Ryan Hollingshead is so often the tireless beating heart of a hugely talented LAFC side. Having dusted himself off from a dramatic defeat to the Columbus Crew in Sunday’s Leagues Cup Final, he’s now more than ready to step into the breach again with a place in another Final – this time, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – on the line against the Seattle Sounders in Tukwila, Washington.
Having won this country’s oldest prize once before, in 2016 with FC Dallas, Hollingshead knows better than most how “huge it would be” for LAFC to bring home an Open Cup trophy for the first time…
Condolences on a tough loss in Sunday’s Leagues Cup Final. Is it a good thing to have another knockout game to jump right into – the U.S. Open Cup Semifinal against the Seattle Sounders?
Ryan Hollingshead: It doesn’t matter what the competition is or who the opponent is, you just want to get back out onto the field and play a game as soon as you can. It was a huge let-down for us, being seconds away from a shootout, right there with a chance to win the game. It’s hard to bounce back, but that’s the thing with sport – there’s no time to feel bad or sad or to wallow. You have to bounce back right away. There’s a game right after and you just want to get back out on the field and get going again.
It’s a really quick turnaround from a road Final on Sunday to a road Semifinal on Wednesday – what do those days in between look like?
RH: At this stage in the season, with midweek games coming at you fast, there’s not much training. You just try to get in as much as you can, get your body ready and do the recovery you need. We’ve had a good rotation going, with guys who’ve started some games and others on the bench who are ready to step up and get going. This is important in circumstances like these.
