Winners of their last three, the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC head to the Pacific coast for a Saturday evening matchup against Monterey Bay F.C. in Seaside, California. The match will kick off at 8pm MT, with live coverage by the voice of the Switchbacks, Ryan Kaufman, beginning at 7:30pm on XTRA Sports1300 AM.
The Switchbacks have not played since a 3-2 victory over the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros on May 5th after back-to-back postponements. On March 19th, the Switchbacks defeated Monterey Bay 1-0 at Weidner Field in downtown Colorado Springs behind a 40th minute goal from Elvis Amoh.
Monterey Bay goalkeeper Dallas Jaye was named a starter on the USL Championship Team of the Week after keeping a clean sheet in his club’s 2-0 win over Louisville City last Saturday. Mobi Fehr, who scored in the 58th minute against Louisville City, had to make do with a place on the Team of the Week bench.
What the Switchbacks Say:
Defender Matt Mahoney: “Honestly [the layoff] has been alright. It’s frustrating because we’ve been in a good kind of groove of winning games and playing well. But we look at it on the upside here; a lot of teams don’t get the opportunity to have two weeks off in the middle of the season so we were able to take some breaks, get fresh, and have some good, hard training sessions where we worked on things that we need to. And now we’re ready to get into a good rhythm again.
“It’s going to be tough [vs. Monterey Bay]. They’ve gotten good results lately – going to Louisville and beating them. We know they gave us a good test the first time we played. We’re going to go there and we have to match their intensity, their physicality, and let our talent take over.”
Switchbacks Head Coach and General Manager Brendan Burke: “I’ve never been through this [back-to-back postponed matches] – not at any level. It’s been a little bit weird. We’ve tried to just peak in terms of the intensity of our training sessions a couple times over the last few weeks, but ultimately you can’t replicate those match environments of being away at San Diego and away at San Antonio. It’s going to be really difficult for us to be as sharp as possible on Saturday. I’m not so worried about the second half, I’m worried about how we start the first 20 minutes – that will tell me if we have pent-up energy, or if we’re missing energy.”
Monterey Bay FC Ones to Watch: “Anyone [on Monterey Bay] who can be a target from a set piece has to be a focus for us,” said Brendan Burke. “Hughey [Hugh Roberts] has scored from one, there was one off a scramble in Louisville, so all those guys have to be a focus. I think their outside backs have been influential in these games, so those will be the two areas of focus in my mind. Monterey play at a great intensity and they’ve really bought in. They run hard off the ball on both sides of the ball. They’re committed to their defending and they’re good at set pieces.”
Vargish’s View: Monterey Bay have been on the end of some lopsided results away from home this season. Head Coach Frank Yallop’s team lost 5-0 to El Paso Locomotive on April 9th, and 6-0 to San Antonio FC on April 30th. Saturday’s match will only be Monterey Bay’s third game at home in Seaside, California in 2022.
Saturday night is a massive test for the Switchbacks at Cardinale Stadium on the campus of California State University, Monterey Bay. It has been over three weeks since Brendan Burke’s team has played, and matching the physicality of Monterey Bay F.C. will be the key this weekend on California’s Central Coast. At the start of May, the Switchbacks were the best team in the entire USL Championship, and they still remain atop the Western Conference standings despite having their last two matches postponed. Undefeated on the road, the Switchbacks will leave the Golden State with points this weekend if they can replicate the intensity that has seen them start the season 8-1.
