Baltimore MD - After a perfect start to the season with five consecutive victories in the league, Crystal Palace have hit a stumbling block, losing their last three outings, scoring just once and conceding seven in the process.

Their busy early June schedule consists of five matches in twelve days, including today’s US Open Cup 1st round clash in southern California where they face PDL (Premier Development League) side, the L.A. Legends - an unusually long trip for this round of the competition, which is supposed to pair opponents by region. But Palace will be hoping to turn adversity into opportunity.

Palace fans across the world will be pleased to learn that a live video stream of the match is scheduled to be broadcast on the internet on Tuesday, starting just before the 7:30pm kickoff, local time. That translates to 10:30pm in Baltimore and 3:30am on Wednesday in London. starting approximately 24 hours after the game, i.e. late Wednesday evening, Baltimore time.  The recorded video is expected to feature play-by-play commentary, footage edited together from multiple cameras around the field and graphics (for substitutions etc.)  We're told the recording will remain online for at least a week.   According to HI-POD’s website, the video stream will only work on a PC with Internet Explorer - the link for the webcast is www.hi-pod.com/tv   As soon as the stream is available, we'll post the news on the front page of our website.

Co-Managers Pete Medd and Jim Cherneski will be hoping to snap out of the recent run of poor performances, and for a better start to the 100-year old, single-elimination competition than last year, when the Baltimore team were knocked out in the 1st round in their first year of competition.

“We’re coming off two games in three days, then getting on a plane Monday and flying 2,500 miles, so our biggest concern is making sure the players stay fresh.” explained Cherneski. While he isn’t underestimating the L.A. Legends, he has high expectations for Palace in this competition: “Only 8 of 64 PDL teams qualified for this round, so they’re a good side, playing at a similar level to our league. We want to do well in the US Open cup and we've signed a good squad - it's important to us.”

Pete Medd was clearly unhappy about the draw: “It's ridiculous that we’re flying to L.A. to play in the 1st round of the US Open Cup, especially after two games this weekend. We’re still not sure how that happened - we’re told it was an unlucky, blind draw. But the Open Cup is very important to us - it’s a chance to showcase our players at the highest level.”

Medd questioned the communications between the USL and the US Open Cup administrations.: “It's just absurd that the US Open Cup cannot coordinate with the League to make this a scheduled part of the season, as they do with the FA Cup in England, getting all the parties involved and on the same page to the point where there are set US Open Cup weeks. The League doesn't schedule around it - they set their schedule first then the US Open Cup doesn't take League schedule into consideration.”

Due to suspensions that carry over from last year’s competition, both Sergio Flores and Harold Urquijo are ineligible to play. Alex Ughiovhe has almost fully recovered from his leg injury but won’t make the trip to California. He expects to be ready for Friday’s home fixture with second place Cleveland which kicks off at 7:30pm at UMBC Stadium.