TUKWILA, Wash. – Seattle Sounders FC 2 travels to northern California to take on Sacramento Republic FC on Saturday May 14 (7:30 p.m. PT; Livestream on SoundersFC.com). The match will be the second time the two teams have met this season.
In S2's opening match of the 2016 USL season, Republic traveled to Starfire Sports and took home the narrow 1-0 victory on the back of Thomas Stewart who converted a questionable PK call when defender Tony Alfaro took down Adam Jahn in the box. The two teams are very familiar with each other, having also met three times in 2015.
“We know how they play; we’ve played good soccer there,” said head coach Ezra Hendrickson. “We going to keep working the rest of this week to prepare for them and keep trying to get better every game.”
S2 is coming off a four game unbeaten streak that was snapped last weekend against Tulsa Roughnecks FC. Tulsa forward Sammy Ochoa scored both goals on individual defensive mistakes that dropped S2 in an otherwise solid performance.
“[We’re going to] keep trying to develop the players and make sure that we don’t get too down on ourselves from a loss,” Hendrickson said. “I think these last two matches have been physical and we have young players so hopefully they learn from these types of games.”
S2 now sits in last place in the Western Conference, looking up at 5th place Sacramento. Despite the squad's solid standing, Sacramento has only put away four goals this season, a rather surprising number for a team with three victories and a draw. Their success can be attributed to their immaculate defensive record, which shows only three goals conceded over the course of the season, at least two goals fewer than any other team in USL.
