RSL sets out to keep fitness high with friendly against BYU

For the first time in some time, we've not got a true, competitive match to deal with today, and I must confess, my nerves are thanking me quite heartily. Ah, the excitement of seeing the squad and some football today is there, but I'm not so worried about a win — but let's be honest, we're playing a college side in pre-season. If we can't beat them, well — we're in some real trouble with these reserves, aren't we?

The match, intended to give our side something to do during the bye-week-break, should give us a wonderful little chance to see some of our lesser known players, and it gives the Provo sorts a chance to see our side where they may not normally have the opportunity, so that's quite nice, too. Spreading the love and, in a word, what not.

I'm under the impression everyone will play basically one half of football, though I could be wrong. I'm not certain whether we'll see a mix of veteran and rookie, or whether we'll just see the veterans first (or second) and the rookies (or, if you will, less experienced players) in the other half. Either way, I'm not too upset by it, and this does give the younger players a relatively unusual opportunity to learn from our best and brightest in a match-day situation. Such is the nature of the reserves league that we cannot afford them much opportunity to do so.

Rather than predict a starting lineup (yes, yes, I know, I really should and all that), I'd like to run through some of the players I'm rather excited to see on the pitch, starting from the back. I'll focus on players who, for one reason or another, haven't seen the pitch more than a few times this season.

Lalo Fernandez. The kid's an outstanding young goalkeeper locked behind the best goalkeeper in MLS and ostensibly the best backup goalkeeper in MLS. All the same, he's a bit outstanding himself, from what little bits and pieces I've seen of him. He's homegrown, too, so that's nice. Anyhow, he's of the lanky build, has superb reactions, and has reportedly a great sense for pass accuracy. I'll not heap expectations on him, but it will be nice to see him. If all goes well, though, he won't be seeing the ball often, so maybe it's of little consequence.

Leone Cruz. The young central defender is someone we chased for some time, what with his rights being held by Seattle — this is why we traded away that English chap Andy Rose. Rose seems to have seen the pitch for the "rave green" side, but Cruz holds a good deal of promise. He's also got a bit of a radical hair cut, so there's that.

Terukazu Tanaka. The lad's not a rookie, but he's new to our system. I'm hopeful that he's coming along in his English and is learning to communicate with our defense. The revelation that Nat Borchers speaks Spanish to Olave on the pitch at times speaks to an interesting notion: What if Tanaka just learned Spanish? Anyhow, he's got a spectacular cross and ability to get forward, so I'd love to see that on the pitch.

Chris Estridge. The kid's a feisty young full back who can play in the midfield. It's like he's custom-built for our side. (On another note, does anyone else think Tony Beltran could play in the midfield in a pinch?) He ousted Diogo to earn a spot in the side, and that's got to say something. I'm not entirely sure what. Anyway, he's a bit of an unknown, so that's part of why I'd quite like to see him.

Enzo Martinez. Our draft picks have been moderately successful this season, I think, right? Well, Enzo might be an exception. That's not to say that he hasn't been slotting into the side or any such, but I think a lot of us (perhaps wrongly) expected he'd be the one seeing minutes at this point of the season, not one Sebastian Velasquez. Enzo, though, has had to adapt his game a bit more, and I'm hopeful that he's reached that point. A chance to show his stuff against a non-reserves opponent might be just what this kid needs — even though this is a friendly.

I'm also quite interested to see if Cody Arnoux and Nico Muñiz have sufficiently recovered from injury to see time on the pitch. My hope is a big ol' "yes."

So, there you have it. Not much of a match preview, but when you're playing against a college side, it's really hard to write about the other team without doing real, bonified research. We all know how I abhor that.

Right, see you out there. Come on you Claret and Cobalt!