Game On!

Well the season is finally here.  On what will be a very cold night with temperatures with wind chill in the single digits the Rapids face Toronto in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League.  Kickoff tomorrow night is at 8pm and I expect me and about 100 of my closest C38 comrades will be about the only fans in the stadium.  Those of you smart enough to stay out of the cold can find the game on Univision Deportes at 11pm, streamed live from the Univision Deportes website, or supposedly streamed live with English commentary on go90.

New coach, new players, and no injury report means I'm not going to try to predict a starting XI.  We'll be playing our new 3-5-2 and our lack of strikers means its likely guys like Hairston, Badji, Castillo, and McBean will start but outside of that its really up in the air.

Toronto plays a 5-3-2 (really the main difference between a 5-3-2 and a 3-5-2 is how aggressive the wing backs get) so the midfield is going to be really crowded.  Expect a lot of playing to the outside to find space.  They'll be missing a couple of bigger players due to injury and impending fatherhood so we might see an odd set of lineups from both teams.

Prediction: 0-0 draw.  I think Colorado is going to play conservatively, knowing they don't yet have all the pieces to get into a shootout.  The cold weather will only add to that as nobody is going to want to risk injury.  TFC will be fairly happy to go home without a deficit so this may not be the most exciting soccer tomorrow night.