Friday, June 17, 2011

Well Hello Mister Fancypants!

That's right Mr. Posh Spice and the Galaxy are in town tomorrow. This will be only the second time Beckham has played in Colorado and they'll be without PrimaDonnavan who's trying to help the U.S. avoid one of their biggest Gold Cup meltdowns in their modern history. Combined the teams haven't lost in their last 17 games. Game time tomorrow is 7pm, so the Class VI/Pid Army tailgate breeches the kegs at 4pm and fires up the grills at 5pm.

Injury Report:
DOUBTFUL: FW Macoumba Kandji (L knee ACL tear)
QUESTIONABLE: DF Marvell Wynne (R hamstring strain)
PROBABLE: FW Quincy Amarikwa (L ankle sprain); FW Omar Cummings (R ankle sprain); MF Joseph Nane (R shoulder strain); GK Matt Pickens (R groin strain); MF Jamie Smith (L calf strain)

Disciplinary Report:
SUSPENDED: MF Brian Mullan
SUSPENDED AFTER 2 MORE CAUTIONS: FW Conor Casey; DF Tyrone Marshall; MF Pablo Mastroeni; DF Drew Moor; DF Anthony Wallace

Those lists are finally getting smaller. It sounds like only Kandji, Mullan, and Wynne will be unavailable for selection to the 18-man game-day roster, but Cummings is unlikely to start. LA has 3 players injured and along with PrimaDonnavan will be missing their starting GK to the Jamaican team. I'm feeling pretty good about my lineup guess this week:

Pickens
Kimura - Moor- Marshall - Palguta
Nyassi- Mastroeni - Larentowicz - Smith
Casey - Folan

Smith went with Palguta over Wallace in Portland last week, and with that spot being the one that gets to handle Old Spice most of the time I assume we'll see the slightly more experienced Palguta again. Now that Nyassi is back I think we'll see him start again.

Key To Look For: This is a game where the Rapids need to make a statement and control the game. While the Rapids are missing 3 starters I think the Galaxy are hurt more by the loss of PrimaDonnavan and Ricketts to their national team duties. At altitude Colorado should run the older Galaxy ragged.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Folan. I know, the prediction is getting old, but I haven't seen the Rapids do anything lately to prove to me they can dominate a game. I wouldn't be shocked to see Colorado win this one, but they're going to have to show me they know how to do that on anything more than a last minute goal before I'll predict it.

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