Rapids Attempt To Quell The Revolution

Colorado takes its longest road trip of the year (in distance), all the way to Foxboro, MA to play New England. They'll be greeted by familiar faces and they see Preston Burpo and Cory Gibbs again. Game time is at 5:30pm MDT and the game is on Channel 2 KWGN.

Injury Report:

OUT: MID Ciaran O'Brien (L hip sprain), FWD Ross Schunk (R ACL tear)

DOUBTFUL: MID Jamie Smith (R hamstring strain)

Jamie Smith's injury will make for an interesting choice for Gary Smith. Claudio Lopez? Mehdi Ballouchy? Wells Thompson against his old team? Julian Baudet is back from suspension which will give Smith another choice as he has 5 starters for 4 spots on the backline. He might have one solution to both as he could push Kosuke Kimura to right wing. Here's my best guess on what he'll do:

Pickens

Wynne - Baudet - Moor - Earls

Pablo

Ballouchy - Larentowicz - Clark

Cummings - Casey

Baudet's return will push Kimura to the bench IMO. He's probably been the weakest of the backline so far. As much as I would love to see anyone but Ballouchy start at right wing, Mehdi seems to be the second choice for that position when Jamie Smith isn't available.

Key To Look For:
Midfield dominance, again. This is going to be particularly difficult with one of the best defensive midfielders in the league, Shalrie Joseph, coming back from injury for the Revs. We have to find another option than 'hoof and hope' though, which means that the midfield has to be able to move the ball to give Casey and Cummings a chance to get into good positions.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Omar Cummings. neither team is an offensive juggernaut, but both defenses are unsettled enough that I expect a clean sheet to be hard to come by. I expect that the Revs will score first but won't be able to defend the lead.