Wet Game Forecast For BC Place

River whitecaps are better than ocean ones

When the Rapids face the Whitecaps you know that somebody's getting soaked.  In the first of our 3 meetings against them the Rapids make a trip to the Great White North.  The Rapids have never lost in Vancouver (all of one game) while they've never won in Toronto when facing Toronto, so western Canada is much more favorable to us.  Game time tomorrow is 5pm and the game is on Altitude.  Hopefully you can tear yourself away form the enjoyable Euro 2012 tournament.  Despite seeing my two favorites (Ireland and Sweden) eliminated the last two days I'm still having a good time watching it.

Injury Report:
OUT: MF Pablo Mastroeni (headache symptoms); DF Anthony Wallace (L Achilles tear)
DOUBTFUL: DF Marvell Wynne (R hamstring strain)
QUESTIONABLE: FW Omar Cummings (L ankle sprain)
PROBABLE: FW Conor Casey (R hamstring strain);  MF Ross LaBauex (sports hernia); MF Jamie Smith (R ACL tear)

Disciplinary Report:
SUSPENDED: DF Tyrone Marshall
SUSPENDED AFTER NEXT YELLOW: MF Jeff Larentowicz (1 game left for good behavior reduction)
SUSPENDED AFTER NEXT 2 YELLOWS: MF Jaime Castrillon

The injury report looks much better than it has recently.  Casey has been confirmed as travelling with the team, though with the turf in Vancouver and a game on Wednesday I only expected to see him as a sub if he plays at all.  Jamie Smith is also expected to be in uniform for the first time this season.  Vancouver is only missing 3 players so they're in better shape than we are.  My guess at the starting XI:

Cascio - Akpan

Castrillon - Larentowicz - Rivero - Mullan

Freeman - Palguta- Moor - Kimura

Pickens

I think the turf and short schedule will keep any less than 100% players out of the starting lineup.  We could see an Edu or Zapata start but I'm guessing Pareja tries to stabilize the lineup a bit'

Key To Look For: What's going to happen after a 2 week break?  There's going to be some rust combined with some unusual starters, will the team play as a unit?

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Cascio.  I don't have much faith in this defensive unit to solve our ongoing problems, and without Casey and Cummings I don't think we can keep up.  Cascio is well rested and will get one from long-distance but the Rapids will lose.