Less than 48 hours until this match, so how about some speculating on the starting line-up. Here is my guess: GK- GAL RB- Dean. RCB- Cupps. LCB- Elliott. LB - Gutman CM- Kouame. CM- D’Avilla. CM- Acosta RW- MHS. CF- Barlow. LW- Zinck Likely halftime subs- Cuypers, Gutierrez, Bamba, Glasgow
I am good with that and if we have the lead hopefully we do not need to sub in those subs and can rest them more.
I am fine with that line up, except for Barlow up top. We would be better with a 4-6-0 with MHS or Glasgow or Bamba starting in the advance position than "mighty" Tom Barlow!
I tried to pick a controversial lineup to stimulate the responses. What about the importance of the U S Open Cup to Fire? We will be playing a “regular” MLS team. Maybe everyone is worn out after a busy weekend.
Most dangerous? Matt Reis' mother, of course! Carles Gil is their top player. They are an excellent defensive team, with only 10 goals conceded in 12 matches, but they are pretty pathetic offensively, having only scored 12.
I think GGG is going to roll out the starters from Charlotte. Greg knows how important the US Open Cup is to the Fire fans.
******** Matt Reis. Where is the xtomx preview and poll for this game - do we not treat US Open Cup games as equivalent if not more important than the regular season? I’m a little worried that we cannot possibly keep winning on the road, but we keep winning on the road, so I keep worrying. I do expect to see mostly starters tomorrow, not just because our franchise values the cup, but also because our depth is still a little thin due to injuries and whatever is going with Mueller (hope everything is okay with his health, as well as his wife and newborn). So depending on whether New England takes the game seriously or not, I think we will win either 6-0 or 6-1.
I was going to make a thread today but this thread beat me to it, so I decided we did not need two threads on the match.
Sorry. I did not mean to replace your thread, just trying to get a conversation started. Your efforts are much appreciated.
Sick still. Might be pneumonia. Might be bronchitis. The doctor couldn't figure it out. Still gotta go to work, tho. And I'm getting there early so I can watch this game at 8:30AM. Something stupid happens, Barlow scores, please don't go into extra time.
Well, all of you missed this tap in like young Brian G missed the tap in on Saturday night, so: and Germans and Czechs and Brazilians and ... Hopefully, you will all recover as well as young Brian G did after that miss and have a terrific rest of your day!
I have a bad feeling about this game, but it is self-inflicted. I actually feel optimistic (I checked - there is no optimism thread for me to take it to!) about our chances tonight. That never bodes well for us, because I am an eternal optimist and we have sucked for feels like eternity.
I have a good feeling about tonight! We finally have some reasonable depth and some competition at a few positions for playing time! Will be interesting to see if GGG rolls out the same XI as we did against Charlotte or does some rotation and use the XI attackers as reinforcements.
Not the Chy-na Virus? Not sure about "dangerous" but I do miss Matt Polster because he was a competent #6/8. I would like to see Mueller get a run out in place of Barlow at some point in the #9 position. Right now he's gotta be pretty low on the winger chart behind Zinck, Bamba, MHS, & Glasgow. I've seen him sky a few over the bar but really could he do any worse than Barlow even if I do enjoy PBJ time gifs...