Home Opener 2025, aka F*C* Dallas

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

While its technically not "Opening Day" because we've already had the CCC game that was a small crowd in a partially open stadium on a painfully cold night.  Tomorrow is the real start to the home season for the first home league match in front of a full crowd.  And bonus, it will still be in the 40s by the end of the game.  Our old friends Dallas are in town, not everyone sees this as a rivalry but those of us who watched all the Colorado-Dallas playoffs in the first 15 seasons do.  Kickoff tomorrow is at the traditional 7:30 time and the undefeated C38 tailgate kicks off at 4.

Availability Report:

OUT: D Jackson Travis, D Sam Vines, M Ted Ku-DiPietro

QUESTIONABLE: D Andreas Maxso, M Connor Ronan, F Darren Yapi

Travis had surgery on his hand this week and will be out 4-6 weeks.  Good to see everyone else largely recovering, though Vines' injury is a bit of a question mark.  Given how much preseason time Yapi missed I'm assuming he'll need some time before he's ready to play, but Maxso and Ronan only missed the last 10 days so once they're healthy enough to play they should be at the expected fitness.

We just went two full games with Larraz and Atencio as the double pivot and Bassett pushed up, and we had 0 shots on goal on those games.  Time to Cole back to where things were working in the first game against LAFC (and last season), especially since we're home.  I think Armas asks the defense for one more big push before getting a full week off and being able to bring Maxso (and maybe Vines?) back into the roation.  As far as the other winger I picked Fernandez because Armas seems to see something in him, but Harris (either one) might be a better option.

Prediction: 2-0 win, goals by Mihailovic and Bassett.  Just going with a gut feel here, its hard to tell what's going to happen this early in the season with the number of games we've already played.