Cup was canceled.

USL-1 Playoffs

Statistics

Appearances and goals

Numbers after plus–sign (+) denote appearances as a substitute.

Top scorers

width=30	Rank	width=30	Position	width=30	Number	width=175	Name	width=75		width=75		width=75		width=75	Total
1	FW	15		1	0	0	1
	MF	17		1	0	0	1
	DF	2		1	0	0	1

Notes and References

1. Web site: Wood . Patrick . Spear Steps Down as Kickers Pro President . Richmond Kickers . November 2, 2020 . October 30, 2020.
2. Web site: Hayes . Ricard . Offseason Changes Begin Early for Richmond as President Matt Spears Steps Down . RVAHub.com . November 3, 2020 . October 30, 2020.
3. Web site: Richmond Kickers Pro Soccer President Matt Spear steps down . SoccerWire.com . November 2, 2020.
4. Web site: Wood. Patrick. February 9, 2021. Calvo Joins the Kickers for 2021. April 21, 2021. Richmond Kickers. en-us.
5. Web site: Wood. Patrick. February 11, 2021. Kickers Add Vinyals for 2021. April 21, 2021. Richmond Kickers. en-us.
6. Web site: Wood. Patrick. February 15, 2021. Richmond Reinforces Goalkeeping with Aviza. April 21, 2021. Richmond Kickers. en-us.
7. Web site: Wood. Patrick. February 18, 2021. Aune, Crisler Strengthen the Kickers Backline for 2021. April 21, 2021. Richmond Kickers. en-us. April 21, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210421034802/https://www.richmondkickers.com/news_article/show/1147058-aune-crisler-strengthen-the-kickers-backline-for-2021. dead.
8. Web site: Wood. Patrick. February 22, 2021. Kickers Add Firepower with Hernan Gonzalez. April 21, 2021. Richmond Kickers. en-us.
9. Web site: February 24, 2021. Zaca Morán Bolsters Kickers' Midfield Options. February 24, 2021. uslleagueone.com.
10. Web site: March 4, 2021. Kickers add bite at the back with Monticelli. Richmond Kickers.
11. Web site: Wood. Patrick. March 8, 2021. Vickers Brings Veteran Leadership to Richmond. April 21, 2021. Richmond Kickers. en-us.
12. Web site: April 6, 2021. Richmond Adds Goalkeeper Austin Causey. live. April 20, 2021. USL League One. en-us. https://web.archive.org/web/20210421034802/https://www.uslleagueone.com/news_article/show/1156439-richmond-adds-goalkeeper-austin-causey . April 21, 2021 .