Drew Skundrich’s face conveyed his emotions better than words ever could. 

The Switchbacks midfielder was all smiles when talking about the United States Women’s National Team’s Andi Sullivan whom he married in December 2019. 

While Skundrich prepares for the Switchbacks’ Friday night tilt against Birmingham Legion FC, Sullivan is getting ready for the United States’ round of 16 match against Sweden in the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The two find moments to connect between training sessions when it’s the afternoon stateside and the morning across the globe. 

“It’s awesome, first and foremost, for her. For me to be so proud of her for accomplishing one of her dreams is to play in a World Cup. Another one of her dreams is to win a world cup,” Skundrich said. “It’s incredible for me to witness how much sacrifice, how much dedication, hard work she’s put in to get to where she is.”

Skundrich and Sullivan met as freshmen at Stanford University where they competed on the men’s and women’s teams respectively. 

Watching the USWNT’s opening group stage games was simple enough with kick off times of 7 p.m. locally, but for the team’s match against Portugal which had a 1 a.m. start, Skundrich went to bed at eight so he could be up at night to watch Sullivan.

He admires how his better half, and fellow midfielder, hustles on the pitch. 

“She does the dirty work. I’m kind of similar, I can appreciate that,” he said. “I think that’s one of the underappreciated things in the game is cutting out passes, being where you need to be, where you’re supposed to be defensively, staying organized. Just kind of doing those little things, they add up over time. But you might not always see. It’s not the flashy type plays, but that type of stuff she’s really good at.” 

The other members of the team get into it as well, Skundrich said. The club watched one of the USWNT’s matches during team dinner while the Switchbacks were in Phoenix for a match. 

“We had lots of guys that maybe aren’t really interested or weren’t interested in women’s soccer before, they’re asking a lot of questions, they’re watching the game saying, ‘oh this is awesome’,” he said. “Obviously we have some international guys so it’s been fun talking back and forth with them with the USA, Germany, Sweden, Norway all these teams it’s been fun.”

Switchbacks face Birmingham Friday

As Sullivan gets ready for the USWNT match Sunday, Skundrich and Switchbacks host Birmingham Legion Friday night. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. 

Skundrich summarized Colorado Springs’ game plan with one word: aggressive. 

“Have to be the dictators with the tempo, style of play, all that stuff,” he said. “We have to take hold of the game early. We have to take it to them.”

Coach Stephen Hogan echoed Skundrich’s words saying the team will play with an aggressive lineup Friday that, if executed properly, could score a slew of goals. 

“We are an aggressive staff. We’re just managing it a little bit with this roster,” Hogan said. “We have to manages certain things differently after learning a lot of the personalities over the last six months. So we’re at the point now it’s like, ‘This is what we’re doing, this is what we’re doing at home, this is what we’re on the road’ and honestly if it works it’s very exciting.”

Defensively, goalkeeper Joe Kuzminsky has gotten the start over Christian Herrera in the club’s last two matches. Herrera was leading the league in saves at the time of his benching. Questionable decision making in practice and in games are the reason for the change. While Herrera is working to regain his spot in the starting eleven, the club has relied on the services of veteran keeper and Denver native Kuzminsky.

“Joe’s an experienced goalkeeper who has been in the league for years so there’s no questions, no qualms about putting him in the goal and that’s what he has to do. He has to keep the position, he has to keep the job because Christian’s back knocking on the door,” Hogan said.

Colorado Springs enters Friday’s contest with a 9-11-2 record and seventh place in the USL Championship’s Western Conference. Birmingham is 9-9-2 and sixth place in the Eastern Conference. 

Forward Romario Williams leads Colorado Springs in goals with eight. Forward Deshane Beckford leads in assists with four. 

For Birmingham, midfielder Enzo Martinez leads in goals and assists with eight and five respectively. Forward Prosper Kasim also has five assists on the year. 

Matt Mahoney, left, and Drew Skundrich celebrate a goal against New Mexico United.

Isaiah Downing, Special to The Gazette