MATCH PREVIEW
On Sunday, Sounders FC 2 (3-9-4, 14 points) hosts Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC (8-4-2, 26 points) at Starfire Stadium at 5:00 p.m. S2 heads into Sunday’s matchup after two consecutive road matches. On Wednesday, midfielder Emir Alihodzic scored his first professional goal on a pass from Andy Craven, but Saint Louis FC scored the equalizer for the 1-1 draw in the two sides first-ever meeting. The Rave Green now face Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, who S2 defeated by a score of 1-0 on April 17 at Starfire Stadium. Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC visits Starfire Stadium on Sunday after earning a 1-0 home win over Real Monarchs SLC on June 29. Switchbacks FC will face Timbers 2 on Thursday, July 7, after the completion of this match program. The club went unbeaten from May 8 – June 11 (4-0-2).
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Alfaro uses boost from S2 with the First Team By Cameron Rizzardini Three times, defender Tony Alfaro has been called upon to step into head coach Sigi Schmid’s lineup. When captain Brad Evans was knocked out in the first half against New England on May 28, Schmid turned to Alfaro. When defender Zach Scott couldn’t continue in the next match against D.C. United on June 1, Schmid turned to Alfaro. It happened again on July 2 at Toronto FC, when he came onto the pitch for Chad Marshall in the 51st minute. Three appearances in a substitute role for three different defenders, with each match occuring on the road.
Coming off of the bench in response to an injury is not an ideal way to come into any match. With no prior notice, and no time to warm up, it’s not easy for an athlete to get mentally prepared to step into a match where everyone else on the field has been in full battle mode since the opening whistle. It’s even less ideal, for your first MLS appearance of your career. Yet, Alfaro has met the challenge each time. “You’ve got to take your hat off to him,” Schmid said after the D.C. United match. “He’s had to come in twice, once for Evans and once for Zach. For a rookie playing in his first two games, he plays with some pretty good composure.” Alfaro was drafted by the Sounders in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft in January before signing to a first-team contract in March. A Southern California native who’s been plugged in the region’s college soccer scene for decades, Schmid himself was the primary catalyst for drafting Alfaro, who played college soccer at Division II CalState Dominguez Hills after he was a prep star in Santa Barbara, Calf. “We liked his ability with the ball; his technical ability was good, his passing out of the back,”
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said Schmid. “He’s a guy who stays in tune with the game, his concentration levels were good, and he’s shown all that stuff since he’s been here.”
in him to become a professional,” Kamara said about Alfaro. “His hard work paid off, and I want to say congratulations to him.”
Prior to his appearances for Schmid’s First Team, Alfaro started regularly for Seattle Sounders FC 2 under head coach Ezra Hendrickson. Hendrickson and his staff have often stated that their goals are not just to win games, but to develop young guys, and keep them warm in case they are needed by the first team.
Alfaro and Kamara are the only two Dominguez Hills alumni to play in an MLS match. After the match, they met on the field and traded jerseys. According to Alfaro, Kamara shared some words of encouragement in their exchange.
“Part of our job here is putting these guys in game-like situations so that when they get into a First Team game, they have an idea of what to do,” said Hendrickson. “We try to play similar to the first team so that when they need a guy, they can just plug him in.”
“He just said, ‘Congratulations you played well, keep it up,” Alfaro said. Despite a bright start, Alfaro has a tall ladder to climb with veterans still in
Alfaro consistently got valuable minutes at the USL level with Hendrickson’s squad before getting the call from the First Team, and he believes that S2 played a crucial role in his success in first appearances in the MLS. “I really think playing with S2 helped me,” he said. “They gave me that leadership role and they thought I could develop a little better getting a couple games in with them.” “Training is one thing but if you’re not getting that repetition in games it becomes difficult,” added Hendrickson. Alfaro’s first appearance against New England was particularly special for him in that he got to face off against fellow Cal State-Dominguez Hills alumni Kei Kamara, who was last year’s MLS Golden Boot runner-up and traded to the Revs earlier this season. “I went down there (Cal State) and trained with him, and I saw the desire
front of him. However, he will always cherish this stretch of reserve appearances. “It was definitely a test for me,” he said. “As a young guy, you remember those moments forever.”
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MAKING THE JUMP At his introductory press conference in January 2015, Sounders FC General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey identified a clear mission for the organization: “You have to vertically integrate the clubs,” Lagerwey said. “You have your First Team, and you have to push strategically to grow the Sounders, but you have to, below that, integrate S2 and the Academy.”
