The Gary Smith Era Begins

While Smith did lead the team in the game against KC last week, this is his first game as interim head coach. Its a new era in Colorado Rapids soccer, and lets hope its a good one. The Rapids face DC at 5:30pm tomorrow night and as always the supporters will be gathering at the British Bulldog to watch the game.

I, however, will be at a wedding out of town. That's the reason the game preview went up a day early, and you may not see a game review this week. I'm going to try to catch the game on MLSlive.tv, but we'll see.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: GK Justin Hughes (R shoulder); DF Ugo Ihemelu (concussion); PROBABLE: DF Jordan Harvey (R knee); DF Jose Burciaga Jr. (R hip); MF Jacob Peterson (L hip)

DISCIPLINE: Suspended after 1 more yellow card - Colin Clark, Pablo Mastroeni

My lineup suggestion:

Bouna Time!
Erpen - Petke - Gibbs - Burciaga
Cooke - Pablo - C.Gomez - Clark
McManus - Casey

According to reports from people who talked to the players last week, the lineup for the KC game was picked by Clavijo. Given that I have no idea who Smith might start in his first lineup as the head coach. So I just threw up what I think our best 11 is, we'll see what Smith thinks. You may be surprised to see Erpen on that list, given how I've pummeled him recently, but I noticed that when he was played out wide last week and had support inside he made less stupid mistakes.

Critical Matchup: Petke & Gibbs vs. Emilio & Moreno

DC's offense is contained in their two forwards, outside of them nobody has more than 4 goals this season. We have to make the rest of DC beat us. If we can do that we have a chance to get a result out of this game.

Keys To Look For:

• Of course the big key to this game is Gary Smith and how the team responds to the new leadership. Is there a new attitude around the team?


• Gibbs and Petke went 90 minutes in their first game of the season last week, are they fit to do it again?


• How does Christian Gomez react to his first game back in DC?


• How tired is Pablo after his midweek game against Guatemala in Guatemala?

Prediction: 1-1 draw. I think the coaching change gives the team a spark, but not enough to get a win on the road.