Who will start for the Crew against Seattle? A prediction from a soccer non-expert

Thanks to international call ups and a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation, the Crew will be without a few players when they take on Seattle at Lower.com Field Saturday night. Ok, so “a few” is probably an understatement. Head coach Wilfried Nancy will be without Cucho, Patrick Schulte, Nico Hagen, Mo Farsi, Jacen Russell-Rowe, Steven Moreira, and Malte Amundsen (he’s the yellow card offender). Abraham Romero will start in goal, but what about the other positions? I thought I’d take a soccer non-expert stab at predicting the Crew’s starting lineup for their clash with the Sounders.

Forwards

Diego Rossi and Christian Ramirez are the easy choices here, although I do believe Ramirez will step into Cucho’s role as a 9. AZ Jackson and Alex Matan are possibilities for the third spot, but I’m going to go with Dylan Chambost. Although he was given a respectable rating (7.3) by FotMob in a recent start against Philadelphia where he started up front with Jackson and Russell-Rowe, that trio didn’t generate much of an attack. So, I think Nancy will want to see what he can do when playing with goal-scoring threats like Rossi and Ramirez.

Midfield

Derrick Jones played very well in the team’s 1-0 win over Philadelphia on August 28th, but I don’t think he’ll be the choice to pair with Darlington Nagbe. Nancy seems to like having a pest in midfield and Matan is better suited for this than Jones. If you’re wondering why I didn’t choose Sean Zawadazki, who has been regularly paired with Nagbe since the departure of Aidan Morris, I’ll get to him soon.

Wingbacks

Max Arfsten and…? To me, the trade that brought DeJuan Jones to the Crew has been the steal of the season in MLS, but I don’t think he gets the start here. On a hunch, I’m going with Yaw Yeboah. I think he has a better understanding of how Nancy wants to push the pace of a game. When Nancy substituted Arfsten and Yeboah for Jones and Andres Herrera, who had started that August 28th Philadelphia match, the pace of the game increased noticeably and the Crew attack became dangerous. I think you’ll see him pair Arfsten and Yeboah again.

Defenders

Do you recall when I said I’d get to Sean Zawadzki soon? Well, here he is. I think he slides into Moreira’s right center back spot to join Rudy Camacho and Yehven Cheberko on the back line. DeJuan Jones has plenty of experience as a defender and I can see him being used as a sub, but I don’t think he will be Nancy’s choice.

I’m not a soccer expert and, unlike too many others in sports media, I don’t pretend to be one. I’m kind of like the commercial for the hotel chain, “I’m not a soccer expert, but I once saw Pele’ score a goal in person.” My predictions are educated guesses based on what I’ve seen this season so far from Wilfried Nancy. If you’re wondering, yes, I really did see Pele’ score a goal.