We've quite nearly reached the end of our pre-season capers, and with a match today against New York Red Bulls we can seal a third-place finish in the Desert Diamond Cup. It's not exactly what we would've wanted, but these minutes for our newcomers will be absolutely essential.
Today, I'd expect to see a mixture again of experience and… less experience. We'll see something much closer to what we'll see in a week against Los Angeles Galaxy (and a week before we play New York Red Bulls — a bit odd, isn't it?), so taking something from this match would be nice.
I'm not sure how seriously New York will take the match, but we'd love a win regardless, wouldn't we? I've not much time this morning, so I'll give you a predicted lineup, and in a real shocker, I'll be done with it without rambling for a few hundred words afterward. (Maybe.)
So, let's see:
Reynish / Tanaka, Olave, Schuler, Beltran / Beckerman, Grabavoy, Gil, Velasquez / Espindola, Paulo Jr.
With, of course, the wholesale changes you'd expect sometime around the 90th minute. Let's see what we can do. The pairing between Espindola and Paulo Jr. will be essential, and we should get some time to see our attacking force really have at it. With a central pairing of Olave and Schuler — no Borlave, but a fine pairing indeed — some defensive solidity would help make things tick over in the midfield and attack.
Come on you Claret and Cobalt!
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