The 2021 Richmond Kickers season was the club's 29th season of existence, their third season in USL League One, and their 17th season in the third tier of American soccer. The Kickers were led by second-year head coach, Darren Sawatzky, and looked to improve on their 4th-place finish in 2020.

This will be the first season since 2015 without Conor Shanosky, who retired from professional football after playing for the Kickers for five seasons.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated vaccination rollout, the season began on April 17, 2021. The season concluded on October 30, 2021. Due to the pandemic, the U.S. Open Cup was truncated and subsequently canceled due to the pandemic. The Kickers finished the USL League One regular season in 5th place, qualifying them for the USL League One Playoffs, making it their first appearance in the playoffs since 2016. There, the Kickers were eliminated in the first round against FC Tucson.

Background

The 2020 season was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The season, originally slated to begin on March 28, 2020, did not begin until July 25, 2020. The season originally was slated to end on September 30, 2020, but concluded on October 24, 2020. The 28-match season was abbreviated to 16 matches, and the playoffs were reduced from a four-team playoff, to a single game championship. During the truncated season, the Kickers had a good turn of fortune, finishing fourth in the league table, and having a winning a record. It was the Kickers' best regular season performance since 2014. Despite the record, the club on the final day of the season failed to reach the USL Championship Game after losing at home to Chattanooga. Striker, Emiliano Terzaghi, scored 10 goals during the season, which was the best performance by a striker for the Kickers since Yudai Imura in 2016. Terzaghi had a 0.63 goals per game average, which was the best performance by a striker for Richmond since Robert Ssejjemba in 2006.

On October 30, 2020, Matt Spear stepped down as the club's president to focus on family reasons. Spear had been the club's president since 2019.

Transfers

Transfers in

Date Position No. Name From Fee/notes Ref. February 9, 2021DF20 Esteban Calvo FC TucsonFree February 11, 2021MF10 Nil Vinyals TormentaFree February 15, 2021GK44 Austin Aviza Orlando City BFree February 18, 2021DF 15 Jalen Crisler Forward MadisonFree February 18, 2021DF 24 Nathan Aune Union OmahaFree February 22, 2021FW19 Hernán González Juventud UnidaFree February 24, 2021MF 6 Zacarías Morán River PlateFree March 4, 2021DF 2 Juan Pablo Monticelli Orlando City B Free March 8, 2021MF 88 Cameron Vickers FC MotownFree April 6, 2021GK 13 Austin Causey New England Revolution IIFree

Transfers out Date Position No. Name To Fee/notes Ref. August 6, 2020 DF 5 Conor Shanosky Retired Retired December 31, 2020 DF 12 Kyle VenterRetired Retired December 31, 2020 GK 20 Lee Johnston Released December 31, 2020 MF 21 Greg Boehme Released December 31, 2020 DF 22 Hassan Pinto Loudoun United Released December 31, 2020 MF 80 Mutaya Mwape Released December 31, 2020 MF 93 Gianluca Cuomo Released December 31, 2020 GK 94 Matt Broomall Ballymacash Rangers Released December 31, 2020 MF 98 Ryley Kraft Released December 31, 2020 MF 77 Charles Boateng WAFA End of loan February 11, 2021 DF 18 Wahab Ackwei Loudoun United Free March 27, 2021 MF 8 Amass Amankona South Bend Lions Released April 6, 2021 MF 11 David Diosa New Amsterdam Free

Competitive

Exhibitions

USL League One

Standings

Results by matchday

Match results

U.S. Open Cup

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only one team from USL League One (league champions), qualified for the 2021 U.S. Open Cup. However in July 2021, the Open Cup was canceled.

USL-1 Playoffs

Statistics

Appearances and goals

Numbers after plus–sign (+) denote appearances as a substitute.

Top scorers {| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align: center;" |- !width=30|Rank !width=30|Position !width=30|Number !width=175|Name !width=75| !width=75| !width=75| !width=75|Total |- |rowspan="3"| 1 || FW || 15 ||align="left"| Oalex Anderson || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 |- | MF || 17 ||align="left"| Jonathan Bolanos || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 |- | DF || 2 ||align="left"| Juan Pablo Monticelli || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1

Top assists {| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align: center;" |- !width=30|Rank !width=30|Position !width=30|Number !width=175|Name !width=75| !width=75| !width=75| !width=75|Total |- | 1 || MF || 6 ||align="left"| Hernán González || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1

Disciplinary record {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |- | rowspan="2" !width=15| | rowspan="2" !width=15| | rowspan="2" !width=120|Player | colspan="3"|USL1 | colspan="3"|USL1 Playoffs | colspan="3"|U.S. Open Cup | colspan="3"|Total |- !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#ff8888;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#ff8888;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#ff8888;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#fe9;| !width=34; background:#ff8888;| |- | 6 || MF ||align="left"| Zacarías Morán || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 |- | 17 || MF ||align="left"| Jonathan Bolanos || 1 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 0 |- !colspan="3"|Total !! 2 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 2 !! 0 !! 0

References