Are we all excited for tonight? I think the answer is a resounding "yes." If you're not planning to be at the Rio Tinto, I hope you're planning to watch this on the television box, listen on the radio, or watch online — this is going to be a momentous occasion, what with the return of one of our top all-time players: Javier Morales, king of kings.
Or, well, perhaps not "king of kings." That might be a bit sacrilegious. Or perhaps it's not. Anyhow, Javi's back, y'all! (Frenetic enough? Yes, I'm excited. Clearly.)
First, let's talk about last match, this match, and then we'll get on to some of the prediction nonsense and whatnot. (Who am I kidding? This is going to be about Javier Morales. How could it not?) After a staggering defeat against D.C., I'd expect Jason Kreis will only play a few players who came through that: Kyle Beckerman — as obvious a choice as any, Nick Rimando — big surprise there, eh?, Alvaro Saborio, Nat Borchers, and Luis Gil, who I don't expect will finish the match, what with Return of the Javi impending. Oh, and Chris Wingert. (Clearly, I didn't think that one through all the way. Still, you get the picture.)
Now, there'll be something interesting to watch: How does Luis Gil respond to the return of the player whose spot he's been filling? Obviously Luis is not going to be dropped flat out after tonight. Javi is not that fit, and Luis has been very good for us and deserves to continue his run. We've seen him at least once play in a utility spot, so we may see more of that.
Here's the thing: If everything hadn't fallen apart, and we hadn't lost Javi, we wouldn't be seeing nearly as much Luis Gil as we have, and we wouldn't see this young player's development so clearly. And while that's been exciting and certainly good for the kid, it's come at a cost we'd rather have not paid. Still, there's no regretting how we've treated young Luis, and I think he's grabbed the opportunity quite firmly.
Lineup Prediction
Rimando
Russell - Borlave! - Wingert
Beckerman - Johnson - Williams - Gil
Espindola - Saborio
Subs: Does it matter beyond one name? JAVI!
(Answer: Yes, it does matter, no matter how cool it is to have him back. Not to be a dream crusher or a buzzkill, but, well, you know.)
Right, that's about all I have for you right now, aside from one measly little request. Let's get something about Javi trending on Twitter today. Perhaps "Welcome Back Javi!" or something of that nature. Get the Twitter types to take notice — and perhaps we can get it trending nationally. I don't know — how do these things work, exactly?
Oh, and one more thing. How about we get a song going for him? "They call him Javi, Javi, faster than liiiiightning!" (OK, that's one I proposed for Paulo Jr., but I really like using the Flipper theme. It's a uniquely American chant and nobody's done it yet. At any rate!)
So, get on down to the RioT and let's have ourselves a good ol' fashioned Javi celebration. He deserves it.
(As a final note, you'll see I made it through the entire post without once mentioning that we're playing the Chicago Fire. This is probably because A) they're not very threatening, particularly away from home, even though they're on good form, and B) do you need to ask? I'm excited. So are you. 'Nuff said.)
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