Colorado Pre-game

The Crew now enter into what is really the easiest part of their schedule. The three teams that the Crew play before the All-Star break combine for a 9-18-13 record. The only one of those teams that has won in the last few weeks is RSL, and we all know how terrible they are. This is a crucial time for the Crew, with some easy points on the horizon, and a real chance to climb up the standings. This is really where we find out if the Crew have indeed turned the corner. They may have beaten the good teams (Kansas City, New York), but now they have to show that they can put away the teams nearer to the bottom of the table.

The Crew's first of the three games before the All-Star break is against Colorado tomorrow night. Colorado will be fielding a patched-together lineup, with Pablo Mastroeni definitely out due to an injury, Herculez Gomez and Kyle Beckerman with the Nats, and several other potential starters for the Rapids are listed as either doubtful or questionable on the injury report. The Crew, meanwhile, will have Ezra Hendrickson and Danny O'Rourke returning from suspension, and Guillermo Barros Schelotto should return from the hamstring strain that kept him out of the lineup against New York. Virtuoso and Evans are listed as definitely out, while Miglioranzi and Oughton are listed as questionable, which is certainly news to me. The Crew can certainly survive without Miglioranzi and Oughton, but it makes putting together a lineup for Wednesday all the more of a guessing game. I would expect to see an unchanged backline from the game against New York, but the midfield and forward positions contain a few more question marks. If either Oughton and Miglioranzi are good to go against the Rapids, we would most likely see a midfield triangle consisting of the two defensive midfielders and Grabavoy at the attacking midfielder slot. If Oughton and Miglioranzi are both out, it would be interesting to see how Sigi adapts, but I would imagine that Grabavoy would slide back to a more defensive midfield role and Schelotto would drop back a little into the midfield. Up front, Schelotto and Moreno are both near-certanties, while Kamara, Thomas, and Herron will battle it out for the third forward/winger spot. I'd imagine that Kamara will get the nod after scoring against New York.

Conventional wisdom says to never bet against the streak, and the Crew are unbeaten in four and on a three game winning streak, while Colorado is winless in six. In my mind, the Crew blanks the Rapids 2-0 for the second road win of the season, and continues to climb the standings. Another thing to keep in mind when considering the importance of this game is that Colorado is potentially one of the teams that Columbus could be fighting for a playoff spot later in the season, depending on the fortunes of both teams, and it'd be nice to have the tie-breaker in our favor - if the Crew win, they can't lose to Colorado on the head-to-head tie-breaker. We could play the what-if game until the cows come home, however, so I will bid Adu (yukyukyuk)for now, and I hope the next time I'm writing in here that the Crew will have three more points. Thanks again for reading, all!