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Avoiding having to go up against the Euro 2016 final between Portugal and France on TV this afternoon, the Victoria Highlanders are happy to relinquish their usual Sunday afternoon home slot for a rare Monday night encounter at Centennial Stadium.
Lane United is in town for a United Soccer League Premier Development League fixture at 7:30 p.m. and this lone Monday blip on the home schedule couldn鈥檛 come at a better time.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great if watching the Euro final gets people wanting to come out and watch live soccer the next night,鈥� said Highlanders head coach Dave Dew.
Lane United is visiting from Eugene, Oregon, a pretty good sports town most famous for University of Oregon Ducks football and its running community, which is hosting the 2016 U.S. Olympic track and field trials for Rio, concluding today at Hayward Field.
Lane United carries the Eugene banner in soccer and, in keeping with its city鈥檚 impressive sporting ethic, has bigger goals in mind.
Its website states: 鈥淟ane United intends to field an additional, fully professional USL team in the near future.鈥�
But it鈥檚 PDL matters that are of immediate concern. Both Lane United (3-3-5) and the Highlanders (3-5-4) are looking at a difficult path to the playoffs, in which only the top two teams in the Northwest Division are guaranteed spots.
A potential third berth for the division is conditional on what happens in other divisions within the PDL Western Conference.
Northwest Division leaders Seattle Sounders U-23 and Calgary Foothills FC look to have the division鈥檚 two guaranteed playoff spots sewn up.
Victoria mathematically cannot place among the top two. It would need to win its final two games, against Lane United and next Sunday also at home against Portland Timbers U-23, just to have any hope of finishing third. Even then, for the Highlanders, so many results in games involving other teams would need to go their way.
Lane United features four players from Spain who play in the NCAA.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 quite an influence, so Lane possess the ball more than any other team in our division,鈥� Dew said.
Victoria will be without star attacking-midfielder Cam Hundal for the rest of the season. The flash-quick 2015 sa国际传媒 West and CIS national MVP out of the University of Victoria Vikes left last week to pursue professional trials in Germany.
The opportunity came about through the connections of Highlanders defender/midfielder Riley O鈥橬eill, the former NCAA University of Kentucky Wildcats standout and FIFA Under-20 World Cup player for sa国际传媒, who played professionally in the Finnish Premiership and the German second division.
It鈥檚 a great chance for Hundal, said Dew, noting the PDL is about developing players for the next level.
鈥淐am has pace and is able to take on defenders one-on-one,鈥� Dew said.
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