TYLER MILLER
Essentially, Lagerwey wanted a pipeline. Before reaching the First Team and playing in front of the biggest crowds in MLS, players would develop necessary skills and attributes that translate to the next level, all while representing the Sounders FC crest. Last season, Sounders FC 2 strung together a successful inaugural campaign. This success lies deeper than qualifying for the postseason and reaching the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, though. In 2015, Sounders FC 2 produced three players who were signed to First Team contracts: Andy Craven, Tyler Miller and Oalex Anderson. In June, Craven became the first S2 player to make the leap. He started 12 of his 14 appearances in the USL regular season, scoring five goals and adding a team-high five assists. The University of North Carolina product went on to appear in three MLS matches before suffering an MLC sprain in training. “One of the reasons S2 was created was to develop talent and reward players for their hard work and standout
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the limited time we had to work with him last season,” said Head Coach Sigi Schmid. “We’re excited to continue that development in 2016 as he works further with our staff and the rest of the goalkeeper group.” Earlier this month, Anderson became the most recent S2 player to be signed to a First Team contract. Anderson started seven of 16 appearances for S2 during the 2015 USL season after signing on April 11. The speedy striker scored four goals in just 758 minutes. Internationally, Anderson has 20 caps for the St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Team since his debut in February of 2014, scoring 10 international goals.
ANDY CRAVEN Miller became the second player to join the MLS side after signing with S2 last July, following a stint with SVN Zweibrücken of the German Fourth Division. He made one appearance for S2, a 4-0 shutout victory over Arizona United SC on July 12, before undergoing successful thumb surgery on his right hand on July 28. Miller was a Second Round selection for Seattle in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft after a record-setting career at Northwestern University.
OALEX ANDERSON
play, and Andy is a true example of that concept,” Lagerwey said in June.
“It’s exciting to see our development system at work in signing one of our standout S2 players to the First Team,” said Lagerwey. “Oalex has a lot of potential, which he showed last season, and we’re happy to have him join the senior squad.”
“Tyler has great potential as a goalkeeper and showed promise in
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2016 SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC PLAYERS NAME AGE Emir Alihodzic* 22 Tony Alfaro 23 Osvaldo Alonso 30 Oalex Anderson 20 Matt Bersano* 23 Andy Craven 24 Jordy Delem 23 Clint Dempsey 33 Brad Evans 31 Michael Farfan 28 Devon Fisher* 22 Oniel Fisher 24 Stefan Frei 30 Erik Friberg 30 Herculez Gomez 34 Andreas Ivanschitz 32 Brandon John* 21 Darwin Jones 24 Joevin Jones 24 Willy Kapawa* 24 Aaron Kovar 22 Damion Lowe 24 Charlie Lyon 24 Victor Mansaray 19 Chad Marshall 31 Zach Mathers* 21 Tyrone Mears 33 Tyler Miller 23 Jordan Morris 21 Michael Nelson* 21 Mark O’Ojong* 19 Jimmy Ockford 23 Carlos Patino* 20 Dylan Remick 26 Cristian Roldan 20 Myron Samuel 23 Amadou Sanyang* 24 Jordan Schweitzer* 21 Zach Scott 35 Nathan Sturgis 29 Nouhou Tolo 19 Román Torres 30 Nelson Valdez 32
General Manager & President of Soccer: Garth Lagerwey Head Coach: Sigi Schmid Sporting Director: Chris Henderson Assistant Coaches: Brian Schmetzer, Tom Dutra, Ante Razov, Djimi Traore, Kurt Schmid S2 General Manager: Andrew Opatkiewicz S2 Head Coach: Ezra Hendrickson
BIRTHPLACE Tulza, Bosnia Michoacan, Mexico San Cristobal, Cuba St. Vincent & Grenadines Chandler, AZ St. Simons Island, GA Fort-de-France, Martinique Nacogdoches, TX Phoenix, AZ San Diego, CA Chesapeake, VA Portmore, Jamaica Altstaetten, Switzerland Lindome, Sweden Oxnard, CA Eisenstadt, Austria Kingstown, St. Vincent Chicago, IL Carenage, Trinidad & Tobago Douala, Cameroon Seattle, WA Kingston, Jamaica St. Charles, IL Freetown, Sierra Leone Riverside, CA Ft. Worth, TX Stockport, England Woodbury, NJ Seattle, WA Austin, TX Douala, Cameroon Yardley, PA Tulua, Colombia Inverness, IL Artesia, CA Layou, St. Vincent Bakau, Gambia Dallas, TX Wailuku, HI Boca Raton, FL Douala, Cameroon Panama City, Panama Caaguazœ, Paraguay
