Julen Lopetegui has named his West Ham United team to start Saturday’s Stateside Cup fixture against Crystal Palace in Tampa, Florida.
The Irons will take on their English Premier League rivals at Raymond James Stadium, the historic home of the two-time NFL Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the second of which they won on home turf here.
Kick-off here is at 7pm EDT (12midnight BST) and the game will be available to watch worldwide on West Ham TV via whufc.com and our official mobile app, with passes available for the matches HERE, priced £4.99 each.
West Ham need to defeat their cross-London rivals by three clear goals to win the inaugural Stateside Cup, having fallen to a 3-1 defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers in Jacksonville last weekend, and Palace having defeated Wolves by the same scoreline in Annapolis, Maryland, in midweek.
Head Coach Lopetegui has named a strong starting XI, as you would expect with just 180 minutes of football to be played between now and the start of the Premier League season at home to Aston Villa on 17 August.
Alphonse Areola, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá, who all arrived at the Hammers’ training camp this week, will not be involved this evening, while Edson Álvarez is unavailable as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury suffered while playing for Mexico at the Copa América.
So that means Łukasz Fabiański starts in goal, as he did in Jacksonville last weekend.
It looks like a back five, with Vladimír Coufal, Dinos Mavropanos, Maximilian Kilman, Aaron Cresswell and Emerson, who is celebrating his 30th birthday today, all included in the team.
Ahead of them, the midfield will again be anchored by Academy of Football graduate Freddie Potts, who has returned to his parent club in pre-season after winning Player of the Year honours at EFL League One side Wycombe Wanderers last term.
James Ward-Prowse and Coufal’s compatriot Tomáš Souček, who like the right-back is also visiting the United States for the first time, fill out the midfield three.
A goalscorer at EverBank Stadium a week ago, Mohammed Kudus will support No9 Michail Antonio in attack.
Nayef Aguerd, Andy Irving and summer arrival Luis Guilherme are named among the substitutes, as are a selection of Academy of Football prospects, including George Earthy, Lewis Orford, Ollie Scarles, Kaelan Casey and Northern Irish pair Callum Marshall and Patrick Kelly.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal, Mavropanos, Kilman, Cresswell ©, Emerson, Potts, Ward-Prowse, Souček, Kudus, Antonio
Subs: Herrick (GK), Robinson, Kodua, Casey, Aguerd, Orford, Kelly, Scarles, Irving, Luis Guilherme, Earthy, Marshall
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Clyne, Riad, Anderson ©, Richards, Mitchell, Hughes, Schlupp, Kamada, Edouard, Ayew
Subs: Matthews (GK), Rodney, Umeh, Rak-Sakyi, Mathurin, Devenny
Referee: Rosendo Mendoza
