It will be its toughest challenge yet, but Sounders FC 2 is up to the task as Tuesday night the young Rave Green team travels to Sandy, Utah to face MLS side Real Salt Lake in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Fourth Round.
Although it is still early in its inaugural season, S2 is already proving it is a force to be reckoned with, sitting second place in the USL Western Conference and being the only MLS-fielded USL team to advance to the Fourth Round. This will be the first chance the team faces a club at the MLS level, but S2 Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson thinks his team has as good a chance as anyone going into Tuesday’s match.
“It’s another challenge for us, but it’s an amazing opportunity for the guys, especially the younger guys on our team who get to face a club like Salt Lake,” said Hendrickson. “We will be prepared and we are going in with some confidence. We are going to put up our best fight, and we feel like we can play with anyone on any given day.”
Although Real Salt Lake had an early exit in the competition last year, four of the team’s top scorers in the tournament are still with the club and have plenty of experience playing knockout-round soccer. Devon Sandoval has three goals in the tournament, while Joao Plata, Alvaro Saborio and Tony Beltran all have two. Saborio is tied for the team lead in MLS with three goals and leads the team in shots on goal.
S2’s Pablo Rossi has three goals of his own through the first two rounds of the tournament, while Andy Craven also netted a pair, and Vic Mansaray has one.
In Open Cup play thus far, S2 has provided an opportunity for many Sounders FC Academy players to get time playing at the next level with goalkeeper Saif Kerawala, defenders Tosh Samkange, Choong sil Lim and Kasey French, and forwards Diego Silvas and Nate Tongovula all played a bulk of the minutes through the first two rounds.
In regular-season play, the Rave Green has struggled on the road with a 1-3-2 record, while RSL is 5-2-0 while hosting Open Cup matches at Rio Tinto.
“We just need to be willing to play our game and not conform to how an older team playing at home would want to set the tempo,” said S2 forward Andy Craven.
Craven and the team will likely be facing RSL goalkeeper Jeff Attinella, who has two matches with the RSL First Team this season, a 1-1-0 record and five goals allowed. He started 10 matches in 2014 and led the team to two shutouts.
Both matches for S2 have required extra time to decide a winner, with S2 advancing on both occasions with Pablo Rossi game-winners.
Tuesday’s match will be live-streamed on SoundersFC.com and kicks off at 7:00 p.m. PT, and as always, you can follow along on Twitter by following @SoundersFC2.
