Tomorrow Is Win Or Go Home

Curse of the coin-flip?

After a bad weekend the Rapids are forced to play the wild-card game on the road in their worst location, Seattle.  Just to remind everyone, in eight competitive games in Seattle all-time we've lost seven and drawn once (earlier this year) with a -13 goal differential.  The good news is since that coin flip above the Sounders have lost 4 and drawn 1 while being outscored 13-3.  And only a truly awful goal miss from the refs last Sunday night got them that one draw.  So one team that has never played well in the city and another who's been spiraling down in recent games.  Should be fun!  kickoff is 8:30pm Denver time tomorrow and the game will be on Altitude 2 in the Denver area and NBC Sports nationwide.  The watch aprties are at the Armory and British Bulldog in Denver.

Injury Report:

OUT: DF Davy Armstrong (R ACL surgery); DF Kory Kindle (sports hernia)
QUESTIONABLE: MF Dillon Powers (concussion); MF Vicente Sanchez (R shoulder sprain); MF Jamie Smith (R knee)

Ineligible:

FW Charles Eloundou - Not eligible until 2014

The injury reports haven't been updated since the weekend, but reports are that Sanchez will be available but Powers is almost certainly out.  On Sunday the Sounders had 3 players out and 3 questionable, I would expect similar numbers tomorrow night.  My guess on our XI:

This assumes Sanchez can start and Powers isn't available.  I'm going out on a bit of a limb when I predict Rivero in the midfield, but I think we've seen that LaBrocca isn't helping the attack.  Everything else is pretty much as you would expect.

Key To Look For: Score early, score multiple times.  The Rapids won't win 1-0 so they'll need more than one goal.  Getting one early to put Seattle on its heels and bring up that doubt that's plagued them the last 5 games started by losing 5-1 to us is the best way to get there.

Prediction: 2-1 win in overtime, goals by Brown and Torres.  This is going to be an tight, ugly game.  Short rest, artificial turf, and two teams that aren't playing great.  In the end the confidence the Rapids have from their earlier game against Seattle will be just enough to get them over the hump.