S2 Assistant Coach: Junior Gonzalez Team Administration Director: Grant Clark Team Services Director: Vince Johnson Team Services Coordinator: Kate Norton Manager of Sports Science & Performance: Dave Tenney
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PREVIOUS CLUB Nebraska Omaha Mavericks (NCAA) Cal State – Dominguez Hills Charleston Battery (USL) System 3 FC (St. Vincent & Grenadines) Penn State Nittany Lions (NCAA) North Carolina Tar Heels (NCAA) Club Franciscain (MAR) Tottenham Hotspur (England) Columbus Crew SC D.C. United Timbers 2 (USL) New Mexico Lobos (NCAA) Toronto FC Esbjerg fB (Denmark) Toronto FC Levante (Spain) FC Erzgebirge Aue U-23’s (GER) Washington Huskies (NCAA) Chicago Fire Lion Blesse (CMR) Stanford Cardinal (NCAA) Hartford Hawks (NCAA) Marquette Golden Eagles (NCAA) Sounders FC Academy Columbus Crew SC Duke Blue Devils (NCAA) Bolton Wanderers (England) Northwestern Wildcats (NCAA) Stanford Cardinal (NCAA) Old Dominion Monarchs (NCAA) Rainbow FC (CMR) Louisville Cardinals (NCAA) Kitsap Pumas (PDL) Brown Bears (NCAA) Washington Huskies (NCAA) Rendezvous FC (BRB) Charleston Battery (USL) Denver Pioneers (NCAA) Gonzaga Bulldogs (NCAA) Houston Dynamo Rainbow FC Millonarios (Colombia) Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Chad Kolarcik S2 Performance and Strength Coach: Jarryd Phillips Sports Science Data Analyst: Ravi Ramineni Director of Sports Medicine: Randy Noteboom Head Athletic Trainer: Chris Cornish
Assistant Athletic Trainers: Paul Lombardo, Aki Tajima S2 Athletic Trainer: Joe Montgomery Head Equipment Manager: Nolan Myer Assistant Equipment Managers: Brett Johnson, Scott Tranilla
*Signed to a S2 Contract
NO. 88 25 6 39 98 99 77 2 3 12 81 91 24 8 9 23 70 17 33 92 11 31 22 80 14 32 4 1 13 36 90 5 95 15 7 97 30 34 20 18 35 29 16
2016 SOUNDERS FC 2 USL REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE DAY
DATE
OPPONENT
KICKOFF (PT) LOCATION
Fri.
March 25
Sacramento Republic FC
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Wed. March 30
Arizona United
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sun. April 3
San Antonio
5:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Tues. April 12
Rio Grande Valley FC
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sun. April 17
Colorado Springs
7:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Tues. April 26
Real Monarchs
6:00 p.m.
Rio Tinto Stadium
Sun. May 1
Oklahoma City Energy FC 7:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sun. May 8
Tulsa Roughnecks FC
7:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sat. May 14
Sacramento Republic FC
7:30 p.m.
Bonney Field
Sun. May 22
LA Galaxy II
5:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Thurs. May 26
Portland Timbers 2
7:00 p.m.
Providence Park
Sat. June 4
Orange County Blues FC
7:00 p.m.
Anteater Stadium
Thurs. June 9
Whitecaps FC 2
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Tues. June 14
Portland Timbers 2
7:00 p.m.
Merlo Field
Sun. June 26
Swope Park Rangers FC
5:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sat. July 2
Sacramento Republic FC
8:00 p.m.
Bonney Field
Wed. July 6
St. Louis FC
5:00 p.m.
World Wide Technology Soccer Park
Sun. July 10
Colorado Springs
5:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sat. July 16
Arizona United
7:30 p.m.
Peoria Sports Complex
Sun. July 24
Portland Timbers 2
5:00 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Mon. August 1
Real Monarchs
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Sat. August 6
Whitecaps FC 2
3:00 p.m.
Thunderbird Stadium
Sat. August 13
Rio Grande Valley FC
5:30 p.m.
RGVFC Stadium
Sat. August 20
San Antonio
5:30 p.m.
Toyota Field
Mon. August 29
Portland Timbers 2
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Fri.
Sept. 2
Whitecaps FC 2
7:30 p.m.
Starfire Stadium
Mon. Sept. 5
Whitecaps FC 2
TBD
TBD
Sun. Sept. 11
Oklahoma City Energy FC 4:00 p.m.
Taft Stadium
Sat. Sept. 17
Colorado Springs
6:00 p.m.
Switchbacks Stadium
Sat. Sept. 24
Swope Park Rangers FC
5:00 p.m.
