This Saturday, the Richmond Kickers find themselves back home at City Stadium for a game against the Rochester Rhinos. After a disappointing trip to North Carolina, the Kickers need a good result to keep themselves on track for the playoffs. The Rochester (Ragin’) Rhinos are 5 points up on the Kickers and are one of the two teams who are tied on games played. However, the Kickers beat them 1-0 in Rochester just a few weeks ago, and now the game is on friendly ground.
This game turns on the same thing as the past games: the ability of the defense to hold steady. If Shane Johnson is healthy, I would assume that he would slot back in at center back; whether it is alongside Yomby William or Jason Yeisley is up for debate. Henry Kalungi does not come back from Ugandan national team duty until next week, and that is when the real debates will begin. So far this season, I see an ideal pairing of Kalungi and Johnson, but William still has time to prove that he can get back to his previous standard.
But, as I have literally just learned as I have been typing this, Ethan White has been loaned back to the Kickers; this time for both this weekend and next weekend. He didn’t look great in the last two games, but he is a better center back than he showed. Hopefully with a little more time under his belt he’ll be able to integrate better into the squad. A whole week of training with the Kickers should allow him to show what he is really made of.
So who is going to start? Well, as you all know I’m terrible at this so far, but that doesn’t keep me from trying!
Pascale
Goerres White Yeisley Vercollone
Callahan
Heins Dos Santos Nyazamba Fogelsong
Agorsor
I’m a sap, so I’ll predict another 1-0 win, with Agorsor scoring the goal. I’ll be in the press box, so I’ll try and get you some updates from during the game!
Before Extra Time 