Reserves find feet, win 2-1 over Chicago Fire; Mansally, midfield impress

Finally, things are returning to normal. Today's reserves match proves it: There's soccer again — and not just your internationals, but real, genuine, club football. The heavens be praised; it's back! Less important than that — but only just — is the result of today's reserves match, a 2-1 win over Chicago Fire's reserves side. Let's talk.

The boys looked good. All sorts of good. Like, surprisingly good. Our reserves have, at times, looked distinctly average. Or even outclassed. But today, that wasn't the case. Everyone looked aware, ready to make a difference, and inspired. From the back to the front, there wasn't a spot that made me shake my head. Perhaps it will be easiest to run down the lineup. I've got some tactical notes, so I'll touch on those, too.

Kyle Reynish has, at times, looked lacking in confidence. We saw that against Minnesota, and we saw it a bit against FC Dallas. We even saw a glimpse of it today. But when it counted, he was there. One spilled save — his shakiest moment of the night — didn't lead to another. The one moment was quickly cut out and he returned to some commanding form. When things could have got worse for him, he made some tidy, effective saves. Even some with a sense of the spectacular. We know he's a better keeper than the last few matches have seemed to indicate, and it's nice to see him get back to that a little bit.

The back line took on a couple different looks, so let's go over those. The central pairing was consistent: Chris Estridge and academy product Carlos Salcedo. Salcedo, who was highly rated during pre-season, looked assured and confident in his role, though for most of the match, he was untroubled. We saw him in more of a Borchers-role, while Estridge played more in the Olave role. I mean, that's a rough read of that, at least. Clearly, Estridge does not have the strength and power of the Colombian, but he was surprisingly strong. It is continually interesting to me that Estridge is being played in the center during such matches — perhaps it is a good sign that he's being trusted there. This is especially true, because there's one player that should be making him fearful for his position on the squad.

Kenny Mansally, who I've reported on briefly while discussing training, played as a left back in the first half. A few things are immediately apparent when watching Mansally. One: He's strong. Two: He loves to attack. Three: He's good. Like, good enough to make the squad good. Good enough that in the absence of Chris Wingert, he'd get a start there. I clearly don't know everything going on behind closed doors, but I'd imagine that something interesting will happen soon. Don't assume, though, that it just means the exit of young Chris Estridge.

But why? The second half does something to explain. Mansally stepped out of his left back spot to start the second half, and Argentine full back Matías Quiroga stepped in. But Mansally didn't exit the match at that point: Instead, he moved further up the pitch. In fact, there wasn't much chance he could have gone further forward, as he was playing in the position so named. (Forward, I mean.) He partnered Cody Arnoux for his remainder of time on the pitch, and it was surprising — he looked good. Ready. A strong partner. Somebody who could make the first team there, too. He's got pace, style, vision — in fact, I'm struggling to imagine why he was released from New England Revolution.

I'm suspecting that we will soon see Mansally signed. What that means for the squad, I don't know. But his ability to play on the flanks and up front in a style that fits our system speaks volumes. I'm hopeful that something happens soon. (Shall I praise him some more? I could, you know.)

The other full back — and I bet you'd forgotten that's what we were talking about — stayed on for 90 minutes. Terukazu Tanaka looked, well, good. He gets forward really well — at times playing where you'd suspect a forward might play, pressuring the ball, chasing down the goalkeeper, those sorts of things — but he made some good decisions defensively, too. He's not too much of a mystery, though, which plays into his favor. I'm hopeful that he'll continue to improve in defense and treat competition with Tony Beltran in a genuine way. One thing: He found space on the flank really well in attack. He was always open for a big switch from Tony Beltran, which was great. But as great as he looked, he just seemed to shut off a bit in the last 10 minutes — exactly when you don't want your players to switch off. Perhaps it was fatigue.

Matías Quiroga, the Argentine full back on trial, did well during his time in the second half, getting forward well and swinging some effective crosses in. It's always nice to see that, but he'll have a hard time getting past Mansally in our thinking right now. Still, Quiroga looks like he could make a name for himself — and if we signed him, I wouldn't be upset.

Moving forward to the midfield, we've got more to talk about. There weren't any real surprises — no trialists or such — as we've got a very strong midfield as is. Playing in the patented Kyle Beckerman spot, Yordany Alvarez broke up play well when Chicago decided they wanted to attack. His passing was efficient if not spectacular, and generally, he was good back there. When things got late, Nico Muñiz joined him back there and our shaped changed to a very Spanish 4-6-0. More on that later, though. (To clarify: Spain, in their opening match Euro 2012, played six midfielders, three of them ostensibly attacking midfielders.)

