3 Questions: Red Wolves Away (Redux)

Putting aside, the fact that we even have to play this fixture when it obviously should have been a 3-0 forfeit for CRW, we’re playing at 11am on a Tuesday somewhere in Tennessee. Should be interesting to say the least.

1) How badly does the team need to win this game?

Let’s start with the fact that we are playing one of our two games in hand that we have over top of the table Greenville. That means we need all three points to keep pace. Even if second place is good enough for a chance to hoist a trophy in year one, we need a result to hold that position.

Per sportsclubstats, we sit at 47.4% chance to make the Final. Lose and that goes down to 32.8, but win and our chances are double that of a loss at 65.2%. A draw keeps us about the same with a 45.8% chance. Sounds like a must win to me.

2) What’s the rotation look like?

Jay answered my question by putting out a basically unrotated side. They promptly gave up two goals leading to wholesale changes starting at halftime, making the picture just as murky as it was at 6pm on Friday. Here is my guess for what we’ll see for the game:

FW: Juan Mare
FW: Elvir Ibsevic
RM: Ferrety Sousa
CM: JP Scearce
CM: Devin Boyce (Captain)
LM: Evan Conway
RB: Luke Hauswirth
RCB: Nathan Aune
LCB: Daltyn Knutson
LB: Jake Crull
GK: Rashid Nuhu

Bench: Howard, EVD, Elma Nfor, Sebas, Dami, Tyler David, Illal.

3) What effect will the early start have?

So much strange about this particular fixture it is impossible not to ask the question. It’s not like these players haven’t played in midday before. It’s not like they haven’t been to CHI Memorial Stadium before. It’s not our first midweek game. Despite all of that this feels different. Potentially, it is just the anxiety of another big game and this will be business as usual for the boys. But maybe there is something in the abnormality of it all. We’ll know pretty quickly what is happening. My guess is we’ll be fine, this team is generally unflappable, but I can’t wait to find out!