Children’s Mercy Victory Field
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2016 USL TEAM STATS UNF Player
GP MIN G A PTS SHT SOG FC YC RC OG 99 Andy Craven 12 1020 3 2 8 27 13 14 0 0 0 80 Victor Mansaray 13 976 3 0 6 12 4 23 3 0 0 97 Myron Samuel 12 855 1 3 5 18 9 15 0 0 0 32 Zach Mathers 12 835 1 2 4 22 11 21 1 0 0 90 Mark O’Ojong 16 1016 1 0 2 15 5 19 3 0 0 25 Tony Alfaro 10 900 1 0 2 5 2 9 2 0 0 88 Emir Alihodzic 12 381 1 0 2 4 2 9 0 0 0 41 Lorenzo Ramos 10 339 1 0 2 1 1 3 0 0 0 11 Aaron Kovar 3 148 1 0 2 5 3 2 0 0 0 39 Oalex Anderson 3 120 1 0 2 4 2 0 0 0 0 44 John Magnus 4 123 1 1 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 36 Michael Nelson 12 1080 0 1 1 3 1 7 1 0 0 91 Oniel Fisher 6 532 0 1 1 5 2 8 0 1 0 35 Nouhou Tolo 12 1042 0 0 0 8 3 14 2 0 0 81 Devon Fisher 15 908 0 0 0 4 1 8 1 0 0 34 Jordan Schweitzer 12 785 0 0 0 2 0 11 2 1 0 17 Darwin Jones 9 705 0 0 0 11 2 7 1 0 0 77 Jordy Delem 7 567 0 0 0 2 0 13 2 0 0 70 Brandon John 7 536 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 95 Carlos Patino 11 487 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 50 Tobi Jnohope 6 436 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 18 Nathan Sturgis 5 373 0 0 0 2 1 6 1 0 0 92 Willy Kapawa 7 271 0 0 0 3 0 3 1 0 0 40 Nick Hinds 4 225 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 15 Dylan Remick 2 180 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 42 Handwalla Bwana 5 160 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 12 Michael Farfan 5 149 0 0 0 2 0 3 1 0 0 45 Harrison Kurtz 4 92 0 0 0 3 1 2 0 0 0 53 Kei Tomozawa 5 53 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Team totals 17 1530 15 10 40 165 68 216 22 2 0 Opponent totals 17 1530 28 12 68 231 88 217 34 1 0
GP-games played; GS-games started; MIN-minutes; G-goals;A-assists; P-points; SHT-shots; SOG-shots on goal; FC/FS-fouls committed/fouls suffered; CK-corner kicks; OFF-offsides; C/E-cautions/ejections
UNF 1 22
Player Tyler Miller Charlie Lyon Team totals Opponent totals
GP 7 10 17 17
MIN 630 900 1530 1530
GA 9 19 28 15
SV 32 28 60 53
SV% .780 .596 .682 .779
GAA 1.29 1.90 1.65 0.88
W-L-D 2-2-3 1-7-2 3-9-5 9-3-5
SO 2 0 2 7
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HEAD COACH EZRA HENDRICKSON
Ezra Hendrickson initially joined Sounders FC as an Assistant Coach on January 20, 2009, after completing a 14-year professional career, including 12 seasons in Major League Soccer. He is now the Head Coach of Sounders FC 2, the club’s USL PRO team. Hendrickson played parts of eight seasons for Sigi Schmid, including three in Columbus prior to his retirement. Hendrickson appeared in 266 regular season matches with 225 starts. Playing defense, he scored 23 goals and added 30 assists. He also played in 32 postseason games with five goals and three assists. Hendrickson was a member of three MLS Cup championship teams, winning two with Schmid. Together, they won the 2002 MLS Cup with the Los Angeles Galaxy and the 2008 MLS Cup in Columbus. Hendrickson was also with the champion D.C. United team in 2004. A native of the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean, Hendrickson began his career in 1997 with the New York MetroStars, before joining the Galaxy
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later that season. He totaled six seasons in Los Angeles, where he won the 2000 CONCACAF Champions Cup, scoring two goals in a 3-2 victory, and the 2001 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, scoring one goal in a 2-1 victory. He was named Galaxy’s Most Valuable Player for the 2001 season. Hendrickson went to Dallas in 2003 and began the next season with the A-League’s Charleston Battery before joining D.C. United for its run to the 2004 MLS Cup. After starting all 31 appearances in 2005 for Chivas USA, Hendrickson was acquired by Columbus in early 2006. An All-American and business administration major at Drake University, Hendrickson first played professionally with New Orleans of the USISL Select League (1995-96). After earning his first international cap in 1995, he served 12 years as captain of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines national team. Hendrickson earned his U.S. Soccer “A” Coaching License in December of 2008. He is a resident of Layou, St. Vincent, and has two daughters, Xavia and McKenzie.