After suffering back-to- back losses for the first time this season, the Colorado Springs Switchbacks look to return to winning ways on Wednesday night at Switchbacks Stadium. The second game between the Switchbacks and Real Monarchs SLC in four days lends the home team an immediate attempt at redemption against the Rocky Mountain rivals that handed the Switchbacks a deflating 1-0 loss on Sunday afternoon.
Originally scheduled for April 30th , the match against the Real Monarchs was moved to Wednesday after heavy snow and rain caused the cancellation of the original fixture.
The Switchbacks entered Sunday afternoon’s contest against the Real Monarchs unbeaten at home in the 2016 USL season and having defeated the Monarchs in both matchups last season in Colorado Springs. A host of frustrating near misses littered the game for the Switchbacks, as the Monarchs snatched a precious three points in a stadium fast becoming known league-wide for home wins.
“It’s no secret that we created a lot of chances on Wednesday,” said Switchbacks striker Aaron King the morning after Sunday’s loss. “We need to start finding the back of the net with our chances. If we can do the same things on Wednesday as yesterday we will be ok because we really dominated the game with chances even though we lost.”
“We made so many chances yesterday,” said Switchbacks Head Coach Steve Trittschuh. “We did enough to win, but that’s how the game goes sometimes. If we continue to play our game then we will eventually take these chances and score more goals. Their goal came off a bad mistake, but if we take our chances it doesn’t matter because we’re in front.”
“We played well,” said Switchbacks Captain Luke Vercollone. “The loss was unfortunate for us because we had good chances and some good play. But we have to credit the Monarchs – they did well and got a good result.”
Midfielder Elder Torres pounced upon a split-second of indecision in the Switchbacks’ back line to fire the Monarchs into the lead mid-way through the first half on Sunday. Striker Kevaughn Frater worked tirelessly for the Monarchs as he often led the attack on his own, with midfielder Ricardo Velazco occasionally popping up with well-timed forward runs.
Alec Sundley, playing in a defensive midfield role, controlled the center of the field for the Monarchs alongside Frederick Amankona, with the visitors piling frustration on the Switchbacks as the match wore on. Switchbacks defender Christian Ibeagha was dismissed in the 68th minute, and will therefore miss Wednesday’s game. The Switchbacks continued to create chances after being reduced to 10-men, and found themselves with a penalty kick deep into extra-time after having been previously denied by a handful of outstanding saves by Monarchs goalkeeper Eduardo Fernandez.
Looking for his third goal of the season, Switchbacks captain Luke Vercollone blazed his penalty over Fernandez’s crossbar with the last kick of the match. “The pressure got in my head a little bit yesterday,” said Vercollone on Monday afternoon. “I had a really long night last night and didn’t sleep too much: the challenge and the hardest thing is to get out of one’s own head. I’ve got to trust and have confidence in the process and just think about the ball and making good contact next time I get a chance.”
Tuesday night sees MLS’ Real Salt Lake host the Seattle Sounders in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup action at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. With the Real Monarchs’ parent club attempting to reach the Quarterfinals while trying to maintain their strong third-place standing in the MLS Western Conference, personnel changes may be made for the U.S. Open Cup. This could impact Wednesday’s game between the Monarchs and Switchbacks.
In just his second start of the season in the USL, Switchbacks winger Saeed Robinson was deployed on Sunday afternoon in a lone striker’s role against the Monarchs and impressed with his movement and link-up play. “It really helps to get more confidence when I’m able to get on the field,” said Robinson. “My focus is the same no matter what position I’m in – I just need to take my chances. On the wing you have to prepare mentally for playing more defense. When I’m up top I focus on holding the ball up, creating space for other players, and really getting the wingers involved. I hope on Wednesday to help more. Monarchs are a good team and they took their chance well, but we have a really strong focus for this game.”
In most cases, two days of preparation is less than ideal. Coming off their first home loss of the season, the Switchbacks look to put Sunday’s result behind them while wishing they could return to the field against the Monarchs as soon as possible. “It’s good for our preparation to only have a couple days because there’s no time to think and dwell on Sunday,” said Steve Trittschuh before warning, “it’s way too early in the season to start thinking about ‘revenge.’ We need to win our home games – it’s that simple. We’ve got nine home games left, and we need twenty-seven points from them. We need to win at home and that itself will get us into the playoffs.”
