PARAMARIBO, Suriname – SV Robinhood may be the lone amateur club in the Round of 16 of the 2019 Scotiabank Concacaf League, but that doesn’t mean its opponent, Club Atletico Independiente of Panama, will take the Suriname club lightly in Tuesday night’s first leg in Paramaribo.

“It will be a tough match against this team here in Suriname,” said Independiente captain Manuel Torres in Monday’s pre-match press conference. “I am not that familiar with them, but I imagine they advanced from the first round because they have a good level of football and so we come in prepared to play a good match and then be able to win at home.”

Sitting alongside Torres was Independiente Head Coach Fran Perlo, who was impressed by Robinhood’s quickness in its Preliminary Round series against AS Capoise of Haiti.

“We watched the two games Robinhood played against Capoise and my first impression is that it is an athletic team,” said Perlo. “It is a team that is very fast, a team that knows how it wants to play. They rely heavily on the play of their attackers and their defensive play should be respected, so we will require our best to face them.”

For Independiente, this is the beginning of a journey that it hopes ends with lifting the 2019 SCL trophy and making a return to the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League, where it reached the quarterfinals earlier this year in the 2019 edition.

Needless to say, the Canalero club is motivated by the challenge of starting off strong in the SCL.

“We come in very enthusiastic about playing a good series to then be able to reach the quarterfinals, but we know in front of us we have an opponent who wants the same thing. We know it’s going to be difficult, hard-fought, but we feel like we can play well and be the ones to qualify after 180 minutes,” said Perlo.