Make it Up on Volume

I got very little for today. For most of the morning, it's been a blank screen. Which is probably a good thing. Things are tidy and quiet. Training continues apace, DCU prepares to head down to Charleston for their Cup Challenge. I have no idea how good this team is right now, and even if I watched the Cup Challenge this weekend I still think I would have no idea. Probably the best place for me to be would involve watching practices, but this entire day job thing sort of precludes that.

April itself will be a testing period for DCU: Four home dates against various levels of competition. A home date against an improved conference foe (I disagree with MASR on the final position of the Red Bulls, but that's for another post). Should give an early sense if DC has any glaring weaknesses. A home date against Chivas USA provides an opportunity to experiment with ways to address those problems. The Dynamo come to town to provide what could be a stiff challenge, and I like this as the first game to truly assess the team. On the road to RFK north for a RBNY date, and then back home against another good team in FCD. Here are the key questions I will watch in April:

1. Who's playing on the wings?
2. How does Nowak manage his substitutions?
3. Do we have a fixed starting XI, or is it a rotational system. The last three dates in April will be a key test of this.
4. Does Perkins get one or more starts?
5. Who's starting that may not be around by the end of the year?

Those are the questions I will be watching. What are you looking for?