I'm Not Down

For the first time in a long time I'm not down going into a road game!  But before we dig into that we have a couple of personnel moves from this week to discuss.

First, Dillon Serna announced his retirement from professional soccer.  Arguably the first successful homegrown player from the Academy (along side Shane O'Neill) out of his 147 professional appearances 125 of them were with the Rapids organization in some form.  A one year stint with Sporting KC II and a year with the Switchbacks were his only other stops.  Hopefully he'll find a place in Commerce City post-retirement.

The Rapids also made a permanent and temporary move with the current team.  They extended Löffelsend's contract another year through 2025, with an option for 2026.  Then today they called up Marlon Vargas from RapiDos on a short-term contract for tomorrow's game.

Speaking of, the Rapids are off to San Jose to play the Earthquakes tomorrow night.  The former Clash are off to a rough start this season, last place in the league with the most goals allowed.  This might be a chance for Colorado to build on the confidence of 5 goals and 4 points in the last 2 games.  We are a little thin in midfield though.  Kickoff is at 8:30 tomorrow, and we're stuck with the Rogondino/Pearce team again.

Player Availability:

OUT: M Jonathan Lewis (knee), M Connor Ronan (knee), M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (illness)

QUESTIONABLE: M Jasper Löffelsend (hamstring)

Not having KSB reduces our firepower off the bench, so we're going to have to not save it until the end of the game this week.  Otherwise its as expected.

Other than right mid I think this is pretty locked in.  We could see Harris or Fernandez getting the start there, but I'm leaning towards Harris.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Mihailović and Bassett.  Field a little out on a limb to predict a win but there won't be an easier time to get a road win this year.  San Jose is bad and beat up.  Be smart, don't let them get confident by getting an early goal, and get two before giving one back.