The matchups for mid-December’s second round proper of the Copa del Rey have been set, with Yunus Musah looking to repeat his recent man-of-the-match performance and several other Americans also liking their chances to go through.
The second round once again omits the four teams playing in January’s Supercoppa de España, meaning that Sergiño Dest and Barcelona will wait until the next round to enter the competition.
The format avoids pitting La Liga teams against each other, and automatically grants the lower-ranked team the home-field advantage.
Of the four Americans whose teams are competing in this round – Yunus Musah, Matt Miazga, Shaq Moore and Matthew Hoppe – only Moore and Tenerife will be able to play in their home stadium since they drew fellow La Liga 2 team Eibar.
This is perhaps the toughest matchup for Moore and his teammates, who needed a full 120 minutes to go through in Thursday’s first-round win over Ibiza Islas Pitiusas, as it pits the divisions current second-place team, Eibar, against Moore and his compatriots, who are in third place heading into the weekend action.
Yunus Musah put in virtuoso performance for Valencia, scoring one goal and setting up another, as they had no problems to dispatch of their sixth-division opponents Utrillas. They will face a team all the way up in Spain’s third division, CD Arenteiro, for the honor of reaching the final 32 of the competition.
Matt Miazga and Alaves needed more than an hour to get their wheels turning against sixth-tier side Unami, but eventually came out 3-0 victors, and will visit Linares Deportivo, who are also competing in Spain’s third level.
Matthew Hoppe’s Mallorca also advanced, and will play against fourth-division team UD Llanera, however with the American still recovering from injury, he will not take part.
The second-round games are set to in the midweek in two weeks from Tuesday, December 14 until Thursday, December 16.
Copa del Rey Second Round Draw
Linares – Alavés (Matt Miazga)
Tenerife (Shaq Moore) – Eibar
Llanera – Mallorca (Matthew Hoppe)
Arenteiro – Valencia (Yunus Musah)
