Yo Smoke:

Hey, haven't had a chance to look at these boards much lately. It's good to have the first game in the rear view to further discuss some of your points I think.

I think Coach Shore, like a lot of people in the pro sports arena, sometimes says the things he's supposed to say rather than the things he might like to say. No one will convince me that Traffic was not telling him at times which players needed to see playing time in the past. Considering all the money Traffic invested in the league, and their desperation to start recovering some of it, I'm positive they wanted some of their players showcased. Don't know that it did them a lot of good, but I can't shake the feeling that was the case at least in some instances last year. This year with the only remaining sign of Traffic around being the lonely sign on the field away from all the others, we shall see what Shore does. So far I'll give him good marks, as it seems under the constraints of a tighter budget he has what looks to be a potentially very good lineup. Edmonton was touted as being much improved this year, and we dominated them, even after going down a man.

I continue to stand by my comments that Morales is doing nothing more than keeping other players from getting valuable minutes. I purposely watched him a lot Saturday night. He spent most of his time chasing the ball after unsuccessfully challenging for it, or hustling to get back on defense because he got caught too far upfield and Edmonton was constantly counter-attacking in the area he had vacated. As soon as Otte is healthy, I would very much like to see him get a shot in MF over Morales. From what I saw in preseason, Otte showed much better defensive responsibility and awareness, and he had far better chemistry with Laing, Anderson, Restrepo and Herron in creating chances offensively.

I was surprised Orozco was not in the starting lineup. The Strikers never give out injury news so I wonder if that was the reason. So they moved Stewart inside with Stahl, and put the kid Blake at right back. He looked a bit tentative and hesitant going forward, preferring to make double sure he was covering defensively, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Laing spends a lot of time making runs, so having the back on the opposite side play more defensively (like I think Stewart will as well if he shifts back out there) provides good balance. I'll be interested to see who the back four are this week.

To me, Lorenz and Restrepo were the players of the match, and I think that says a lot about what seemed to be the possible weak link of the team coming into the season, which was MF. Shanosky was a bit shaky, and you know my opinion on Morales , but I think Lorenz and Restrepo were so good that overall the MF was the key to the game. If Shanosky can play more solidly in that defensive MF role, it gives Lorenz and Restrepo a lot of freedom to move around and key the attack. If they both continue playing at the level we saw Saturday, this team is going to be very good this year. I think Restrepo imparticular is going to be the key man for us. Herron will score a lot of goals this year if he gets consistent good service from Restrepo and Lorenz.