Season On the Line Tomorrow

That's Jamie Smith dressed up as the Mad Hatter for Halloween yesterday.

Another quick turnaround as the Rapids face the end of their season tomorrow in Kansas City. Down 2 goals Colorado mus win by 2 to force overtime and PKs or 3 to win and move on. On top of the other problems a storm is rolling into KC tomorrow night (probably the front edge of what's rolling into Denver tonight) which could make the game sloppy. Game time tomorrow is 6pm and the game is on FOX Soccer Channel. The viewing party for Class VI and Pid Army is at the Streets of London pub.

Injury Report:

OUT: FW Conor Casey (L Achilles tear); FW Caleb Folan (L ankle/L knee sprain); DF Kosuke Kimura (L foot fracture); DF Drew Moor (R shoulder AC joint sprain); MF Jamie Smith (R knee ACL tear); Anthony Wallace (R knee arthroscopic surgery)

QUESTIONABLE: Pablo Mastroeni (concussion)

Disciplinary Report:

SUSPENDED: Tyrone Marshall

SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: Sanna Nyassi

Ugh, just a disaster. Pablo has already been ruled out, so that's 5 starters and 3 of their backups out. Meanwhile KC just has the same 4 players out that were out for Sunday's game. On the bright side, this might be the first time all season Pickens isn't on the injury report! At this point we're almost at the "pick names out of a hat" level of roster construction, but here's my best guess:

Pickens

Comminges - Wynne - Palguta- Earls

Mullan - Thompson - Larentowicz - Nyassi

Cummings - Kandji

IThat's really a pure guess though. Pickens, Wynne, Cummings, Nyassi, Comminges, and Mullan will be starting their 4th game in 12 days so they may be reaching the end of their fitness. We could see Ababio, Nane, Akpan, or even Holody depending on who feels like they can go.

Key To Look For: We must score early to open the game up. The longer the game goes without the Rapids scoring the more KC will 'park the bus' and we've seen our inability to break that sort of defense down over the second half of the season. If Colorado can score early it will force KC to play and attack rather than sit on a one goal lead for over a half, which will continue to give us opportunities to get the second goal.

Prediction: 0-0 draw. I'm just not seeing a Rapids offense that has been shut out in 2 of the last 4 games (3 of 5 if you include the Santos game) breaking down a KC defense that is just trying to protect their existing 2-0 lead. KC doesn't need to score and won't really be pushing the game, and the longer it goes scoreless the better for them. Colorado will have chances, but not good ones and they won't convert them, leading to the end of our season.