The battle for Virginia soccer supremacy kicked off in style on Tuesday night as Northern Virginia Football Club took on the Richmond Kickers in Round 1 of the 2026 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. The Kickers showed home field advantage in full force as a 2-0 win cemented their place in Round 2 of the Cup, and prevented a repeat of their previous years “cupset” by the Virginia Dream. The fireworks didn’t just stop at the goals, as an almost full on brawl erupted just before the final whistle, following a steady increase of dangerous tackles by Northern Virginia.
“The first round of the cup is always a battle,” said Richmond coach Darren Sawatzky. “When amateur teams feel they’re gonna lose, things get crazy in the end. I’m just glad our guys kept their composure.”
Northern Virginia came into this game colder than the weather. The club’s season isn’t set to start until May, and their last competitive match came just shy of nine months prior. The Kickers, by contrast, had just started their USL League One campaign on March 7 to the tune of a 1-1 draw to AV Alta.
While that may have drawn obvious conclusions to the sharpness of the respective teams, their 2025 seasons told a much different story. Northern Virginia came through 2025 almost unbeaten, losing and drawing only once a piece the entire season, before losing to their Chesapeake rivals Lionsbridge in the divisional playoffs 2-1.
Richmond on the other hand came through 2025 with a very different record. The club narrowly avoided a last place finish, beating out Westchester SC by only five points and finishing 13th in League One. That record appeared a distant memory on Tuesday, as the club surged ahead early and often, looking like a much more complete and dominant side than its previous year.
What made the forward attack so efficient for Richmond in the win over Northern Virginia was transition moments, said Josh Kirkland, one of Richmond’s shining offensive lights last season.
“I thrive in transition moments, when one pass breaks the line, I’m in,” said Kirkland, who bagged a goal in the first half, and took part in several huge attacking opportunities throughout the match. “I think our core is keeping clean sheets and just being a gritty bunch, and then just transitioning and catching teams when they’re slow. Tonight was a perfect example.”
The Kickers began the game slightly uneasy, a few loose passes giving NoVa the chance to strike on counters early on.
“We spent preseason indoors because it snowed here,” Swatzky said. “We’re still getting to the end, guys aren’t even fully 90 minutes fit so there was a progression.”
Progress they did, and by the 10th minute Richmond’s passes were finally making their mark, and the Kickers midfield settled into NoVa final third, where they stayed for the majority of the half.
Kirkland looked primed early, almost four shots on goal by the 15th minute from the eager forward, just not finding the final bit of quality to get over the line.
“We created a lot of chances, but the next piece is just executing,” Kirkland said, lamenting on the missed shots across the first half.
NoVa didn’t back down from the challenge set early by Richmond, and countered successfully in the same 15th and forced a save from the Kicker’s new signing between the sticks, Yann Fillion.
The 1995 US Open Cup champions continued their barrage down NoVa’s half, fighting for every loose ball and pressing their players into several giveaways. A stark contrast to last year’s Kickers team which seemed to stay behind much more than advance forward. The Kickers almost made a goal in a chaotic run of play that only blocked them out by committing a quarter of NOVA’s squad to body blocking in the box in the 19th minute.
After a calmer set of play, a key giveaway in the 26th minute from the Kickers set NoVa’s Joao Da Silva on an almost breakaway, completely against the run of play. But, another key save by Fillion ended the attempt and Richmond kicked back into gear. Captain Dakota Barnathan sent a magnificent through ball to Kirkland in the 30th, and sent the forward on a one-on-one with NoVa keeper, William Bush who failed to save a brilliantly cool finish into the left corner, as Richmond went up 1-0.
The play continued at a much more subdued pace for the next 10 minutes, followed by a free kick at the top of the box by Richmond’s Austin Amer in the 41st minute, which sent the ball careening into the opposing wall. NoVa then proceeded to get a bit choppy with their play, and Chirs Niblock and Noah Gold received yellows in the final embers of the half, the players took a small pause to break fast for Ramadan before the match concluded the first half.
Richmond were by far and away the more dominant team in the first, and while NoVa still had a few chances here and there, but they were few and far between. The sun set fully in the sky and the temperature dropped low, but the passion only grew in intensity in the second half.
The Kickers made the first moves, strong chances from Tyler Freeman in the 48th minute set the tone, and forced NoVa into a defensive posture. The Northern Virginians didn’t rest for long, and forced another key save by Fillion in the 49th, playing end-to-end football.
The two teams made heavy reinforcement changes, as NoVa sent in Matthew Dean, Henok Tilahun and Bernardo Majano in the 54th minute, and the Kickers sent in newly acquired forward Lucca Dourado and returning winger Landon Johnson to keep the pressure going.
Unfortunately the next action would signal a downturn for Richmond as Barnathan went down with a bad injury following a tackle and had to be subbed out in the 62nd. The next runs of play were all NoVa, as Gage Lyons made darting runs through the center and barreled down the wings to create several chances in the following minutes, culminating in a strike outside the box in the 76th that nearly found the equalizer.
After a few more changes to NoVa’s line and a yellow card for dissenting to the NoVa head coach AJ Sheta, Dourado suddenly became a one-man battle plan for the Kickers as he made his own surging runs and close shots, all running just off target. For the next 10 minutes Richmond started knocking harder on NOVA’s doorstep and in the 89th. Dourado made a buccaneering run on the right side, evaded his defender and took the shot from an awkward angle. But the ball ricocheted through the keeper and grazed the woodwork on its way in the net as the Kickers increased their lead 2-0 with only minutes left to play.
In the 90+3 minute things started to get a little chippy, as two yellow cards in quick succession to NoVa for an aggressive tackle by Matthew Dean and a dissent to an unknown, undressed player on the bench, threw the match into a fever pitch. Two players came together after another tackle and soon the entire benches came out in short order to shield teammates and incite more action. The referees soon parted with the two teams and issued a yellow to Richmond’s Ali Sasankhah and two reds to NoVa’s Huber Letona and Sheta, respectively.
The match ended soon after with a much calmer run of play, and the Kickers took the win to send them into the second round.
“We’re here to try to do some damage and make a run,” Swatzky said. “I’m just really proud of the guys, their effort, and it’s a starting point for us.”
The Kickers last cup run may have ended prematurely, but they’re looking ahead to brighter days. After a great win and solid performances from a new team, they’re hopeful to keep going for as long as they can in the cup.