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It will probably come as little surprise that after banging the drum for Mike Fucito to see more playing time that we are projecting him to start on Saturday against FC Dallas. Unlike the umpteen preveious times we projected him to be in the starting lineup for the Seattle Sounders, we actually think that he'll be there this time. After scoring two spectacular goals earlier this week, it would seem mighty strange if he wasn't in there this week.
The only other particularly notable player in our starting lineup is Lamar Neagle for Alvaro Fernandez. We're operating under the impression that the Fox Soccer announcers had no idea what they were talking about when they said Neagle's red card would land him in Sigi's doghouse. We're also thinking that Fernandez is more likely to be held back for next Tuesday's game at Monterrey since Neagle will not be eligible to play.
The glaring weakness with our lineup is the lack of any real aerial threat. Outside of Osvaldo Alonso, there really isn't a "ball-winner" in our front six. We think this is a reasonable trade-off, but it would not be shocking if Brad Evans got the start for this very reason.
Our FC Dallas lineup projection was produced by Big D Soccer, SB Nation's FC Dallas blog. They think Zach Loyd is the replacement-in-waiting for George John, which we'll get a preview up this weekend.