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Palace Look For Improvement Against Puerto Rico

April 23, 2010 - North American Soccer League (NASL)
Crystal Palace Baltimore News Release


Baltimore, MD - Crystal Palace Baltimore look to bounce back on Saturday night after their disappointing opening day loss when they host the Puerto Rico Islanders at UMBC Stadium, 8:00pm EST. The Palace players will be desperate to get their first USSF D-2 points under their belt but will face a tough challenge against last season's CONCACAF Champions League semi-finalists.

Head Coach Jim Cherneski, spoke ahead of the game on Saturday: "In regards to last week's match, I think that overall we played OK. We sat back too much but we've worked on that in training this week; we have changed some things which I think will enable us to be more attacking. We also spent some time watching Puerto Rico's match against Minnesota this week and they're a very good side again this year. I think it will be a very entertaining match and one in which we'll hopefully come out on top".

The Puerto Rico Islanders will be in good spirits after beginning their campaign on Wednesday night with a comfortable 3-1 home victory over the NSC Minnesota Stars. The Islanders have enjoyed recent success in the league, finishing 1st in USL-1 in 2008 and 3rd last season, and will no doubt be looking to continue their good form and challenge for honors again this year. The team from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, has also enjoyed recent successes in the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition where the best club sides in North America, Central America and the Caribbean compete. In the 2008-2009 competition, the Islanders beat a host of Central American and Caribbean teams to reach the semi-finals, making it further than any Major League Soccer team. They opened their 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League account with a win over MLS side Toronto FC.

Tickets are only available online until 10:00am Saturday, but will be available at the UMBC Stadium gate one hour before the 8:00pm kickoff.

For those who are not able to attend the match, the game will be video streamed live at http://live.palacebaltimore.com (all technical problems with the live video stream have been resolved.) Highlights of last week's opening game vs. FC Tampa Bay can be seen on the same web page.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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