Will playing back to back games against the Power work in the CyberRay's favor? Will we re-discover our midfield play and be able to string more than 2 passes together? Will the defense try to communicate better with Dawn Greathouse than they have been with Keysh? Will the defense actually recognize each other out there? Will our forwards actually recognize each other out there? (Maybe the CyberRays need to have a "Meet The CyberRays" party for themselves. The way Ian Sawyers keeps switching lineups, they have no clue who their teammates are anymore.) Will Boof continue to play wide right, or will Sawyers actually have an epiphany that Boof is best in central defense and switch her back where she's not required to run up and down the field the whole game, taking years off the life of her knees? Will we find out that FearM9 is right and that Ann Cook is the missing piece of the puzzle on the field? Will someone besides Michelle French show up and decide to actually play soccer the entire game? WILL SOMEONE TAKE A #@(&ING SHOT ON GOAL??? Tune in to WUSA Matchtracker and find out! In the meantime, discuss.
With Brandi and Thori in Salt Lake City and Di injured the defenders left are Keri, Amanda, Kelly and Frenchie. I think it's safe to assume Kelly will be in the center. With Betsy Barr and Keysia and Sissi missing also, I doubt this is the best game with which to take stock of the CyberRays progress.
Bell plays D as well. Ah, but one never knows. The mind of Ian Sawyers is a strange and twisted place. True enough, but I'd still like to see 3 points. If we get those 3 points, then the game might hold some lessons for us.
Interesting. According to the pre-game notes, the starting lineup will be: Greathouse; Sanchez, Cromwell, Lindsey, French; Tisha, Cook, Barnes; Clemens, Pretinha, Katia. So they'll be missing six of (IMHO) their top eleven. If the roster were a little bigger, I'd actually start to wonder if a hypothetical team made up of CyberRays who aren't starting this game (Beene, Bryan, Alagich, Chastain, Barr, Sissi, etc) could be competitive with the eleven who are starting. It's definitely not a good sign when you've got (nearly) as much talent not playing as you have playing. This could be an ugly, ugly game.
While NY will have the same tall, strong players we saw at SJ last week, I think there could be some hope for the 'Rays tomorrow....I know, that's crazy talk considering who we will be missing, but read on... Maybe with Keysh away and *some* of the defenders away, it will give *coaches* a chance to see what a defense can do when they are not yelling at their keeper, and what the keeper can do when she is not being told by *defenders* what to do in her box! What a concept...the keeper calls the shots (no pun intended) when the ball is in her area, and gives instruction to the defense, rather then the other way around. *boggle* One would think that Boof would be back in her central D position, but one never knows. Boof wide anything is just insanity. 1) She is not a wide back 2) Her jacked up knees are legendary and she should never have to make runs like that (even though I'd love to see her score a goal or two). I have complete faith in Boof to play well anywhere she is put on the pitch, but let's have a little common sense here, people. *puke* Also, since *a certain defender* is away with the nats, I wouldn't be surprised to see more balls going through Frenchie, as they always should. She always has this nice, big open space in front of her, waving her arms wildly that she is WIDE OPEN, and the ball seems to rarely make it up that side, and then Frenchie is left standing there all alone, shaking her head and covering her face. The one game they actually went up the left, she had some beautiful assists. And if Sanchez is at right back, the 'Rays should DEFINATELY try to keep the ball on their left. So we went from having, what, 16 corners in one game to one or two shots on goal in a game or two. Can we please get over these weird mood swings? Goal....net...put the ball there....I would even be happy for us to go back to being the team with the highest hitting the posts percentage...at least that would mean the general idea is there...
I actually wouldn't be surprised to see Barr get some playing time. Even though she is listed with an adductor strain, they can wrap her up and see how she does with it. Just depends on the severity of the strain. She's fearless, and that's coming from someone who hasn't yet really seen what she's capable of. I also would never assume that we will see Boof back at central D where she belongs, because Ian has done some really weird things with the line up dating back to last season. We can hold out hope, though, that what makes sense to us will make sense to all! ;-)
listen online! I didn't see any mention of this anywhere, so aside from watching the reliable matchtracker you can listen to the game as well. Here's the link: http://hometown.aol.com/radiobrooklyn
It's hard to admit But the Rays are the worst pro team going right now. With Boof seemingly done with another knee injury, I can't see anything improving. And why the heck was Di out there on a pitch that bad? Doesn't Ian have a clue that she still has a knee injury? Ack...I'm going to go down and fire that idiot myself!