ENRICO Del Rosario, who plays for the Northern Kentucky Nitro, will see action in the USASA National Amateur Cup for the first time.
One of the nation’s oldest soccer tournaments, the USASA National Amateur Cup was established in 1923. It is the premier tournament for competitive amateur teams in the U.S.
Teams qualify for the tournament by entering at the state or regional level. The finalist from each of the four regions advances to the National Amateur Cup final which is hosted by one of the four finalists.
For Del Rosario, his main goal is to help his team win. “I’m just focused on playing to the best of my abilities and following my coach’s game plan,” he said. “It will be my first time playing in this tournament so I don’t know what to expect but I’m excited for a new challenge and hopefully we can come back with a win.”
Del Rosario has been playing for the Northern Kentucky Nitro for more than one season now, and they have reached the championship of the Ohio Valley Premier League.
He believes his team could go far in the national tournament. “I feel like our chemistry will be pretty strong despite missing quite a few players this weekend. I’m not too sure what our chances are in winning the title but I have confidence in this team and I’m hoping we can go very far and win it.”
Coach Sean Eubanks noted that they “have to travel a total of 12 hours on Saturday for our first-round match. It’s not ideal on Easter weekend, and we are missing well over 50% of our roster because of that.”
But he still has high hopes for his team.
Del Rosario will start at center back “and his performance will be vital to our success that day,” Coach Eubanks said.
“If Del Rosario, [team mates] Norman and Zorn’s reactions are quick defensively, I’m sure we can score a couple on the other end. We just need to keep them [the opposing team] out of our net as our first priority,” the coach added.
“Our team will…be playing [Springfield] the 2021 champions, so it will be a tough task,” he said. “But I’m confident that if we win this first match, we can win the whole tournament. But it will not be an easy day for travel at all.”
Enrico Del Rosario