“I wish we could play again today,” said Aaron King. “The best thing is the match coming so fast. It’s good to not have a long break so that we don’t have time to harp on the loss. They got a good look at our attack and that might help the Monarchs, but we must be more clinical and we must take responsibility and make sure we score. We are all professionals, so we’ve got to start finishing these games off.”
With the short turnaround between matches that leaves the Switchbacks with just two days of preparation, changes may well greet the starting lineups of both teams on Wednesday evening. “We saw a lot of what they had on Sunday and we made chances against the Monarchs: we need to put them away,” said winger Miguel Gonzalez. “Our preparation doesn’t change at all. The Monarchs are a similar team to last year, and our coaches have made a good game plan for us. We just need to execute their plan and take our chances.”
“We might change some of our tactics, especially because we are missing Christian [Ibeagha] with the red card,” said Luke Vercollone. “We must focus on Wednesday and I think we are all doing that. We are at a low-point with these last two losses. I’m hopeful this is as low as it gets and that Wednesday really gets us back on track.”
Not accustomed to losing, especially in the shadow of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, the Switchbacks still sit in 4th place in the USL’s Western Conference – having played fewer games than all but one other team in the Conference.
The victory against the Switchbacks on Sunday pushed the Real Monarchs into 9th position in the Western Conference, and another victory at Switchbacks stadium would see Monarchs vault further up the table.
Numerous unconverted chances and a last-second missed penalty kick for the Switchbacks and brilliant Monarchs goalkeeping combined against the Switchbacks to aid the Real Monarchs to victory on Sunday afternoon. Despite a solid defensive display – especially after being reduced to 10-men – the Switchbacks were held scoreless at Switchbacks Stadium for the first time this season and will look to more than make up for that less-than- flattering fact on Wednesday.
“We just need to come out and be more hungry and ruthless because we have the goals in us and I know we can win,” said Saeed Robinson. “We owe it to our fans, we owe it to our staff, and we owe it to ourselves to get back to winning ways.”
After suffering back-to- back losses for the first time this season, the Colorado Springs Switchbacks look to return to winning ways on Wednesday night at Switchbacks Stadium. The second game between the Switchbacks and Real Monarchs SLC in four days lends the home team an immediate attempt at redemption against the Rocky Mountain rivals that handed the Switchbacks a deflating 1-0 loss on Sunday afternoon.
Originally scheduled for April 30th , the match against the Real Monarchs was moved to Wednesday after heavy snow and rain caused the cancellation of the original fixture.
The Switchbacks entered Sunday afternoon’s contest against the Real Monarchs unbeaten at home in the 2016 USL season and having defeated the Monarchs in both matchups last season in Colorado Springs. A host of frustrating near misses littered the game for the Switchbacks, as the Monarchs snatched a precious three points in a stadium fast becoming known league-wide for home wins.
“It’s no secret that we created a lot of chances on Wednesday,” said Switchbacks striker Aaron King the morning after Sunday’s loss. “We need to start finding the back of the net with our chances. If we can do the same things on Wednesday as yesterday we will be ok because we really dominated the game with chances even though we lost.”
“We made so many chances yesterday,” said Switchbacks Head Coach Steve Trittschuh. “We did enough to win, but that’s how the game goes sometimes. If we continue to play our game then we will eventually take these chances and score more goals. Their goal came off a bad mistake, but if we take our chances it doesn’t matter because we’re in front.”
“We played well,” said Switchbacks Captain Luke Vercollone. “The loss was unfortunate for us because we had good chances and some good play. But we have to credit the Monarchs – they did well and got a good result.”
Midfielder Elder Torres pounced upon a split-second of indecision in the Switchbacks’ back line to fire the Monarchs into the lead mid-way through the first half on Sunday. Striker Kevaughn Frater worked tirelessly for the Monarchs as he often led the attack on his own, with midfielder Ricardo Velazco occasionally popping up with well-timed forward runs.
