New Kids On The Block

After our first ever visit to Charlotte last week we get our first look at this year's expansion team, St. Louis City, at home tomorrow night.  The Rapids have not fared well recently against expansion teams.  Last year we drew Charlotte in our only meeting, and our first two times ever facing Nashville were losses.  In 2021 we of course gave Austin their first ever win in our first matchup.  The Rapids also lost our first ever matchup with LAFC in 2018.  We did beat Cincinnati the first time we faced them back in 2019 (we have yet to play 2020 expansion side Miami).  1-1-3 in the first game against the last 5 expansion teams is bad.  You also have to wonder if the St. Louis fans want this one just a bit more than others, given what Kroenke did with the Rams.  I don't know if that has filtered down to the org and players though.

Kickoff tomorrow is at the new standard 7:30pm for Apple TV, and its one of the free games this week.  The English announcers are Chris Wittyngham and Danielle Slaton.  In Spanish we get the number one team of Jorge Perez Navarro and Rapids legend Marcelo Balboa on color.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK Abe Rodriguez (Ankle), D Moise Bombito (Knee), M Cole Bassett (Hamstring)

QUESTIONABLE: D Steven Beitashour (Foot), M Braian Galvan (Groin)

Great not to see Maxsø on the injury report, and according to Brendan Ploen he was a full participant in training today, even scoring a goal on a diving header.  He also saw Beitashour in full training but Galvan is still training on the side.  Abe Rodriguez went down in the Rapids 2 game last week on a goal kick, the full extent of the ankle injury is not known yet.  Bassett's injury hasn't been updated but no surprise to see him listed as out after the way he went down last week.

First of all, that's not a mistake on the jersey colors.  Since tomorrow is Earth Day the league is doing its annual recycled jerseys made from reclaimed plastic from the ocean and this year the ones the Rapids are wearing is black and blue.

Now on the lineup itself, its hard to tell what we're going to do right now.  Assuming Maxsø is good to go I feel pretty good about the back 6, but the front 5 is kind of up in the air.  Obviously Rubio and Ronan will start, and Max is rounding into form.  The other two though, and what formation we'll use?  That's just a guess.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Rubio.  And even that seems optimistic.  Colorado has looked better over the last 4 games, but St. Louis has started on fire, with the best ever start by an expansion team.  They've won 6 of 8, with their only losses being to Seattle and Minnesota two teams we've lost to.  And in those 6 wins they've scored 20 goals, with multiple goals in each of them (they were scoreless in their two losses).  If Maxsø is really back we might, might, be able able to contain them but they're going to score and we can't expect to score multiple goals right now.  So at best we can hope for a 1-1 draw.