It’s about time, I think, that August gets over with and we get a chance to bury this run of form deep in the sand-like kitty litter it belongs in. I don’t mean to be a doom merchant, but it’s really just a bad record, full stop. Is it the end of our season? Hardly. Will things get easier from here? I hope so. But internationals may scupper those plans a bit.
Yes, we’ve got Jean Alexandre going off with Haiti (congratulations, kid), Alvaro Saborio hoping to help Costa Rica qualify for the World Cup, Arturo Alvarez hitting the road with El Salvador, Will Johnson taking off, eh, with the Canadians, and the indomitable Kyle Beckerman making his mark on the U.S. Men’s National Team. Unless something has changed, Kyle will only play the latter of the two matches, as apparently Jurgen Klinsmann is looking to curry favor with Real Salt Lake, or perhaps he’s a decent national team manager who wants to have good relations with clubs, or, you know, something like that.
Briefly, the international matches our players are going to be involved in:
- Jean Alexandre (Haiti): Sept. 2 v. U.S. Virgin Islands, Sept. 6 v. Curacao
- Arutro Alvarez (El Salvador): Sept. 2 v. Dominican Republic, Sept. 6 v. Cayman Islands
- Kyle Beckerman (U.S.A.): Sept. 6 v. Belgium
- Will Johnson (Canada): Sept. 2 v. St. Lucia, Sept. 6 v. Puerto Rico
- Alvaro Saborio (Costa Rica): Sept. 2 v. USA, Sept. 6 v. Ecuador
Right, so let’s get on with a bit of a match preview and I’ll leave you alone for a few hours. (If you’re very good, mind. If you’re not...)
The Match Preview
We’ll be fielding a weakened side, no doubt, simply because our players are all somewhat crocked. Please refer to yesterday’s Injured XI for more on this, but some of those players will certainly play.
At the back, Nick Rimando will likely make an appearance, particularly as he traveled, but there are a few question marks over his fitness right now. Kyle Reynish, his hopefully reliable backup, is out with an ankle knock, so expect Tim Melia to be warmed up and ready from the early minutes as a precaution.
If we’re very lucky — and I mean no offense to the stature and ability of Chris Schuler — we’ll have our very own Olave mopping up at the back. His injury was certainly avoidable (no weird mid-season friendlies, eh?) and unfortunate, but there’s not much to be done about that now. He’s incredibly close to a return, so I hope that’s tonight.
Depending on the fitness of Robbie Russell and Tony Beltran, we may end up seeing our first glimpses of Blake Wagner on the pitch for the Claret and Cobalt. I do like seeing new players, and of all positions on the pitch, full backs don’t take incredibly long to slot into our formation. It’s not that it’s necessarily an easy position or an uncomplicated one, but full backs, you know, get forward, get back, get forward again, get back again, ad infinitum.
In the middle, we’ll likely see Collen Warner and Arturo Alvarez make appearances again, and they’ll be hoping to make amends for their performances against Houston. Kyle Beckerman’s a shoo-in for the Beckerman position (who else could do it like he does?), and the top position in that midfield diamond will go to one of Luis Gil or Andy Williams. It would, at this point, be hard to drop Luis Gil, but we do have to worry about his continued fitness.
Up front, Saborio should make another appearance and continue his search for goals on the season. He’ll be partnered with whoever may be fit, which may or may not be Fabian Espindola. Paulo Jr. has traveled and may be starting, though there’s a deal of uncertainty in that section of play.
As for the Chivas factor, they lost at Portland in midweek, so we may have some hope of outlasting them over 90 minutes. I hate to be repetitive (I don’t really hate it, actually) but we really, really need to be claiming points from these games-in-hand. We’ll also have to contend with the enormous press-created figure of Juan Pablo Angel, so I guess that’ll make a difference as well. Really, though, if play well, there’s nothing to worry too much about. Yes, I suppose I come from that school of thought.
So, the predicted lineup:
Rimando
Russell - Olave - Borchers - Beltran
Warner - Beckerman - Alvarez
Gil
Saborio - Paulo Jr.
Hours, then, and we can search for a win. I'm not going to buy into the rhetoric about revenge, though expect to hear plenty about that. Calmer heads, I hope, will prevail tonight.
Come on you Claret and Cobalt!
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