Sounders U-23 begin Open Cup May 11 at Bonney Lake

Here’s a release from the club:

US Soccer has announced the pairings for the first round in the 2016 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. The Sounders U-23 will face Outbreak FC from USASA and the SoCal Premier League. The game will take place on May 11th at Panther Stadium at Bonney Lake high school at 7:30pm.

“The Open Cup is another opportunity to give young aspiring players competition to develop and be seen by higher level coaches and teams,” Sounders U23 Head Coach and General Manager Darren Sawatzky explains, “Our initiative at Sounders U-23 is to help players move up to the professional ranks and this competition gives us a different and exciting chance to showcase these young players, but no one enters a competition to lose.”

The Sounders U23 last played in the Open Cup in 2013 after winning the Northwest Division of the PDL and becoming the Western Conference Champions in 2012. The team won the first round game then moved on to face the Charlotte Eagles of the USL at the time. The Sounders U23 lost the game 2-1 in the waning moments after a long journey across the United States to play the game. The Sounders U-23 are the 2015 PDL Western Conference Champions and will look to add to the trophy case in 2016.

Flex tickets can be found at www.soundersu23.com for the match and for all home matches for the Sounders U-23 in 2016. Flex tickets can be purchased and work for all home games for Sounders U23.

And the winner goes on to meet the Kitsap Pumas. Here’s a release from that club:

U.S. Soccer announced the pairings for the first and second rounds of the 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday. After receiving a bye to the second round, the Kitsap Pumas have been selected to host the winner of the May 11 match between Seattle Sounders U23 and Outbreak FC (USASA, SoCal Premier League).

The match is set for May 18 at Silverdale Stadium, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. PT. Streaming details will be confirmed as match day approaches, but the Pumas plan on broadcasting the game online.

“We’re obviously delighted to host an Open Cup match on the Kitsap Peninsula,” Pumas head coach Cameron MacDonald said. “Our fans seem to really enjoy these occasions, so I encourage them all to get behind the team again as we begin our cup run at home.”

Because the Pumas’ usual home field, Gordon Field, doesn’t meet certain requirements for hosting Open Cup games, the match will be held at Silverdale Stadium on the Olympic High School campus. It’s as close to Kitsap’s usual home as the club can get, though, as the two fields are within walking distance of one another.

“Someday, we’d like to get Gordon up to the standard that we can host any match in any competition, since it’s become such a fortress for us as a home field,” MacDonald said. “Still, we don’t see much of a difference playing at Silverdale Stadium. It’s close by, and we expect the same kind of home atmosphere you’d get anytime we play.”

Kitsap hosted at least one Open Cup match each year from the club's inception through the 2012 season, a run of four years. The club has not hosted since the 2012 first round, when it lost 3-1 to Cal FC.

As a PDL club, the Pumas were originally slated to debut in the 2016 Open Cup in the first round. However, Rio Grande Valley FC, an independently-owned USL expansion team whose roster is managed by the Houston Dynamo, withdrew from the competition. As a result, the U.S. Open Cup Committee determined that the top PDL qualifier (Kitsap) and the top NPSL qualifier (Chattanooga FC) would be granted byes to the second round.

Pumas season-ticket holders will receive entry into the Open Cup match as part of their annual package. Single-match tickets for the game will be sold on the club website, and they will be available at the gate as well.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Sounders U-23 begin Open Cup May 11 at Bonney Lake."