Atlanta Silverbacks

The Atlanta Silverbacks head to Cary, NC today to take on the Carolina RailHawks on Friday night (08.17.07) in their fourth meeting this season. The match will be extremely important for both teams as Atlanta looks to remain in the league’s top five and Carolina looks to break into one of the eight playoff spots.

Atlanta (10-7-5) is coming off three consecutive wins where they amassed eight goals and nine points. The ‘Backs took down the Charleston Battery 2-1, the Puerto Rico Islanders 3-0, and Miami FC 3-1. Atlanta’s line-up has suffered a few setbacks with various injuries, but the line-up should be relatively healthy and back to form for Friday night.

Carolina (6-10-7) has only won two of their last eleven matches, but they are coming off a decisive 3-0 win over the Charleston Battery on Tuesday night. The RailHawks’ leading scorer, Connally Edozien, stunned the Battery’s defense and put away a hat trick in the shutout which gave the RailHawks the 2007 Southern Derby Cup title. Friday night’s match is the final fixture of this year’s Southern Derby Cup, but Carolina’s win on Tuesday night gave them the title based on their points. The Silverbacks have won the Southern Derby Cup, a fan based competition created to promote rivalries between soccer teams in the South, four times since its inception in 2000.

The match kicks off at 7:30 pm at SAS Soccer Stadium in Cary, NC – fans can follow all the action live at www.USLLive.com. The Silverbacks will play their final home match on Saturday, September 1 at 7:55 pm at RE/MAX Greater Atlanta Stadium. For ticket information, call 1-866-GO-BACKS or 404-969-4900.