River Plate Puerto Rico News Release -- www.rivercaribe.com
Friday, April 1, 2011
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- River Plate Puerto Rico opens the 2011 USL PRO season with a crucial match against Sevilla FC Puerto Rico in the Roberto Clemente Walker Stadium in Carolina, Puerto Rico on Saturday night at 8 p.m. EST.
It will be the first game in Puerto Rico of the USL PRO season, with both clubs making their first appearances in USL competition. In what appears to be an evenly-contested match, Sevilla will aim to take some revenge against River for knocking them out in the semifinals of last year’s SuperCopa DirecTV.
River, on the other hand, will try to maintain the excellent form shown last season and so far in the 2011 CFU Club Championship. Although River doesn't have all of the players from its SuperCopa winning side of 2010, the club has retained 80 percent of last year’s roster, plus the addition of Puerto Rican international Chris Megaloudis, who played for Sevilla last year.
River enters Saturday’s game having advanced from the opening round of the CFU Club Championship 2-1 on aggregate against the Cayman Islands’ Bodden Town, keeping the team in contention to reach the CONCACAF Champions League. If it should succeed, River would be just the second Puerto Rican club to participate in the competition.
Sevilla enters the contest coming off a 3-1victory in a friendly match against Bayamon FC and has high hopes to take points from the opening game of the season.
Certainly, both teams are eager to get the competition underway, with each setting out to try and fulfill its goal of becoming the 2011 USL PRO champion.