Interesting. The Fire website indicates that the Fire played a 4-4-2 with 3 defenders and 5 midfielders. No Wonder they are struggling!
Honestly, I like Zavagnin, but I really think he is going to be on the bench. A lot of people have been saying for awhile the Gomez should be a DMid, and I like that idea really with him and Talley in the middle.
Unless there is something we as fans arent seeing leading in to the season, I totally disagree with putting Zavagnin on the bench. As noted by many posters, Zavagnin wins so many balls in the defensive 3rd of the field its hard to count them all. He isnt the offensive threat Gutierrez or Talley are, but our defensive midfield talent goes down if Talley replaces Zavagnin. (At least based on the last three seasons of action) Zavagnin is one of those players you dont notice when the team is playing well.
I think it is more likely you'll see Guti and Talley as d-mids with Z challenging Talley. Conrad, Garcia and Burciaga will make up the back three. Gomez will challenge for the mid positions, but likely start on the bench.
Apparently the FIU guy who scored on KC might have a future in this league. Nobody else can seem to do it. To game matters: Brown scores for the second game in a row. Of more importance might be that Brown came in as the early sub (45th) for an apparently ineffective (again) Fabbro. The sub could have been by design. Again, we will never know because our paper sucks. It's hard to be a capologist in MLS as money isn't disclosed. Is Fabbro and his salary for someone else even feasible? Meola and "The BCG" (Burciaga, Conrad, Garcia) with yet another doughnut. One conceeded in 7 games. Nice pace. FYI, MLS record is .91/Gm. Zags with :14 - Looks like Talley has his starting job at Central D Mid. If this is so, what a great sign for MLS and KC. Zavagnin off the bench, at some point that is an indication of a rising tide lifting all boats. To explain further, if KZ is bench material it hopefully speaks more to KC's depth than it does KZ's lack of form. At a league level, the many quality players on benches across the league (and starting for the A-league) indicates a readiness for expansion in terms of player availability. Chicago might be better than people seem to think. They are 2-5-1 in the pre-season. They lose but not by more than 1. With all of the new personal and key guys lost, the competitive results might indicate quality that will show itself later. In the East anything can happen. Today, the chalk seems to be Clb. NE has questions and limitations that were simply overcome after September in 2002. MET is still trying to ID the first 18, playmaker, and to a degree system. the upc labels are crap so far. Chicago has enough to be up with CLB. I hope we play them early. Also developing is a clear separation between East and West. All East teams have as many or more losses than every West team. The West is 7-0-1 v East in pre-season. This isn't a good thing as last place in each division stays home. Beating on the East will be a requirement to winning the West as 14 of 30 are against East teams. Road ties v East will likely not be good enough. KC led MLS in ties in 2002, just a thought.
"BCG"...nice As for KZ, I still disagree. As you mentioned, our paper sucks, but from what I've seen over the last couple of years Zavagnin is one of the best defensive midfielders in MLS. Masteroni, and possibly Gutierrez, is the only player that comes to mind that is hands down better at d-mid. And as for records, east vs. west, etc. All I'm gonna say is that its still preseason. They call it preseason for a reason. But it does seem that yet again the west could dominate the east. That means, with the new playoff system, being the top seed is much more important.