By Dominic Throngard
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – One Knoxville SC drew against their foes from the north, Forward Madison FC, on Wednesday night beside the train tracks at Regal Soccer Stadium 0-0 in a match that saw the home team dominate, but fail to put the ball in the back of the net.
Knoxville came out looking a little weary from their road trip to Fresno on Sunday as Forward Madison appeared the more energetic of the two clubs in the first stint of the half. There wasn’t much to separate the two sides at the start with each trading good-looking attacks throughout the half.
The clubs played similarly with a heavy focus on moving the ball quickly, but different pace-wise as Madison was a smidge faster and had a heavier emphasis on wing play. Knoxville was playing a little bit slower and in control. Knox started to look a hair better towards the tail end of the half with a couple of truly deadly attacks, but no goals to show for it. An unfortunately recurring trend for the club. Lots of great attacks, but not so many goals to show for it.
In the second half, Knoxville truly began to pull away piling on shot after shot and creating a plethora of chances. Nonetheless, Madison had glimpses of promise at the start of the half, in particular, the team had a sequence where they played a good through ball past Knoxville’s back line and had an opportunity alone with the keeper, but the mighty Sean Lewis stepped up to make a stellar save. After that save, the ball rarely found its way to Knoxville’s side of the pitch as the boys in blue held most of the possession.
“It’s not all up to me, we did a really good job of preventing chances before they were created as well with the pressing from the front, the backline, the midfielders connecting the field for us. It was really a team effort. We view shutouts as a team achievement,” Lewis said.
Despite the brilliant defensive performance, the feelings of frustration still reside with the team as well.
“I’m proud of the boys, and I think the boys should be proud of themselves, but I think when we walk away and we don’t give the fans three points, that hurts us a little bit.,” Mark McKeever stated after the contest. “We wanna provide, we want to excite.”
One Knoxville’s next match will be at home in Regal on Saturday, May 13th against Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC at 7 p.m. ET.