Greenville and Knoxville Share Points in 1-1 Draw
- Forrest Wimberly
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Triumph Allows Late Goal to Let One Knox Escape with a Point
The Greenville Triumph battled third-place One Knoxville to a 1-1 draw Saturday night in the Upstate at GE Vernova Park.
The Triumph held the lead off a Muba Nour goal in the 46th minute all the way into second half stoppage time only to see One Knox’s Nicola Rosamilia level the match in dramatic fashion to the heartbreak of the home crowd.
Knoxville had the first chance of the game in the 16th minute as a long, solo dribble put the One Knox forward in for a shot that was always running wide of the near post. Knoxville followed up that initial attack with a chaotic corner kick that forced some scrambling actions inside the Triumph area complete with several defensive blocks to keep the match scoreless.
The Greenville defense was very organized during these early moments, and the concentrated, compact defensive block was there to answer any question the visitors posed in these early minutes.
With the score 0-0 at the half, it was Greenville emerging from the break to open the scoring in the 46th minute. Five midfield passes circulated the ball up the right flank to a streaking William Akio who outpaced his mark and rounded the corner just inside the One Knox penalty area. Akio played a driven ball across the top of the goal box where Muna Nour was there to one-time the ball in for the opening goal of the match.
Akio was unlucky to not score a goal of his own in the 50th minute as he just was unable to guide the ball home from a tight angle at the near post as the One Knox defense scrambled to recover.
Greenville followed with a dangerous look on a corner kick in the 67th minute and then One Knox took a low shot in the 73rd minute that ran wide of the target and a shot that skied over the bar in the 84th minute to provide their best chances to level the match in the second half.
Devin Boyce almost caught the One Knox keeper going the wrong way in the 86th minute as his shot from the top of the box was screened by a defender forcing Johan Garibay to dive and parry the shot out for a corner kick. Azaad Liadi had the ball in the nets on the resulting corner kick as he headed the ball in for what looked like the second goal of the match, but the goal was disallowed due to a foul in the build-up play and the match went to second half stoppage time.
As the match entered the 93rd minute, Greenville was sitting in very deep and One Knox was just desperately dumping the ball forward looking for any half chance to level the match. One Knox played the ball out wide left and dumped one such ball into the Triumph area where Nicola Rosamilia was lurking. Rosamilia slipped past two napping Triumph defenders splitting them to nod the ball down in front of Knight in the Greenville net. The bouncing ball handcuffed Knight as it took a funny skip and found its way over the line to level the game in heartbreaking fashion for the hosts.
The late goal and draw keep the Triumph in fourteenth place in the table on 20 points now 11 points out of the final playoff spot. The Triumph have moved off the foot of the table over the last month of USL League One action but just haven’t picked up enough points to be threatening the playoff line.
Greenville has posted a respectable 2W-3L-4T record since July 4th with wins over the Cosmos and AC Boise. The loss to second place Charlotte 0-1 and the draws to third place Forward Madison and fourth place One Knox went as expected or even better than expected based on the league standings. The draws versus twelfth place Portland and fifteenth place Sarasota as well as the losses to ninth place Corpus Christi and tenth place Fort Wayne are the four matches that might be the ones that keep the Triumph out of the playoffs this season.
The Triumph will now make the long trip to Spokane to face the Velocity on Saturday, August 22 before returning home on Saturday, August 29 to play FC Naples.
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