The Las Vegas Lights are visiting the Colorado Springs Switchbacks on Friday in their second and final meeting of the regular season. Here is everything you need to know:
WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 6:00 p.m. PT at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs, Colo.
WHERE TO WATCH: The match will be available to watch locally on SSSEN and streamed nationally on ESPN+ (subscription required).
2024 RECORDS AND STANDINGS: Lights: 7-7-6 (27 points, 6th West), Switchbacks: 8-8-3 (27 points, 5th West)
FORM GUIDE (all competitions, most recent first): Las Vegas: WWWDD, Colorado Springs: LLWWL
PREVIOUS MEETING: The Lights and Switchbacks played to a thrilling 3-3 draw last month at Cashman Field. Quenzi Heurman, Jairo Henríquez and Ronaldo Damus scored for Colorado Springs, while Joe Hafferty, Khori Bennett and Valentin Noël tallied for Vegas.
UNBEATEN RUN: Las Vegas is looking to pick up where it left off before its bye week last weekend. The Lights enter Friday’s match unbeaten in their last eight contests (4-0-4) including three straight wins.
AZCONA AT OLYMPICS: The Lights will be without attacking midfielder Edison Azcona, who is in France with the Dominican Republic national team for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
TWO NEW ACQUISITIONS: Las Vegas Lights will have the services of two new loan signings from Major League Soccer club CF Montréal in midfielder Ousman Jabang and defender Grayson Doody, who were signed through the end of the season.
ROAD TRIP CONTINUES: Friday will mark the third of four consecutive away matches for Vegas throughout the month of July. After wins at Sacramento Republic and El Paso Locomotive, the Lights will head to Colorado Springs before finishing their road swing at New Mexico United on July 31. Las Vegas returns to Cashman Field on Aug. 10 against Detroit City FC (TICKETS).
PLAYER TO WATCH: Ronaldo Damus, F
Damus scored in the first meeting between these two teams in June, and he leads the Switchbacks in goals with eight, which is tied for seventh in the USL Championship. No one else on Colorado Springs has scored more than three goals.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Lights FC defender Joe Hafferty
On getting back up to speed after the bye week…
It’s always good to let the mind rest and rejuvenate the body. It’s a long season and any opportunity you can get like this, you need to take advantage of it so you can continue to be competitive the whole season…Day one coming back from the break, we reiterated that the importance is picking up right where we left off competing and training and paying attention to the details. All the little things.
Lights FC Head Coach Dennis Sanchez
On the new loan signings of Ousman Jabang and Grayson Doody from CF Montréal…
I have a really good relationship with Laurent [Courtois], the head coach there. We worked together in Columbus. That’s how the idea came about. He spoke very highly of them as not only players, but people as well, and that’s been something that we’ve been really adamant about all year and intentional about in bringing in the right character first. They’ve been here for a little over a week now and pretty seamlessly fit into the group.
On the matchup with Colorado Springs on Friday…
If we look back to our last [meeting], two of the goals that we gave up were in transition moments, which is something that Colorado is very good at. They have some really dynamic players who have good behaviors when they win the ball to attack immediately. That’s been a key focus point for us this week.
