Failure is NOT an option

Gene Krantz' famous saying from Apollo 13 was created for the movie, having never been uttered by Krantz during the actual Apollo 13 mission. Gene felt in described the atmosphere at NASA so well that he used it as the title of his biography though. Its the mindset the Rapids should have for this game.

The Rapids are back at the Dick facing FaKe SaLt LaKe, the yahoos from the West side of the Rockies, tomorrow. This is the first Rocky Mountain Cup match of the year. The game is at 7:30 MDT on ESPN2.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: DF Mike Petke (R foot); GK Justin Hughes (L groin); DOUBTFUL: FW Conor Casey (L knee); MF Nico Colaluca (L groin); MF John DiRaimondo (L ankle); PROBABLE: MF Terry Cooke (L hamstring); FW Jovan Kirovski (R groin)

And the discipline report:

SUSPENDED: - FW Tom McManus; Asst Coach Gary Smith

My lineup prediction:

Bouna Time!
Kimura - Ihemelu - Erpen - Harvey
Cooke - Mastroeni - C.Gomez - LaBrocca
H.Gomez - Cummings

We'll stick with the 2 forward formation, as Gomez obviously plays better with two attackers in front of him. Cooke looks like he'll be healthy for this one, but if not Peterson will start. Gomez has been the first option off the bench up front, so I assume he'll slot in for the suspended McManus.

Critical Matchup: Pablo Mastroeni vs. Kyle Beckerman

Former Rapid Beckerman is FSL leading scorer with 3 goals. He learned everything he knows about destroying the center of the midfield from Pablo. These two know each other very, very well, and the winner of the matchup will be based on who wants it more, there won't be any surprises in their games.

Keys To Look For:

• Its FSL, our rival. The team's attitude from the opening whistle should be to shove the ball down their throats and don't stop for 90 minutes.


• FSL has not gotten a point on the road, and only scored 2 goals. The Rapids need to shut down their offense and keep pressing them until they collapse.


• The team needs to keep their emotions in check. Pablo has a history of picking up cards for dissent in this series, and we saw the bench get out of hand last week.


• The winner of the game takes sole possession of first in the West, at least for a couple of days. Its a big start to a 3 game home stand against the West for the Rapids. We need to set the tone in our stadium.


• Short list this week. There's no acceptable result other than a win in this game.

Prediction: 2-0 win. FSL isn't significantly better than last year, and the only reason they claimed the Cup was Clavijo's lineup fiddling. We'll take the game to them early, get a goal in the first half, keep the pressure up until we get an insurance goal, and ease off. We should win by 3, but with the short week I think the team will be happy with a 2 goal win.

And in closing I leave you with this: