3 Questions: North Texas (Away)

Not much of a preamble today, this is a big game for us.

1) Are we a good team?

First, let me apologize to all Kickers fans reading this today. I called your team “okay” in this column on Wednesday and honestly, that isn’t fair. While Greenville is in a class of its own, there is no getting around the fact that Richmond has the same or better results as Union Omaha against our common opponents (they won at home to Madison, they won at Revs 2, they beat Tucson 2-1 albeit at home instead of on the road). That draw against Tormenta looks better after the Storm beat the Red Wolves on Saturday and they put two goals past Greenville in a loss.

A quarter of the way through the season it seems, to my uneducated eye, there are two groups of teams and then Greenville. Group one is made of most of the teams in the league that can win against each other on any given night. In the second group of teams are a few teams that will rise above that and should expect results against every team in the first group, and then there is Greenville. I feel obligated to say Richmond is in that second group at this point. If we want to remain in that second group and compete for a title this year, we need to win at Texas tomorrow night.

We have a fairly easy schedule for the shortened season. We only play Richmond and Greenville once each and they are the only two teams above us on the table. Second place is ours for the taking, but we need make these games in hand count. Three points in Arlington would help a lot.

2) Will their leaky defense spark our offense?

If you eliminate about 10-12 minutes at the end of the Tucson game and the start of the Madison game, we’ve allowed zero goals. BUT, we’ve scored four goals total. (Obligatory plug for my EVD4MVP campaign: Ethan Vanacore-Decker has been involved in all four goals.) Four goals scored in four games puts our offense in joint last with the bottom two teams in the table.

The good news is North Texas is the worst defense in the league. Time for the boys to eat. The players clearly had a bad taste in their mouths after the Madison game. Hopefully, they will show up hungry and put a few in the back of the net.

3) Can our rotated lineup produce a result on the road?

We covered this a bit before the Chattanooga game that wasn’t. The only ray of light from that dark afternoon is that we have a good sense of what the rotated lineup will look like. On Wednesday night, after our draw with Madison, I sat in the post match press conference covering for the Quarantine College Kid, Liam Keating. When questioned about his substitutions Jay mentioned that Elvir had scored more goals than anyone else in practice in the previous seven days. He also mentioned that Ferrety was on a hot streak in practice as well. Both of them looked good on Wednesday and I think Jay rides those hot hands and gives them their first starts for Union Omaha. My predicted lineup is:

Forwards: Elvir, Juan Mare
Midfielders: Sebas, Devin Boyce, JP Scearce, Ferrety Sousa
Defense: Dami, Daltyn (if healthy, if not Jake), Illal, Luke Hauswirth
GK: Nuhu

Given the importance of this game (see point #1) Jay should have the Triple E offense ready to come in as early as the start of the second half if needed. I’d like to see him a bit more aggressive with his substitutions than he has been in previous games.