Who: Seattle Sounders @ Colorado Rapids Where: Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, CO When: 6:00PM, Saturday, 7/28 Watch: KONG 6/16, THIS TV Listen: 97.3 KIRO FM, La Gran D 99.3 FM So... This game is 10 days away and will be held at high elevation. I think we all know what this means. The Sounders will come out flatter than a drive through the midwest. Even more exciting is that this game occurs the day after MLS's international transfer window, so if we're going to get anyone from outside MLS, then they will be in camp pounding away at the ball. The good news is that we're taking on the Rapids who are... Shall we say... not doing very well. Not that the Sounders are doing amazing quite yet, but the Rapids are winless streak busters right now and after a brief visit into the Western Conference playoff picture, are free falling and are currently 5 points out of 5th pace and falling further and further behind the streaking Galaxy. The big question for the Sounders, other than transfer rumors, of course, is what the #@!$%$!@#$ is going on with Gspurning? After getting our hopes raised before the Red Bulls game that he was good to go and that there was a high probability of him not only being in the 18, but starting and what happens on game day? Meredith in goal and Ford on the bench.. So hope shifted to the Chelsea game and when the game starts, there's Meredith picking balls out of the back of the net and Ford picking splinters out of his butt. *sigh* So.. 10 days... This is going to be fun. Time to fire up the circular firing squad and start taking potshots at each other.
Now that it seems likely that Flaco isn't going anywhere and we aren't bringing anyone new in, I'm going to roll out the standard line-up for Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted line-up: ----------Johnson--------Montero----------- Fernandez---Rosales/Alonso---Evans Gonzalez------Parke/Ianni------Johansson -----------------Gspurning-----------------
-------- Johnson --------- Montero -------- Caskey --- DP CM/Alonso --- Rosales Gonzalez--------- Ianni/Parke -----Johansson ----------------- Meredith ----------------- Here's my attempt and yes it is 100% guaranteed to be wrong in the midfield.
I will be at this game, definitely looking forward to my first non Cascadia away match. Definitely hoping that last night was just a final bit of rest for Gspurning we need him back in goal. I also think Steve sits this one out.
According to Josh Mayers, Gspurning was off to the side today. I'm guessing there was another setback in his recovery and that the trip to New Jersey was a bad idea.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Schmid said they were just easing off Gspurning and the expectation is still that he'll be ready for the Colorado game.— Joshua Mayers (@joshuamayers) July 19, 2012
I'll go ahead and guarantee a line-up. ---------EJ-----Montero---------- Caskey------Tiffert-------Rosales-- --------------Alonso--------------- Burch-----34------4-----Johan -------------Gspinjury---------- Do I get any bonus points for playing a guy not even on the roster?
We'd better take care of business because San Jose sure is getting away And my lineup: ------------------------------Johnson---------------- -------------------Montero--------------------------- --Tiffert-----------------------------------Rosales-- -----------------Rose-------Alonso------------ Gonzalez-----------Ianni---Parke-------------Johansson
San Jose is already very far away and not coming back. Seattle is also already comfortably into the playoffs, barring a Rapids-esque collapse. If there's anyone to keep your eye on, it's the east coast teams, since it's our relative records that determine whether we host MLS Cup 2012 (fingers crossed). West Conference records don't really matter, except for the play-in game, since Conference semis and finals are aggregate home-and-home. That is all for a different thread though. I put Ianni in for Parke since Parke got handily shoved off the ball by Casey before to lose a game for us, and then against Chelsea the same thing happened again. Ianni is a tougher guy to match up against Casey and Hurtado is stronger and faster to match up with Cummings. My big question mark while picking a line-up was-- Jamie Smith (RM) is just coming back from ACL surgery and they traded their starting RB. I could see throwing Cato out on our left wing to bewilder that side.
I don't know - it's 12 pts. and we have a game in hand. We also play them twice. If we win and draw, then it's 9 with a game in hand. If we win them both, its 6 with a GIH. I'm not giving up yet.
Ok, since there's nothing going on for awhile, we'll do it in this thread... Because of the home-and-home conference semis and finals, intra-conference seeding means nothing... except for 4th vs 5th. That's why we need to keep eye-balling our east coast competition most closely, since they are our actual rivals for hosting the Cup. And hosting the Cup >> winning Supporters Shield.
I dunno. I'd rather avoid last year where we ended up playing the third best team in the league... Winning the division (notice I didn't say SS) means we take on the 4th or 5th team in the division on a short rest for the first game.
As always, any travelling Seattle fans are welcome to come by the Class VI/Pid Army tailgate. We're starting at 4pm on Saturday with hot dogs, soda, kegs, and for this game, fish tacos. The tailgate is free but donations are always welcome. We're just across from Gate F in the West VIP Lot just South of the stadium.
Good news for Sounders fans: GK Michael Gspurning is still on track for a return Saturday in Colorado. "He's ready," Schmid said, barring a setback.— Joshua Mayers (@joshuamayers) July 26, 2012 I hope this means Gspurning will be starting.. We have been a mere shadow of ourselves defensively since he left.