Tomorrow night the Rapids play their first game ever in Charlotte. The two teams met at the Dick last season (Charlottes inaugural year) where they played a scoreless draw. Neither team is off to a good start, both with 1 win through 7 but the Rapids have one more point than Charlotte. The home team also has one of the worst defenses in MLS so far, averaging 2 goals allowed per game. Meanwhile outside of the season opener against a pretty good Seattle side the Rapids have been pretty good along the backline, with only 4 goals allowed in the 6 games since then (and two of those were to Minnesota). Kickoff tomorrow on Apple TV is at 5:30. The announcing crews are Jenn Hildreth and Lori Lindsey in English and Diego Pessolano and Walter Roque in Spanish.
Availability Report:
OUT: D Moise Bombito (knee), F Yaya Toure (knee)
QUESTIONABLE: D Andreas Maxsø (concussion), M Cole Bassett (hamstring), M Braian Galvan (groin)
No real surprises there, though you would like to see Bassett getting healthy by now. He did travel with the team to Charlotte so he may be available though I don't expect him to start. Maxsø is doing well to even be questionable after the 1-2 of head collisions on that play against SKC, I know he trained lightly late in the week but I doubt he makes the 23 for this one.
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This is my expectation of what we'll see, though its not who I'd run out there. Without Maxsø I'd prefer to see us in a 4-man back line but I expect Fraser will stick to the 5-man and have Nicholson playing right wingback. After that the front 5 has been fairly consistent since Price's injury, though Cabral really needs to be starting and Lewis...not.
Prediction: 1-0 win, goal by Rubio. Out on a limb here, but the differences in the defensive play of these two teams just make it look like the Rapids can get 3 points in this match. If we can't score against these guys we have real issues.
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