Spokane Velocity's home win streak snapped in loss to One Knoxville

In a highly anticipated rematch of the 2025 USL League One Final, Spokane, which entered this weekend undefeated at home this season, faced off against third-ranked One Knoxville, one of the highest-scoring teams in the league, averaging 1.8 goals per match.

In five all-time meetings against One Knoxville, Spokane had never beaten the team from Tennessee, playing to three draws and losing two times.

Make that three draws, three losses, and a now 6-0-1 home record following a 4-0 defeat to the defending champions on Saturday at ONE Spokane Stadium.

The Velocity defense, seventh in goals conceded per match (1.3), was picked apart, giving up two goals in each half.

After giving up three consecutive attempts in the first five minutes, Spokane's offense initially found success making pushes into Knoxville's final third and controlled possession at a 61% rate, but the Velocity struggled to finish their attack, as Knoxville's back line, which concedes the least number of goals per game (0.8), finished with 25 clearances and five blocks.

Velocity's first shot arrived in the 21st with a long-range attempt by Andre Lewis that sailed over the cross bar after being blocked by a Knoxville defender.

Their only other first-half attempt came seconds before the halftime whistle from Nil Vinyals that was also blocked.

Spokane's difficulties maintaining enough pressure to threaten any sort of scoring opportunity continued throughout the game as it finished with zero big chances.

Knoxville, meanwhile, jumped to a two-goal advantage in a four-minute span in the first period, and continued its scoring barrage with two more goals spread between the 56th and 74th minutes.

After Shavon John-Brown was called for a handball in the 32nd minute, Teddy Baker crossed to Finn McRobb off the set piece in the 34th, and McRobb converted the header scoring his first goal for One Knoxville this season.

Three minutes later, Baker received a pass from Kyle Linhares, and as John-Brown closed in for the tackle, curled a shot past multiple Spokane defenders into the frame.

In the 56th minute, Denis Krioutchenkov passed to a sprinting Linhares in Spokane's half. John-Brown trailed too far behind as Linhares dribbled to an open space in the penalty area, and converted his second goal of the season.

Then, at the 74-minute mark Mikkel Goling scored off an assist from Babacar Diene.

As One Knoxville shifted strategies defensively, Spokane's attack finished with 28 touches in the opposing box after ending the period with eight, and 11 second-half shot attempts. But Velocity only managed one on-target attempt, which came in the final 45 minutes.

Spokane, which has slid down the table to No. 8 following a two-game losing skid, hosts Westchester SC on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at ONE Spokane Stadium.

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