One More From The Road

For the first time since the end of the 2021 season, Tormenta will play a game that doesn't affect their playoff chances when the face Greenville to end the 2024 campaign.

By virtue of their 3-2 loss to Omaha on Saturday combined with Richmond's win over Chattanooga, Tormenta has been eliminated from the playoff hunt. But the season rolls on, as it always does. And Greenville still has a lot to play for as they hope to secure the fourth spot in the standings and at least one home playoff game. From Greenville's perspective, the game isn't meaningless.

Nor is it meaningless from Tormenta's point of view either. We've talked before about how the games and teams and the league only means something because we've collectively decided that it does, and if they mean something, then we can expect the players, coaches and staff to put forth their best effort to win even as they will be without the talents of Jake Dengler, Daniel Steedman and Sebastian Vivas who all received red card suspensions after all being shown two yellow cards against Omaha.

Tormenta manager Ian Cameron said as much in his postgame comments Saturday night.

"It's our job to go and represent the club and have a very good performance," he said. "We have three guys who are suspended who are all three guys who have played a lot of minutes, so that's going to present opportunities to some other players. That's going to present opportunities for other guys to be in the squad. And it's my job and my staff's job to make sure the guys have concentrated minds and they there to Greenville with a passion and with heart to put in a good performance Tormenta the way it should be represented."

The Triumph's Lyam MacKinnon is currently tied in the Golden Boot race with 14 goals (along with Juan Carolos Obregon Jr.) and added another four in Jagermeister Cup action. If it seems like he's scored all 18 against Tormenta, there's a reason for that. He's scored five goals against Tormenta this season in three games, including four goals after the 80th minute. I'm no soccer expert, but it seems like stopping him would be a top priority.

Someone who is a soccer expert, John Morrissey (yes, that's a BlueSky link, I'm trying to get away from the Elon place as much as possible), has a breakdown of Greenville in his latest dispatch. (That may be my best transition from one paragraph to the next in the entire season. I'm peaking at the wrong time.) 

With a win, Tormenta would finish in 9th place, one spot out of the playoffs for a second straight year. They could drop to as low as 11th if things break wrong.

After the game, the Tormenta Unified Team will be on hand to take on Greenville's Unified Team. If you're going to the game, I beg of you to stick around and watch the Unified Team game and support those athletes. I can say without hesitation that the best time I had all year covering Tormenta was watching their Unified Team play in Statesboro. The League One team lost that night, but I left the stadium smiling as much as I ever have leaving a game. If someone can snag me a Big Worm jersey, I would greatly appreciate it. 

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.