Opponent: Rhode Island FC
Match Date: May 17.
Location: Weidner Field.
Doors Open: 7:00pm MT. Extremely limited tickets are available HERE!
How to Listen: XTRA Sports 1300am with the Voices of the Switchbacks, Ryan Kaufman and Roland Vargish – coverage starts at 6:30pm.
Player’s Points: “[The win against Hartford] gives us a lot of confidence,” said winger Yosuke Hanya. Hanya was named to the USL Championship Team of the Week after his stellar performance, which included scoring the opening goal, in the Switchbacks’ 2-0 win over Hartford Athletic last Saturday. “It feels amazing [to be on the Team of the Week]. It was my first goal for this club and I’m really happy to score my first goal and I want to score more. Now we have gone three [league] games in a row [unbeaten]. It’s one of our strengths [to play at Weidner Field]. We have an amazing fan base – a lot of people come out to our games to support us, so we have to show them good soccer!”
Coach Chamber’s Comments: “[Yosuke Hanya] has been a really good asset [for us], especially in the attacking third. He does his work, he’s very diligent defensively [and] off the ball. In the final third he’s really creative [and] he’s aggressive in his one v. one moments, he can go both ways, he keeps the ball close to him, and he’s getting a little bit of reward at the moment. But there’s also a lot more to come from him too, and he knows that himself. “It was a good result on the road [in Hartford]. We’re obviously happy with the first half performance – I think we controlled the game. Second half performance [we] came under a little bit of pressure, but we saw it out, and obviously got the penalty to see us home so late in the game. [It was a] good performance, but the main thing is that we keep building momentum. “It’s amazing, honestly [to play at Weidner Field]. The El Paso game was off the wall – we loved it, we really did, and we felt like everything worked [as] well as it could. We obviously had a decent performance [and] got a good result, [and] the crowd was full of energy – they were really into the game. But we still owe [the fans]. We still owe them. They came out here for
three weeks in a row [and] we let them down, so we still owe them. We’ve won one game at home [so] let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to do more to pay these [fans] back who come and watch us and support us, and that’s what we’re focused on doing on Friday.”
Opposition Outlook: “[Rhode Island] is a very strong outfit, and they probably haven’t had the results that they would have liked to this point, but they haven’t lost many games,” added Head Coach Chambers. “They’ve been in every single game that they’ve played – they’ve drawn six – [and they have] got some really good, talented players, [a] really good staff and they’re looking to take off. I think it’s only a matter of time and hopefully it’s not this weekend.”
Vargish’s Views: Friday night under the lights at Weidner Field promises to be an exciting affair. While Rhode Island have only won once this season – a 2-1 victory in Sin City over the Las Vegas Lights on April 20th – they have fought and scrapped and clawed themselves to six draws. Goals for RIFC arrive like London buses, in bunches. Rhode Island have been shut out three times in the 2024 USL season – all in 0-0 ties – and will need that defensive intensity to get a result against the Switchbacks. The Switchbacks’ three league wins in a row have James Chambers’ team as the hottest in the Western Conference. To continue their winning form, the Switchbacks need to echo their outstanding performance against El Paso Locomotive on May 4th in Southern Colorado by playing with pace and width.
