Don't know about the rest of the soccer blogging world, but the preliminary play-in rounds for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup kind of snuck up on me.
No matter. In case you haven't heard or read, Major League Soccer's (MLS) participation begins tonight when the Kansas City Wizards travel to Salt Lake City to take on Real Salt Lake (RSL); after the Open Cup tie, it appears that the RSL reserves will take on the national team of Fiji, an event RSL's official site believes fans will enjoy (I'd probably enjoy this about as much as I enjoyed my one and only real-life freakshow...shudder...).
A fair amount of material can be found out there about what to expect in terms of starting line-ups. For instance, the Wizards plan to tap some players down the bench to build their starting line-up, courtesy of a cee-razy, travel-heavy April; the official word from the Wizards' camp is that the team is up for it. We shall see, we shall see...
The big news on the other side of the ball is that 2007 fourth-round pick Chris Seitz will start in goal for RSL. The same article suggests RSL coach John Ellinger may rest a couple more starters.
And, thus, the 2007 U.S. Open Cup opens under a familiar cloud, with teams taking it "seriously," but not completely. Sigh.
Oh, and I think this one will end with a Wizards win. There's just something about RSL that makes me think they're not up for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment