With the Silverbacks 3-2 win against the Georgia Revolution in Conyers on Tuesday, the team will move on to the third round of the 2013 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, where they will meet Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake.
In Tuesday’s second-round game, it was a story of firsts for several Silverbacks players. Defender Bobby Reiss, midfielder Mario Uribe, and forward Kellen Gulley made their full professional debuts, while midfielder Pablo Cruz notched his first career professional goal.
After practice on Wednesday, atlantasilverbacksfc.com caught up with the four players to get their thoughts on the experience.
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DEFENDER BOBBY REISS
“It was good to get the first start out of the way and good to get the nerves out in the first five minutes. I think I put in a decent performance. Of course, we don’t like to give up goals, and overall I think we made things a lot tougher for ourselves than we should of.”
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“I think we started the game a little slowly, and thankfully we had the lead both times we gave up a goal. It’s one of those things you just have to put behind you. But at the end of the day, we got a win and we’re moving on.”
“For us, we are going to take the next game like any other game. The Open Cup has proven that on any given day, any team can take anyone out. We’re on a little bit of a streak right now with two wins, and hopefully this weekend we’ll get a win and take that into Salt Lake City.”
MIDFIELDER PABLO CRUZ
“It was a great experience. I’m happy I got to start and I’m happy that I ended up getting a goal in the game.”
“I had a chance in the first half and I didn’t focus when I took the shot, so I was pretty upset with myself. In the second half, I got another chance off a counter-attack from the and Milton ended up finding me.”
“I just thought ‘shoot it, shoot it.’ The ‘keeper was pretty tall so I ended up shooting it low and it went in.”
“I’m pretty sure everyone is excited. I’m happy we were able to go through, and now we’re about to play a MLS team, which is a battle I’m really looking forward to.”
“Nothing is impossible. Yeah, they are in MLS, but we have a great team as well and hopefully things will work out for us.”
MIDFIELDER MARIO URIBE
“I was just really excited to be able to get in for 15 minutes and give it my best and help out the team anyway that I could.”
“I felt like I put a lot of pressure on their back line and made the other them commit a few mistakes. I was able to create some opportunities, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to capitalize. Next time, that will be a different story.”
“I feel really confident about our team and the way we’re playing now. I wouldn’t be surprised if we came out of there with a win. “
FORWARD KELLEN GULLEY
“I was told beforehand that I was going to go in if we scored a third goal. Fortunately we did, so I was excited to get in the game.”
“Next game is going to be tough with the altitude. I played there when I was on the Chicago Fire Reserves. It’s crazy because you’re used to playing at home and then you’re a thousand feet up and it’s different. It will be a test.”