While his teammates are working on getting their first victory of the season against the team they nearly played for the Major League Soccer title last season, RSL's Ian Joy will be cheering them on from an unusual place tonight.

The bleachers.

Still unavailable to play because of a hamstring injury, the veteran defender agreed to join fans in the south stands for tonight's home-opener against the defending league champion Columbus Crew at Rio Tinto Stadium. Joy said that while he appreciates all of the fans who lend their support to RSL, he feels as if sometimes the regulars who show up for every game get forgotten in the push to entice new fans to give soccer a chance.

“So it's a little something to give back to the fans who come every week,” he said.

Joy has experience sitting with the supporters, having done so while he was injured during his time playing for St. Pauli FC in Germany before he joined RSL. And yes, coach Jason Kreis has given his blessing to the plan — not surprising, given the passionate letter the coach sent to fans yesterday, in which he again implored them to attend tonight's game.

“Inside the locker room, our collective focus continues to hone us as a cohesive unit, for us to think and react at a quicker speed of play, for us to pressure our opponent, for us to compete as ONE — together,” he wrote. “You, our fans, the best in MLS since day one, are part of that singular focus. You are part of our heartbeat.”

It seems unlikely that Kreis will change his lineup from the one he used in the season-opener at Seattle last weekend, mostly because he and the players have insisted that they were merely a bit off their game and not in need of major adjustments.

Besides, he doesn't seem to have many options to the make the changes that would seem most obvious, such as replacing second-year right back Tony Beltran after his tough night against the Sounders. Joy is still out, after all, and versatile Robbie Russell might not be quite ready for game action. Kreis might not want to potentially crush Beltran's confidence, either — especially considering the coach said Beltran simply needs to play with more confidence to be effective.

In any case, RSL will be gunning for full points and aiming to keep establishing a home-field advantage at Rio Tinto Stadium.

“There's definitely a big sense of urgency,” defender Chris Wingert said. “I don't think we're desperate at this point. You're not going to win the league in the second game or lose the league in the second game. But at the same time, we definitely want to show that we can be a force to be reckoned with at home like we were last year.

“Our mentality from the beginning will be a little bit different,” he added. Going into Seattle “we wanted to play a little more direct and kind of make sure they weren't putting too much pressure on us. But in this game, I think we're going to try to come out and really put the pressure on Columbus and make sure that they don't really have any room to breathe and see if we can get an early goal.”