The Hailstorm are off on the first of two early season trips to the Queen City.
Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC’s second game in the USL League One season sees the team head on the road for the third of the eight straight road games to start the year. The Hailstorm enter the match unbeaten, coming off a 1-0 upset win over the Colorado Springs Switchbacks in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 1-1 draw last weekend against the Richmond Kickers.
On the other side of the field, Charlotte Independence enter after falling to North Carolina Fusion’s Under-23 USL League Two side in the U.S. Open Cup and drawing an exciting 3-3 game with Central Valley Fuego FC in their first league match of the season. The match with the Fuego saw three goals scored after the 80th minute, taking it from a 2-1 Independence lead to a draw in stoppage time.
Both the Hailstorm and the Independence were on the bye on the first USL League One matchday.
Winger Ethan Vanacore-Decker scored the first league goal in Hailstorm history in the tie against Richmond, entering the club’s history books alongside winger Jerry Desdunes, who scored the only goal of the match against the Switchbacks in the U.S. Open Cup three days prior.
Forward Irvin Parra generated five chances against the Kickers, which ties him for the league lead in chances created with Richmond’s Nil Vinyals, who has played one more game.
Despite scoring three goals there was a lack of chances created by the Independence in their last outing. Only coming up with seven chances in the match, they made the most of their opportunities with Tresor Mbuyu scoring twice and Shalom Dutey adding the other goal. Ayrton Paez, Diego Rocha, and Miguel Ibarra were the key figures in creating those opportunities.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. MDT at the American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. Expect a wet pitch from rain earlier in the day and the chance for it to continue into game time. The game, as with all USL League One and U.S. Open Cup games this season will be broadcast on ESPN+.