Tropics all set for biggest week in franchise's short history

LAKELAND, Fla. – There may have never been a bigger week in local soccer than this one coming up for the Lakeland Tropics.

The second-year USL Premier Development League entry will take its biggest step to date Wednesday when they play their first-ever game in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on the road against the Midland-Odessa Sockers, who made the finals of the National Premier Soccer League last fall.

Kickoff for the first-round Cup showdown is set for 8:30 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast live at www.cujoo.com.

Three days later, the Tropics will open their 2018 PDL schedule, 14 games in all, with a 7 p.m. start Saturday night at historic Bryant Stadium with a visit by the Next Academy Palm Beach Suns.

“We're going to treat it like any other game, just win and advance to the next round. We're not trying to over hype it too much for the players,” second-year Head Coach Eoghan Conlon said about the team's Cup debut. “The approach we're taking is we'll just focus on Wednesday, and when Saturday comes, we'll focus on that then. We can't really mentally prepare for the two of them.”

Conlon will welcome a mix of key returnees along with some newcomers to face the Sockers, and then Suns, as part of the historic four-day stretch.

Ricardo Diegues is back to lead the offense, after scoring 10 goals in the outdoor season last year. Diegues was also the leading scorer for the Lakeland-based Florida Tropics of the Major Arena Soccer League which completed its second indoor season back in March. Linemate Victor Parreiras, the Tropics second leading scorer during their inaugural PDL season, will not play this week while recovering from knee surgery done after the indoor season came to an end.

Diegues is expected to be joined on the front line by by Eckerd College returnee Matheus Assumpcao. He was one of the Titans leading scorers in both his sophomore and junior seasons.

The midfield corps should include Caio Ruiz, returnee Gustavo Rodrigues and newscomers Lucas Couthnho (who was the Florida Tropics rookie of the year with nine goals and five assists in 19 games) as well as Bruno Henrique.

Backliners getting the call this week are returnees Ramzi Tourre, Ben Espinol and Caue Salgado and newcomers Fernando Machado, and James Paylor.

Another first-year player, Gustavo Vasconcelos, will get the start in goal Wednesday. The Brazilian native plays collegiately  at Florida Gulf Coast University, appearing in two games last fall after redshirting for the 2016 season.

Taylor. Espinol, Salgado, Henrique, Paylor and Rodrigues all come to the team by way of Southeastern University in Lakeland, where Clay Roberts is the men's soccer coach. Roberts, who won an indoor soccer championship as a member of the Philadelphia Kixx in 2007, has also served as head coach of the MASL Florida Tropics in their first twp seasons.

Two Tropics players will be having a homecoming Wednesday. Ruiz and Machado both played with the Sockers in 2016. Machado scored twice in 17 games. Ruiz also played in 17 games that year for Midland-Odessa. It's also a homecoming, of sorts, for Diegues who was a star player at UT-Brownsville, netting 57 goals in 64 career games.

Should the Tropics advance in the U.S. Open Cup, their second round game would be Wednesday, May 16, on the road again against San Antonio FC.

As for the regular season, Conlon said the team is ahead of where it was at this point last year.

“We have some consistency now from last season, in terms of what we want to do, how we go about play, what our expectation is, what our level is, and we want to continue forward with that this year with the additional players we've brought in,” Conlon added.

He too knows what to expect as well now.

“The aspect that we have to change from last season is we have to maintain our depth,” he added. “I think by the end of the season, we ran out of depth in terms of the quality. We've added that quality this year so we have to manage that quality as we progress. It's going to be a key part from this year to last year.”

Following the PDL opener. Lakeland will be on the road May 19 against FC Miami City, who also is playing in this year's Open Cup, and then be back home on Saturday, May 26, to host North County United.