The Rapids are in Houston for their first Sunday game of the season. They have a 4 game undefeated streak on the line (If you count the USOC game) as they finish their longest road trip of the year. The game is at 1pm MDT and will be televised on Telefutura nationally and on Universal Sports in the Denver market (in English). AS always the supporter's groups will be gathering at the British Bulldog downtown.Official Injury Report:
DOUBTFUL: MF Jacob Peterson (L groin); DF Ty Harden (hamstring); QUESTIONABLE: DF Cory Gibbs (R groin); PROBABLE: MF Terry Cooke (L groin); DF Ivan Guerrero (R ankle sprain)
Official Discipline Report:
TWO CAUTIONS FROM SUSPENSION: Cory Gibbs
Houston is missing Eddie Robinson to injury and Mike Chabala to suspension. The Rapids are hurting and that makes the lineup a bit tricky. My guess:
Pickens
Kimura - Ihemelu - Palguta - Harvey
Pablo
Pablo
LaBrocca - Ballouchy - Clark
Cummings - Casey
The odd thing is that Pickens isn't on the injury report but the official matchup page doesn't show him starting or on the bench. Historically the matchup page hasn't been real accurate though, so I'm going with the thought that they copy/pasted last week's guess into this week.
Key To Look For:
Field Condition. The U of Houston hasn't been doing a good job of taking care of the field for the Dynamo, apparently they aren't happy with some of the deals the Dynamo are making to get into their own SSS. On top of that its expected to rain tonight and tomorrow, and tomorrow is the U. of Houston's spring football game. Expect a pretty chewed up field on Sunday, which could cause a number of crazy bounces.
Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Omar Cummings. The Rapids have been historically bad in Houston, and the Dynamo have to turn things around eventually. I expect the teams to play pretty even but Houston will get a lucky home bounce off the torn up field to score the winner. This is one week I won't mind being wrong. ;)
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2 comments:
I'm hoping you're wrong too. I'm not just saying this because my team is playing, but I think Casey will score another goal and the final will be 2-2. The only way we can prevent goals is to mark Ching tightly, because when he's not scoring goals he's setting them up. It's going to be hard without Peterson and Cooke as either subs or starters, but I think there's still a chance they will play.
I hope you're wrong too. (In a good way) I'm not just saying this because I want the Rapids to win, but I honestly think it will be a 2-2 draw with one of those goals coming from Casey and the other from Cummings. Yes, Houston will have to break their bad streak, and Colorado will eventually lose, but I don't think this is the match in which they will lose. They drew Columbus at home, whereas we drew them away. They lost to San Jose away, but San Jose in my opinon are the better team. To prevent them from scoring we need to tightly mark Ching- he's either scoring goals or setting them up. But I do agree with you in the one respect of how the crappy field will affect play.
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