Role Playing

Luis says Patrick Nyarko could fill in for the slightly injured Cuauhtemoc Blanco on Saturday, but he says he'd be filling in for him in "that attacking midfielder role."

Putting aside whether Blanco has been playing as a midfielder or a forward -- I tend to see him as the latter, unless we're really playing a 4-5-1 -- this could be very interesting. The absolute biggest issue for the Fire this year, to me, is how they can get more speed in the game when they're pretty much stuck with Blanco and McBride for 90 minutes. The best chance for guys like Nyarko will be to step up when somebody's hurt.