Alec Sundley, playing in a defensive midfield role, controlled the center of the field for the Monarchs alongside Frederick Amankona, with the visitors piling frustration on the Switchbacks as the match wore on. Switchbacks defender Christian Ibeagha was dismissed in the 68th minute, and will therefore miss Wednesday’s game. The Switchbacks continued to create chances after being reduced to 10-men, and found themselves with a penalty kick deep into extra-time after having been previously denied by a handful of outstanding saves by Monarchs goalkeeper Eduardo Fernandez.
Looking for his third goal of the season, Switchbacks captain Luke Vercollone blazed his penalty over Fernandez’s crossbar with the last kick of the match. “The pressure got in my head a little bit yesterday,” said Vercollone on Monday afternoon. “I had a really long night last night and didn’t sleep too much: the challenge and the hardest thing is to get out of one’s own head. I’ve got to trust and have confidence in the process and just think about the ball and making good contact next time I get a chance.”
Tuesday night sees MLS’ Real Salt Lake host the Seattle Sounders in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup action at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. With the Real Monarchs’ parent club attempting to reach the Quarterfinals while trying to maintain their strong third-place standing in the MLS Western Conference, personnel changes may be made for the U.S. Open Cup. This could impact Wednesday’s game between the Monarchs and Switchbacks.
In just his second start of the season in the USL, Switchbacks winger Saeed Robinson was deployed on Sunday afternoon in a lone striker’s role against the Monarchs and impressed with his movement and link-up play. “It really helps to get more confidence when I’m able to get on the field,” said Robinson. “My focus is the same no matter what position I’m in – I just need to take my chances. On the wing you have to prepare mentally for playing more defense. When I’m up top I focus on holding the ball up, creating space for other players, and really getting the wingers involved. I hope on Wednesday to help more. Monarchs are a good team and they took their chance well, but we have a really strong focus for this game.”
In most cases, two days of preparation is less than ideal. Coming off their first home loss of the season, the Switchbacks look to put Sunday’s result behind them while wishing they could return to the field against the Monarchs as soon as possible. “It’s good for our preparation to only have a couple days because there’s no time to think and dwell on Sunday,” said Steve Trittschuh before warning, “it’s way too early in the season to start thinking about ‘revenge.’ We need to win our home games – it’s that simple. We’ve got nine home games left, and we need twenty-seven points from them. We need to win at home and that itself will get us into the playoffs.”
“I wish we could play again today,” said Aaron King. “The best thing is the match coming so fast. It’s good to not have a long break so that we don’t have time to harp on the loss. They got a good look at our attack and that might help the Monarchs, but we must be more clinical and we must take responsibility and make sure we score. We are all professionals, so we’ve got to start finishing these games off.”
With the short turnaround between matches that leaves the Switchbacks with just two days of preparation, changes may well greet the starting lineups of both teams on Wednesday evening. “We saw a lot of what they had on Sunday and we made chances against the Monarchs: we need to put them away,” said winger Miguel Gonzalez. “Our preparation doesn’t change at all. The Monarchs are a similar team to last year, and our coaches have made a good game plan for us. We just need to execute their plan and take our chances.”
“We might change some of our tactics, especially because we are missing Christian [Ibeagha] with the red card,” said Luke Vercollone. “We must focus on Wednesday and I think we are all doing that. We are at a low-point with these last two losses. I’m hopeful this is as low as it gets and that Wednesday really gets us back on track.”
Not accustomed to losing, especially in the shadow of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs, the Switchbacks still sit in 4th place in the USL’s Western Conference – having played fewer games than all but one other team in the Conference.
The victory against the Switchbacks on Sunday pushed the Real Monarchs into 9th position in the Western Conference, and another victory at Switchbacks stadium would see Monarchs vault further up the table.
Numerous unconverted chances and a last-second missed penalty kick for the Switchbacks and brilliant Monarchs goalkeeping combined against the Switchbacks to aid the Real Monarchs to victory on Sunday afternoon. Despite a solid defensive display – especially after being reduced to 10-men – the Switchbacks were held scoreless at Switchbacks Stadium for the first time this season and will look to more than make up for that less-than- flattering fact on Wednesday.
“We just need to come out and be more hungry and ruthless because we have the goals in us and I know we can win,” said Saeed Robinson. “We owe it to our fans, we owe it to our staff, and we owe it to ourselves to get back to winning ways.”