Week 10 Preview: all you need to knowA lot of tired legs
We already previewed Tampa Bay, so this one is going to rather shorter than normal…
The most important part
Wednesday night’s Open Cup game was wild to say the least. But it did show an unbelievable level of resilience on the part of the Legion players, and Enzo Martinez in particular, who was clearly the catalyst in the Legion’s remarkable regular time comeback. Not to mention an instant enemy of Ralph’s Mob, the main Rowdies supporters group. As to how things are going to go Saturday evening (6:30pm, ESPN+), who can say. There will be a lot of exhausted players out there. Forrest Lasso is suspended for the game; Manuel Arteaga, whose extra time brace won the game last night, will be available, however, despite getting a very stupid red card as time expired.
Personally, I would not be surprised to see every player bring a beach chair out onto the field.
Best of the rest
11 games this weekend, including one Friday night (Loudoun United v El Paso Locomotive; don’t bother) and one Sunday (The™ Miami FC v. Indy Eleven; also don’t bother). The two teams off are North Carolina and the Charleston Battery. That really hurts: the Legion play the Battery Wednesday night this week. Here are our picks from Saturday’s largely blah schedule:
Detroit City v. Phoenix Rising (4:00pm, CBS Sports Network)
Detroit have dropped 5 of 6 points the last two games after a 5-game win streak to start the season but got a huge and dramatic win Tuesday in the Open Cup, beating Houston Dynamo, the reigning champion, in the 11th round of penalties (which were taken by the goalkeepers). They also came from behind twice in regular time to tie the game 3-3. Phoenix have gotten over a rough start and are now 6th in the West. They also won last night, 2-1 over North Carolina. This could be a very entertaining matchup.
Louisville City v. Orange County (6:30pm, ESPN+)
Both teams were eliminated from the Open Cup this week. Louisville came back from a 0-2 deficit to go to PKs against the Seattle Sounders, losing 5-4. Orange County went down rather less impressively1-2 to Loudoun United. Each team needs to keep pace with the respective conference leaders, but this pits a high-scoring team against a very defensive team. Could be interesting.
Monterey Bay Union v. Memphis 901 (9:00pm, ESPN+)
Two more squads now out of the Open Cup (Monterey losing 0-2 to Sacramento Republic, Memphis losing 0-1 to FC Dallas). Both are in playoff position in the West and Memphis is lately rather revitalized after a horrendous start. The Union has stumbled a bit of late and will be looking to reverse that. This could be a worthy nightcap, especially if Area Code FC gets put back in its place…
Back in the Old Country
Birmingham City got the win last week, 1-0 over Norwich City. However, they will be ruing having dropped points against the bottom two teams the previous two weeks, as they did not get the help they needed elsewhere. In fact, every team in the bottom nine of the EFL Championship except Huddersfield won in the final weekend of the season, the Blues will now go down to League One for the 2024-25 season, a level they have not played in since 1995. Not a great year for the new American ownership, but hopefully one in which they learned some valuable lessons.
