Not Dead Yet: Greenville Triumph Surges
With six goals in two matches, the perennial contenders threaten to break back into contention.
It’s been a rough first half of the regular season for Greenville Triumph.
After starting with a draw against a much-hyped Westchester SC side, and a shocking 3-0 win over defending league champions Union Omaha, the team fell back to earth with a brutal 4-0 home loss to Spokane Velocity. They rebounded a week later with a 1-0 win over Charlotte, but then went on an eight match winless streak that included five losses in which they scored only six goals.
During the winless streak, many had to ask: is it time to panic in Greenville? Is this the year the winning legacy ends?
Is Greenville Back?
In a sense, they never really went anywhere. In the midst of the regular season winless streak, they also dropped their Jägermeister Cup group stage opener to South Georgia Tormenta, but then turned around and beat Championship sides Charleston Battery and Miami FC. As of this writing, they are in second place in group 6, just a point behind Tampa Bay Rowdies. They currently have the best shot of all USL League One teams to advance out of the tournament group stage.
Greenville capped off the regular season winless streak with a 1-0 loss at Charlotte, but then saw back to back wins: a 3-1 home result against Chattanooga Red Wolves, and a decisive 3-0 victory at Westchester SC.
While Golden Boot contender Leo Castro added one of the goals against Chattanooga, the matches saw others step up. Right back Toby Sims, who joined the squad in May from English League Two side Harrogate Town, finally found the scoresheet, and assisted on another goal that night.
Ezekiel Soto, a Charleston Battery prospect on loan to Greenville also found his first professional goal to seal the win.
Against Westchester, Rodrigo Robles found his first of the regular season for Greenville, then added another late in the first half on a penalty kick. Chappa Herrera also added a goal in the first half on a penalty kick. It’s an area where Westchester has struggled, giving up 15.8 fouls per match, third worst in the league. On paper, it could be considered an outlier against a team with a struggling defense.
But a closer look at the numbers for the Westchester match reveal some impressive stats for Greenville, especially on the defensive side. Despite Westchester maintaining a whopping 71% possession, Greenville’s defense held them to 13 shots, with five on target. Goalkeeper Gunther Rankenburg saved all five, while centerbacks Zane Bubb and Brandon Fricke completed ten or more clearances each.
Another wild stat: 35% of Greenville’s regular season goals came out of these two matches.
What’s Next for Greenville?
With a difficult first-half schedule, in which 10 of 15 matches were played against teams currently in the top eight, the second half is more evenly split between teams in the playoff bubble and teams outside. Of course, Greenville itself is just outside, by virtue of the goals scored tiebreaker with 8th place Richmond.
This weekend, Greenville will travel to Madison, facing another legacy team with first half struggles and currently sitting at last in the table. Then comes a mid-week trip to 10th place Portland, followed by a showdown with Richmond at home.
If Greenville can maximize points out of this stretch by continuing whatever strategy that worked against Chattanooga and Westchester, they’ll be solidly out of the hole and back into contention.
Greenville fans should keep an eye on several teams in the top eight with recent struggles, including Richmond and Knoxville. Both have just one win each in the last five, and like Greenville, have 16 points, although Knoxville has four matches in hand.
Can Greenville keep the momentum and head back into contention? Taking advantage of a poor Madison side this weekend is the next step in doing so.