Friday, May 27, 2011

Colorado Gets Its First Look At The New Kansas City

Sporting KC (aka the SporKCs) makes its first trip to Denver since they renamed themselves from the Kansas City Wizards (a much better name IMO). They also took our kits as they are now the light blue team in the league while we went to the white road kits. The SporKCs are in the 9th game of a 10 game road trip before their new stadium opens next month, and they have been spectacularly unsuccessful on the road with only 1 win and 1 draw so far.

Game time tomorrow is at 7pm, but the party starts much earlier. At noon the Pid Army and Class VI are hosting a watch party for the Champions League Final at the Celtic Tavern downtown. They'll be running two free shuttles at 3:30 and 4 from the party out to the Dick for the tailgate which, in honor of our opposition, is a Kansas City BBQ theme. After the game they'll run two shuttles back to the Celtic. A whole day of soccer partying is in store!

Injury Report:
OUT: FW Macoumba Kandji (L knee ACL tear)
DOUBTFUL: FW Omar Cummings (R ankle sprain); FW Caleb Folan (R groin strain)
QUESTIONABLE: MF Jamie Smith (L calf strain)
PROBABLE: FW Quincy Amarikwa (L ankle sprain); FW Conor Casey (L hamstring strain); GK Matt Pickens (R groin strain)

Disciplinary Report:
SUSPENDED: MF Brian Mullan (4 games)
SUSPENDED AFTER 2 MORE CAUTIONS: FW Conor Casey; DF Drew Moor; DF Marvell Wynne

No change to the official injury report but there are rumors that Folan and/or Cummings might be able to make an appearance. KC only has one player out due to injury, but they have 4 others absent with their National Teams. Its hard to tell what Smith might do with our lineup, but here's my guess:

Pickens
Kimura - Wynne - Marshall - Moor
LaBauex- Mastroeni - Larentowicz - Nyassi
Casey - Akpan

LaBauex and Akpan had good games on Wednesday and I think they get the nod to fill in for some of our missing guys. I don't think we'll see the 4-5-1 again, we should win this game despite the injuries and I expect to see our normal 4-4-2 because of it.

Key To Look For: Just win baby. Toronto should have been an easy win, but KC should be even easier. There's no reason, even with our injuries, that we should give the worst team in MLS a shot in this game.

Prediction: 2-0 win, goals by Casey and Nyassi. Nobody has given up more goals in the league than KC and they're in the bottom half in offense as well. They played a big USOC qualifier on Wednesday in KC so both teams had to travel after a game to Denver so they should be equally tired. With the home field advantage and the altitude Colorado should win this one.

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