Will We See The LA Zlatans?

Tomorrow night the Galaxy are in town and the big question is, will Zlatan make his first appearance in the Mile High City?  While Sweden appears to be better without the Lion the Galaxy most certainly are not.  Zlatan has been involved in 27 of LA's 41 goals this season (23 goals, 4 assists).  Without him they're a damp squib, though their recent acquisition of Pavon does change that balance somewhat.  Zlatan has been suspended for the last two matches against the Rapids, matches that we won.  Sadly there's no reason to think he won't be in the starting XI tomorrow.  Kickoff is at 7pm so the tailgate starts at 4.  Those who can't make it and still have access to Altitude can watch the match there.

Injury Report:
OUT: D Kortne Ford; D Deklan Wynne
QUESTIONABLE: GK Tim Howard

Disciplinary Report:
SUSPENDED: F Diego Rubio (Yellow card accumulation, must be served when not on international duty)
ONE YELLOW FROM SUSPENSION: D Danny Wilson, M Jack Price

International Call-Ups:
D Seb Anderson (U.S. U-17s); M Cole Bassett (U.S. U-20s); F Kei Kamara (Sierra Leone); F Diego Rubio (Chile)

Its possible any number of our callups could be back for tomorrow's night, everyone but Rubio finished their games by Monday while Rubio is playing in Honduras tonight.  My bet is that if we see any of them Kamara (who's had since Sunday morning Denver time to get home) might be on the bench.  If the Rapids can get Rubio home from Honduras in time to be in the lineup they can count tomorrow's game as his suspended game, making him available for Saturday's game in Toronto.  Otherwise he'll miss that game as well.  If it weren't for his suspension I'd assume we wouldn't hurry him home and maybe meet up with him in Canada.

Three game week would normally call for squad rotation but given how many players are unavailable I think we see largely the same lineup as Saturday and we'll see a large number of changes in Toronto.  The two changes I'm expecting are Lewis sitting out after tweaking his hamstring on Saturday and Howard coming back for one of his last two home games, and then possibly not travelling to Toronto.

Prediction: 2-2 draw, goals by Mezquida and Shinyashiki.  The Rapids actually have a better attack than LA, even with Zlatan, and of course a worse defense.  A draw is a little optimistic as LA is rested after having the weekend off, but at the same time they are missing a couple of big pieces.  I'm having a hard time getting a read on this game though, anything other than a blowout for either team seems possible.