3 Questions: Greenville (Away)

Are you beyond excited for Sunday? After months of dancing around each other, a showdown at last between two titans on one of the biggest days of the year? A date that has been circled for months as the one everyone is waiting for? A monumental challenge for all involved playing out on hallowed ground? By now, I’m sure you realize I’m talking about Mathieu van der Poel vs Wout van Aert at Ronde van Vlaanderen! Nobody?

Okay, let’s talk about this massive soccer game then! I have three very simple questions for this game.

1) Can we hang with them?

Greenville is the best team in the league by a good margin. Not that it means anything, but they are on track for the best ever finish in league history. (Side note: Greenville’s 16 game results should end up about the same as most of the group winners in USL-C.)

For all of the frustrating finishing and at times inconsistent results that has been the difference between the level we are at and the level Greenville is at, I can’t think of a single game where we were played off the field.

But this is the best opponent we’ve faced all year. Will we look like belong or will we look like we are a step behind?

2) Can we score?

Since Toby started playing for us we played our two best games and let Madison choke the life out of the game last Sunday. The bad news is there is one team better in the league defensively than Madison, and we are playing them on Sunday.

Relatedly, our #EVD4MVP campaign needs a big day out. Two goals that Ethan is involved in (I think he needs to score at least one himself), plus a win, and it’s hard to ignore his candidacy. Anything less, and we’re on the long list for the award, but maybe not the short list.

I’ve been writing two columns a game about this team since the third game of the season, and I can’t say I understand the ins and outs of when they score. But as Jay Mims likes to say: “Scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in score.”

3) Can we win?

But we need to score goals because we need to win. Richmond has been MORE than cooperative in finding a terrible time for a cold streak. We sit level on points, behind on wins. We could win out and still be on the outside looking in, but if we go out tomorrow and win, we put a lot of pressure on Richmond.

So is Early College Stadium an easy place to play, *checks notes* no it is not. Greenville has earned 21 of a possible 21 points there this season. Looks like we have our task cut out for us.

I’ll close out with a rare prediction: Julian Alaphilippe will win the Tour of Flanders…and Union Omaha will win 2-0. It’s been a fairy tale run so far, let’s have a fairy tale ending. Can’t wait to watch it!