Jonny Steele, who played the first half, showed off that famous left foot of his. His ability to pick out a pass from anywhere on the pitch is rather brilliant. We don't always need a long pass, but when we do, there are few players I'd want ahead of him. It's always striking, too, how much he communicates on the pitch — and yells, of course.

Javier Morales — oh, Javi, that brilliant playmaker — played the first half and looked like the creative player we love. He's such a vital player for this squad, so seeing him looking back to his old self is hugely important. Luis Gil is great, but he doesn't inject himself into play the way Javi does. Of course, few players in this league do.

Sebastian Velasquez, for his part, played with fire in his eyes. His late goal was the product of hard work and excellent awareness, and it's clear that he was taking at least this match seriously. He played largely as a box-to-box midfielder in the first half, but at times, he was dancing on the edge of the Chicago box. He's a magical player on his day, but more striking for me is his work rate. It's so easy for young, talented players to forget to defend, but he does so resolutely. He's got to be in Kreis's thinking basically all of the time, and that's down to his mentality and hard work on the pitch. In the second half, he moved into the Javier spot, and while he, too, could have injected himself more, there were some magical moments on display. But once Cody Arnoux came off, he moved further forward as we commenced our rather Spanish display of midfield verve. He played some spectacular balls for Jordan Allen (and really made things tick over from up front. As he displays every time he's on the pitch, he specializes in keeping the ball under pressure.

RSL-AZ academy star Jordan Allen, in his short time on the pitch, showed why he's one of the top prospects in the nation — 5th in the nation for the class of 2013 and a member of the US Under-18s as a 16-year-old — with good movement, attacking play, and more. At times, he has featured as a right back for the nation, but you lose some attacking talent when you put him there. He came on and didn't look at all phased. Perhaps we can sign him. Perhaps we won't. But it speaks well about our academy that he's there, and all expectations are that he'll have a brilliant career.

Enzo Martinez, who has been the subject of question marks following his lack of playing time to this point, came on for the second half and showed that he's starting to look like a player who could make it to the first team before the season's end. He's being brought along by a very talented group of coaches (see: Luis Gil) and could soon, I think, really turn heads. He was good on the ball, displayed some good vision, and generally looked improved from the last time I saw him run out for the reserves. More time is needed, but if he remains patient and works hard, he'll find real joy for this side.

Late on, we also saw some Ned Grabavoy after he came on for Cody Arnoux. He was part of the 4-6-0 I described, playing in the playmaker spot. He didn't really see too much of the ball, but when he did, he was, well, Ned. He didn't quite have the fire in his eyes he has during first-team matches, but I wouldn't really fault him for it. He did very well to slot home a penalty to put our side up, and if I'm not mistaken, he was fouled to win the penalty in the first place. Good on him.

Up front, we got a good look at a very active, involved Cody Arnoux. After spending so long out of the side with injury, he's finally looking to have come back to health, and with that, he's starting to look like a valuable backup striker. I won't go so far as to say he could replace Saborio — perhaps someday, but that's not a concern right now — but he's very much in that mold. While some of his headed balls were placed right at the keeper, he looked quite good. He found space well, made good runs, supported the defense when necessary. It was a full-fledged performance from the striker.

We also saw a trialist in the form of Chris Tweed-Kent (the kid's got a spectacular name, hasn't he?) who looked to have a spark to him. Still, he didn't do too much, and he won't be threatening our forwards with his play. Perhaps we didn't see the best of him, but he's only just out of college, so I wouldn't expect too much from him right now. Does he sign? I don't know. I can't imagine so — but stranger things have happened.

Right, so let's talk about that 4-6-0, shall we? Our array of attacking midfielders meant that we had a chance to see some of them together in this cosmopolitan shape. At the end of the match, the midfield was composed of essentially two sets of three, one more defensive and the other more attacking. On the defensive side: Yordany Alvarez, Nico Muñiz and Enzo Martinez. On the attacking side: Ned Grabavoy, Sebastian Velasquez and Jordan Allen. With no forwards on the pitch, we lacked a central point — someone like Saborio to ping long balls to, or someone like Espindola to find loads of space on the flanks. While that's not always a great approach, it can sometimes work wonders. There was real creativity everywhere, and with Ned, Sebas and Jordan moving reasonably freely in attack, you got the feeling that there were goals to come. Wonder of wonders, there were two, and we won our first reserves match. Was it down to the formation? Hardly. We looked threatening throughout, and we could have had goals earlier. But if the future of our game is with our midfield — and I firmly believe it is — we're in good shape.

Well, 'til next time. Perhaps that will be tomorrow. I'd like very much to continue this midfield future talk, but I think I've probably bored all four of you to death.