The onward march toward the season (a day! Just one day!) continues, and with it comes the final installment of the positional round-up on which I've embarked in the past few days. As we've built from the back — much like most great teams — the final installment will be, of course, focusing on the front lines.
The Forwards
The forward line has, I think, remained largely unchanged from the end of last season. We've dropped off a couple players — the speedy Chris Agorsor and the homegrown striker-turned-left-back Donny Toia — and picked up the Argentine Emiliano Bonfigli.
It's hard to find too much to say about these fellows. Mr. Agorsor saw no competitive time on the pitch, and Donny Toia was being turned into a full back. It is perhaps too bad that our first homegrown signing didn't make it with the club, and I hope he goes on to have a very successful career in spite of — or because of — our dropping him.
Emiliano Bonfigli, a speedy, skillful striker, is by all accounts set to challenge for time. It's interesting to see how quickly our fortunes have changed: Last season, we were forced into a pairing of Luis Gil, an attacking midfielder, and Jean Alexandre, a defensive midfielder.
This brings our strike force to five: the strong Alvaro Saborio, an inevitable starter; the tricky Fabian Espindola, another likely starter; the inventive Paulo Junior, who will be challenging for the third-choice spot and will hope to rise to the challenge when called upon; Cody Arnoux, who is perhaps more a replacement for Saborio during absences given his back-to-goal play; and Emiliano Bonfigli, whose ranking in the positional battle is perhaps an unknown quantity at this time.
The big questions that we'll be asking will revolve around the long-term fitness of Alvaro Saborio and Fabian Espindola, who both saw some fairly significant time out last season. The former also saw absences owing to national team duty, but that should be less of an issue with the closer adherence to FIFA dates by the league.
We'll also be wondering about the continued fitness of Cody Arnoux and Paulo Junior, both of whom saw little to no time last season because of injury. Paulo has come into camp fit and ready, though, and Mr. Arnoux seems to have recovered from a very long injury layoff.
As a final note, there are further questions about the ability of Emiliano Bonfigli, whose showing in the pre-season matches wasn't devastatingly impressive — but certainly wasn't bad, by any means. Forwards so often need time with a club to adapt to their style, and to allow their teammates to adapt, as well. Once everything meshes a bit and that vital understanding develops, we should have a better impression of his abilities.
'Til tomorrow, then, when I'll write my first real match preview of the season.
I'll leave you with a line from that lovable Annie girl: "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! R-S-L! Tomorrow! It's only a day away!"
Or, you know, something like that.
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