MATCH PREVIEW
On Sunday, Sounders FC 2 (5-9-5, 20 points) hosts rival Portland Timbers 2 (5-10-3, 18 points) at Starfire Stadium at 5:00 p.m. S2 heads into Sunday’s matchup on a three-match unbeaten streak, including two consecutive wins. Last Saturday, the Rave Green matched a season-high with three goals in a 3-2 comeback win on the road versus Arizona United SC. Darwin Jones scored two goals en route to earning USL Team of the Week honors and midfielder Jordan Schweitzer scored his first professional goal in the second half. Portland Timbers 2 visits Starfire Stadium on Sunday amidst a six-match winless streak (0-4-2), including a 4-1 defeat at home versus LA Galaxy II on July 16. The contest marks the third match of the season between the Cascadia rivals with each team securing a victory.
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Training with the Pros By Joe Mondello After a strong run in the USSDA Academy playoffs, the season has ended for all four of the Rave Green youth teams. However, standout players from Seattle’s player pipeline will continue their development by training and playing with S2. Now that colleges and high schools are out for summer vacation, S2 stands to benefit from increased integration of players from the Sounders Academy program. Several players such as Tobi Jnohope, Habib Barry, Lorenzo Ramos, Henry Baldwin, Nick Hinds and Tor Saunders just finished up their Academy careers and are now training with the second-team as they prepare for the transition to the college game. The U-18 standouts were joined a couple of other potential future
Homegrown signings such as University of Denver defender Tosh Samkange and University of Washington Midfielder Henry Wingo. Furthermore, a couple of talented players from the U-16 squad, such as Stanford commit Kei Tomozawa and striker Wilson Harris, gained valuable exposure to the speed of play and physical demands of the USL. For Samkange, these training sessions offer an opportunity to build upon his own development after a successful freshman campaign in Denver. Meanwhile, increased involvement with S2 will provide U-18 United States national team midfielder Tomozawa with ample time to adjust his unique skill set to the speed of play he will face at Stanford University. “The intensity and physicality is much higher here at S2, and overall it’s just a great experience,” said Tomozawa after the session. “Each level you go up [through the Sounders player development pipeline] the intensity is just higher and the speed of play is much higher. It takes a little bit of time to adjust, but once you get it, it’s really fun and [it] definitely helps my game.” Junior Gonzalez, the assistant coach for S2 who also works closely with the Academy, sees these training sessions as mutually beneficial for current members second team, as well as potential future Homegrown signings from the youth system. “It was a really good session. The topic was changing the point of attack and creating fluidity with our midfield spacing and playing. In each drill, that topic came out little by little, and the
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final game [at the end of practice] showed that the guys are trying to implement what we’ve been working on.” Building attacks from the back, unbalancing opponents with effective possession and intelligent movement off the ball are all key constructs of the Sounders Academy curriculum. As a result, a number of Academy players performed admirably despite training with established professionals that are several years their senior. However, the massive step up with respect to physicality and speed of play intrinsically forces the young Sounders to be more proactive and efficient in each phase of the game. “It was nice to have bigger numbers with more Academy guys out there now that the [USSDA] season is over,” added Gonzalez. “I think it puts a bit more pressure on some of the signed S2 players to perform.”
tantalizing. Moreover, the coming months will provide numerous chances for potential Homegrown signings to fortify these relationships and improve together. Fans love seeing local players – such as DeAndre Yedlin, Aaron Kovar and Jordan Morris -- pull on the Rave Green jersey. The feeling is mutual for Academy alumni that developed their passion for the game in the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve grown up in Seattle my whole life and it’s always good to be back,” said Samkange. “It’s good to be with the organization that I’ve been a fan of since I was little. There’s nothing quite like coming back and training with S2.” With increased involvement for Academy standouts with S2, the organization hopes to give more local players the chance to suit up for the team they grew up idolizing.
Gonzalez’s comment shed some light on one of the more surreal aspects of the training session for Sounders supporters: the opportunity to measure up potential Homegrown signings against established professionals, as well as current Homegrown players like Jordan Schweitzer and Darwin Jones. At one point in the session, Tomozawa and Schweitzer exchanged several 1-2 passes as they carved through the opposition midfield. While both players are still young and have plenty of upside, the potential for this future midfield pairing is truly
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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 80 Victor Mansaray 14 994 4 0 8 14 6 23 3 0 0 99 Andy Craven 14 1182 3 2 8 30 14 15 0 0 0 17 Darwin Jones 11 875 3 0 6 15 6 12 1 0 0 97 Myron Samuel 14 1010 1 4 6 20 10 17 1 0 0 32 Zach Mathers 14 923 1 3 5 27 12 22 1 0 0 90 Mark O’Ojong 18 1129 1 0 2 15 5 20 3 0 0 25 Tony Alfaro 10 900 1 0 2 5 2 9 2 0 0 34 Jordan Schweitzer 14 965 1 1 1 4 1 15 4 1 0 88 Emir Alihodzic 14 417 1 1 3 5 2 10 1 0 0 41 Lorenzo Ramos 11 348 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 14 1260 0 1 1 4 1 8 1 0 0 91 Oniel Fisher 6 532 0 1 1 5 2 8 0 1 0 81 Devon Fisher 17 1088 0 0 0 4 1 8 1 0 0 35 Nouhou Tolo 14 1222 0 0 0 8 3 17 2 0 0 77 Jordy Delem 8 657 0 0 0 3 0 13 2 0 0 70 Brandon John 8 537 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 95 Carlos Patino 12 487 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 8 338 0 0 0 3 0 4 1 0 0 40 Nick Hinds 5 249 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 12 Michael Farfan 6 206 0 0 0 3 0 4 1 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 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 19 1710 20 14 54 187 78 240 26 2 0 Opponent totals 19 1710 31 14 76 256 96 239 39 2 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 Player GP 1 Tyler Miller 8 22 Charlie Lyon 11 Team totals 19 Opponent totals 19
MIN 720 990 1710 1710
GA 10 21 31 20
SV 33 32 65 58
SV% .780 .604 .677 .744
GAA 1.25 1.91 1.63 1.05
W-L-D 3-2-3 2-7-2 5-9-5 9-5-5
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.