Detroit City FC chases knockout hopes against Fort Wayne FC

Le Rouge sat fifth in Group 4 with five points from three games. The path to the knockout round required a high-scoring win at Fort Wayne FC plus help elsewhere to stay in the wild-card race.

Louisville City led the group with eight points, Indy Eleven had seven, and Union Omaha and Lexington SC were both on six, while Detroit’s 1-0 road win at Forward Madison FC was followed by shootout losses to Lexington and Louisville. Fort Wayne was last with one point after regulation defeats to Louisville and Union Omaha and a shootout loss to Indy. In a Cup where shootout winners get an extra point, shootout losers still get one, and goals scored are a tiebreaker.

Detroit had conceded just one goal in regulation in group play. Haruki Yamazaki and Callum Montgomery shared the team lead with one Cup goal each, with Yamazaki’s late winner at Forward Madison standing as the club’s biggest moment so far. Kobe Hernández-Foster led Detroit with three chances created, while Darren Smith and Devon Amoo-Mensah each had one Cup assist. Tommy Silva and Devon Amoo-Mensah also entered with two yellow cards apiece.

Fort Wayne scored once each through Taig Healy, Daniel Oyetunde and Lilian Ricol, and Javier Armas led the side in Cup play with five shots, three chances created and 172 completed passes. Healy’s goal in the club’s July 4 win over Spokane Velocity FC made him Fort Wayne’s all-time leading scorer with nine goals across all competitions, and Bernd Schipmann had six clean sheets in league play. Fort Wayne carried an 11-match unbeaten run in USL League One, the second-longest by a first-year club in league history, one short of Lansing Ignite FC’s 2019 mark.

The match was set for 7:30 p.m. ET on July 11 at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a venue that opened May 2 and held a ribbon-cutting July 7. Fort Wayne promoted the night as First Responders Night and Youth Soccer Night, with the lot opening at 4:45 p.m., gates at 5:30 p.m., a buy-one-get-one gate offer for certain first responders and Panini World Cup Sticker Books for the first 1,000 kids.