The Daily Wave: Shane O'Neill Back To Midfield?

Let me start this off by saying that this entire thing is moot if Martin Rivero is ready to play on Saturday. If we have Rivero available to start at the top of the midfield, it's very unlikely that we're going to see anything but a Rivero - Powers - Sturgis spine holding it down there.

That said, and assuming that Rivero isn't available, we've got a bit of a conundrum to work on. Hendry Thomas is suspended for the Rocky Mountain Cup finale against Real Salt Lake after snagging another yellow card against the Galaxy, which pushed him over the suspension threshold.

So how about we look at something that isn't really new but isn't really old either against RSL? I'm talking about moving Shane O'Neill back into the midfield, where he played his ball for the reserve team, and a few short times for the first team, last season. It'd be a simple swap, moving Dillon Powers to that role at the top of the midfield and Nathan Sturgis into the linking role in the middle while Shane holds down the back.

It makes sense because there aren't that many other guys who can fill the top spot other than Powers. You have Nick Labrocca, but he's still considered more of a defense-minded guy than an attack-minded one. Kevin Harbottle could slot in there, but his lack of size has punished him pretty much every time Oscar Pareja tried to play him anywhere but the wing. So Powers goes there, and that leaves a hole in the second and third spots. Sturgis will take one of them, but the other is open for discussion.

Why not Shane? At least it will make those fabulous runs of his forward a slight bit less heart-attacky.