WHO: New York Red Bulls II, 8W-2D-3L, 26 points, 2nd place Eastern Conference

WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match

WHEN: Sunday, June 16, 2019, 3:30 p.m.

WHERE: MSU Soccer Park at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey

WATCH: on TV on WBKI-58, stream it on ESPN+, and listen on the radio, IDK which one they’ll have for this one

WHO, AGAIN? It’s NYRB2, they’re a bunch of soccer playing automatons who simply repopulate or regenerate every off season and come back playing just as well as they did with the old players. They’re like a snake. Every offseason they molt off the players that they can’t push up to the senior team and promote a bunch of new snakes I mean kids who are just as good as or better than the very good (relatively) older snakes and just keep on scoring tons of goals.

To wit, this season RB2 has returned a few names you’ll remember, and a lot you won’t. Evan Louro, Chris Lema, Allen Yanes, Derrek Etienne, Jr. and Tom Barlow are all back. Barlow especially scares me a bit because he’s huge and a good goalscorer, and Louisville City has been a bit more susceptible on set plays this season than in the past. Sounds like a recipe for some real problems.

Yes, the last time Morados played these cats we beat the ever loving snot out of them in the Eastern Conference finals but they are still a buzzsaw in my view. This is the kind of team you’ve got to really be on your toes against defensively and take your chances when you get them. Seriously. City had like 30 scoring chances against Loudon and only scored two. Blow stuff like that against RB2 and you lose.

So let’s not do that. This would be a great opportunity for City to up that conversion number, to say nothing of a big climb back into the race for top of the table now that Tampa finally lost. Let’s make it happen. VAMOS MORADOS!