BATTLE OF THE BUCKEYE STATE!! A NEW IN-STATE RIVALRY!!


The Cleveland Crunch will host new in-state division rival the Cincinnati Swerve to the friendly confines of the Soccerplex in North Olmstead this Saturday night. Not since the days of the old Crunch/Silverbacks rivalry have we as soccer fans been excited to see northern and southern Ohio go at it between the boards. So without any delay, let's look at both teams leading up to Saturday night.


Cincinnati Swerve: The Swerve come into this game 0-1 on the season. Losing their only M2 game so far to the Muskegon Risers 9-7. Their leading scorer in that game was Andrej Novakovic scoring 3 goals in that game. Also keep an eye out on Manny Adjei as he can score at will as well. We had a chance to speak with Swerve ownership about this weekend and here's what they had to say.

     " This is the first time we will have all of our players for the game. This will also be the first time we get to see how all of our players gel together and see how the line-ups will be adjusted from there. We know Cleveland is good. We will just have to compete as best as possible and adjust our game from there because the schedule will get turned up a notch after this weekend. As far as the overall match-up goes, we think this will be a great rivalry, Not only for the league, but for Ohio, The old Crunch/Silverbacks rivalry was great, and we feel this rivalry will be just as good if not better and should be great for the league. We can't wait to see what the future holds for both teams in this renewed in-state rivalry."


Cleveland Crunch: The Crunch come into the match-up 2-0, with both wins coming against the Muskegon Risers winning both games 8-5 and 10-5 respectively. Mike Derezic, Sammy Mutemwa, and the "captain" Dave Jordan are a few of the players to watch for the Crunch, but as we have seen the Crunch can attack and score with any line-up they use. The Crunch were the highest scoring team in M2 last year and this year they are keeping with that trend with a 9-goal average and a +8 goal differential. We spoke with Crunch head coach Lou Kastelic and got his thoughts

   " I'm looking and hoping for our team to play a complete game from start to finish. We will be at home again so there is no excuse for a slow start, and assuming we start fast like we did last weekend I will be looking for the guys to keep the pedal to the metal. We lost Tom Beck last week so we will need someone to step up and fill the void left by his injury. Those are big shoes to fill, but we have a group of young guys chomping at the bits for an opportunity." 


Dating back to last season, the Crunch are 7-0 ( the Crunch went 6-0 at home last season.) So far when they play at home. So playing the Crunch and beating them at home is obviously going to be a tough task for the Swerve. Kickoff will be at 7pm and tickets are on sale now.


~IT'S CRUNCH TIME!!~

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