and Diego Valeri has the potential to be the Javi Mo of yore, the one that took an upstart RSL to the final moments of CCL. everything I've seen Valeri do is clean, everything I've seen Valeri do is very intelligent -- sometimes he goes short, sometimes he goes for thru balls or big switches, sometimes he dribbles for space, AND he can pull the trigger on a shot. he's exactly the type of player that I think is in short supply in MLS, so that's very exciting for the prospects of our 4-3-3.

Nagbe is also being put exlusively into those spots where his skill shines, not being round-pegged into square-holes like Spencer too often did.

and either Porter understands, or it's just Chara being Chara, but the thing is Chara *does* play a simple passing game, so Porter is putting him into the fulcrum / box-to-box role where he's just asked to win the ball, lay it off, or else pick it up off the D, then pass to either a winger or Valeri who can play a range of passing like I was saying.

but yeah -- even early on they are definitely *building* out of the back. the D works the ball for a second, then the midfielders -- either Will Johnson or Chara or Alhassan when he's used centrally -- come and collect off the D. then passes start stringing between the wingers and the mids while the FBs make overlapping runs. there are extremely few chances in the opposition box that are created from passes originating around the center line.

we'll see how it plays at full speed when the preseason is over (because so many MLS teams feast on ball-winning to speedy counter-attack, which might prove a problem we'll see) but right now this is a very, very interesting MLS side that I'm excited to see in person soon.