Kickers battle Cavaliers to 0-0 tie

April 5, 2010; 7:37 AM • by Daniel Farrell

Yesterday afternoon we got a treat of a pre-season game for the Kickers. Whoever is scheduling non-league games for the Kickers this year should be commended! Our USL2 Champion Richmond Kickers hosted NCAA Champion University of Virginia Cavaliers. UVA had a good fan turnout as well as there was almost as much orange in the stands as red. The way the game was played you’d have thought they were bitter league rivals in a playoff battle not a minor league pro team and college team in a pre-season game. The final result was a 0-0 tie that saw more yellow cards than quality scoring opportunities.

Highlights included:

A stellar free kick from the Kickers Jonathan Villanueva in the first half that cleared the wall and looked fantastic but hit the post.
Early in the second UVA playing a brilliant cross that found Jimmy Simpson in front of an open goal only to see him play it over the crossbar.
Late in the game the Kickers got one last good chance to get on the scoreboard as Edson Elcock got a close chance on a lovely through-ball only to have it go wide of goal.

Lowlights included:

The afore mentioned ton of yellow cards.
An ankle injury to the Kickers Henry Kalungi that involved the concrete area on the sidelines. Ouch, hope he’s ok.
Some un-sportsman like behavior, first from UVA and then returned by the Kickers. A ball went out of bounds on the sidelines and a coach(?) from UVA not only wouldn’t return it for the throw-in but played it away from him to a reserve player who played it under their bench. Later a Kickers player returned the favor by playing an out of bounds ball further down the sidelines to be a pain. Seriously guys, this was a pre-season game.