I'm just kind of fudging the lineups here but I think this what our basic depth chart boils down to.. First team: Rimando Petke Ivanov Reyes Nelsen Etcheverry Convey Olsen Kovalenko Stewart Quaranta Second team and reserves: Warren Behonick Prideaux Stokes Swann Namoff Alegria Quintanilla Woodworth Carroll Curtis Stoichkov Eskandarian I think it's safe to say that we have improved both our starting XI and our bench this off-season.. This is probably how an intersquad match would look like: -------------------- Rimando -------------------- Reyes --------------- Ivanov -------------- Petke --------------------- Nelsen --------------------- Olsen --------------- Etch --------------- Convey ------------- Quaranta ----- Stewart ------------ vs. -------------------- Warren --------------------- Swann -------------- Stokes ----------- Prideaux --------------------- Carroll --------------------- Woodworth --------- Namoff ------------- Alegria -------------------- Quintanilla ------------------ --------------- Eskandarian ----- Stoichkov ------ Curtis Behonick Not bad.. Not too bad at all......
Agreed. I especially like the potential versatility of those bench midfielders. Chino and Namoff we know about, but Carroll and Woodworth sound just as versatile and possibly better as well. Prideaux off the bench is a big step up from the end of last season, where we had to move Namoff back there just to have 3 fit defenders on the field. The team clearly has better individuals on it than last year, and by all means should be much better. Your starting XI is missing Kovalenko, BTW.
That's because he already got red carded during warmups for taking his own player down from behind...sorry, couldn't resist.
Wow. On paper our team really has improved. I think that 2nd eleven is about as good as DC's starting eleven from wRongen's last season. The central midfieled spots will be interesting to follow. hopefully Nelsen can step up at D-mid like he did in central defense last year.
You can bet Prideaux will be working pretty damn hard to get into that starting 11, making the rest of the defenders work that much harder. I'd rather start him than Petke in the beginning I think, but I guess it's up to RH to make those decisions.
I would tend to agree, but Hudson seems pretty clear that as of now, it's Petke's spot to lose. That left marking back position is what Prideaux did so well on the 2001 Wizards team that won MLS Cup.