And Here We Go

Its been far too long since we've seen the Burgundy Boys in action.  That ends at 6pm tomorrow in Dallas.  The 2021 season is here!  It took less than 24 hours for my predictions to be out of date, the USSF announced today that the plan for the U.S. Open Cup is off and these first 3 games will no longer count for USOC qualification.  Currently there is no USOC planned for 2021, but they hope to figure something out in the latter part of the season.

While the Rapids didn't change much on the field, for the better, they didn't change much off the field, for the worse.  There is still no resolution to the Altitude/Comcast/DISH negotiations which means once again the only option so see the Rapids on TV is to have DIRECTV or be outside Altitude's broadcast area nd watch on ESPN+.  Or find...other methods.

Not great news on the injury front.  While there's been no information out of Commerce City the MLSSoccer.com injury report does not look good:

OUT: M Braian Galvan

QUESTIONABLE: D Lalas Abubakar; D Sam Vines

Both Vines and Abubakar were subbed out early in the last preseason game on Saturday, presumably that's when they picked up their knocks.  Galvan's been out for a bit so that's not a huge surprise.  Dallas will be missing starting forward Jesus Ferreira and midfielder Thomas Roberts (who is likely going on loan somewhere anyway and wouldn't have been expected to play significant minutes even if healthy).

My guess at our XI then:

Obviously Vines goes in for Beitashour if he can play, and I think Abubakar would push Trusty out.  I expect Lewis to start in front of Beitashour as more of a true winger over Shinyashiki, giving some cover in front of Beitashour.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Barrios.  Before seeing the injury report I thought we could steal 3 points tomorrow but now I think getting a point on the road will be good enough.  The makeshift backline will leak a goal even without Ferreria but we'll even it out with Barrios returning to Dallas and getting some revenge.