The New York Cosmos won their opening match of 2016, and will look to make it two in a row on Sunday against Jacksonville Armada FC. Since the Armada haven't kicked off their season, yet, we're still guessing a bit in what we'll see when they take the field on Sunday.
Between the roster turnover we've seen from the Armada and inexperienced new coach Tony Meola, it's a little tough to predict who we'll see in his starting eleven. Meanwhile Gio Savarese surprised us a bit with several of his selections last weekend. Here's who I think we'll see when the two sides take the pitch at Hofstra tomorrow night:
New York Cosmos
Head Coach: Gio Savarese
Predicted Starting XI: Jimmy Maurer, Hunter Freeman, Jimmy Ockford, Carlos Mendes, Ayoze, Michael Lahoud, Ruben Bover, Niko Kranjcar, Juan Arango, Yohandy Orozco, Jairo Arrieta
Savarese doesn't often tinker with a winning formula, and with both Danny Szetela and Yasmani Duk still out, I was tempted to go with the same side that he used last weekend. With the amount of attacking depth at his disposal, however, I think he'll make a couple of changes up front, just to get the new faces some minutes.
Jacksonville Armada
Head Coach: Tony Meola
Predicted Starting XI: Miguel Gallardo, Shaun Nicklaw, Mechack Jerome, Matt Bahner, Bryan Burke, Lucas Scaglia, Richie Ryan, Junior Sandoval, Pascal Millien, Alhassane Keita, Matt Fondy
For the second weekend in a row, our opponent will be a tough prediction. Meola is a new head coach and the Armada haven't played a game yet this season, but this is my best guess at what we'll see.