The Colorado Rapids travel to the nation’s capital to take on D.C. United in the Black-and-Reds opening home game at RFK Stadium.
The Rapids are coming off a dramatic win in their home opener against LA Galaxy while D.C. drew away to New England Revolution. D.C. fans will hope that their home opener brings a win as United have only claimed one point from their first two matches of the 2016 season.
D.C. fans have had to wait till week 3 of the 2016 MLS season to see their team in the flesh. (Photo Credit: Jennifer Jordan- Harrell)
United will be happy to have Patrick Nyarko available for selection again after he suffered a concussion in week one’s match against LA Galaxy, but will miss goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra who has been ruled out for 10 weeks with a herniated disc in his back. Travis Worra will start, as he did last week, in just his third appearance for D.C. Besides the missing Dykstra, D.C. will have a full complement of players for Head Coach Ben Olsen to select from.
Colorado is also free of injuries coming into the match, but will be without recent signing Jermaine Jones who is serving a six-match ban he picked up in the 2015 post-season, when New England Revolution were eliminated from the MLS Cup by D.C. Jones won’t be available until the Colorado hosts New York Red Bulls on April 16th. Colorado will also be without left winger Shkelzen Gashi who was issued one-game suspension by the MLS Disciplinary Committee for entering the field of play in the 90+ minutes of Colorado’s last match against LA Galaxy.
The Black-and-Red have made RFK Stadium a fortress in recent seasons and they’ll hope to keep that trend going in their home opener. Last season D.C. earned 36 of their 51 total points at RFK, winning eleven matches on their home turf in each of the past two seasons.
Expect Luciano Acosta to challenge the Rapid defense. (Photo Credit: Kari Heistad)
United’s electric playmaker Luciano Acosta will be a player to watch on the day. Through two weeks of play the signing from Boca Juniors has dazzled Black-and-Red fans with his skill and creativity on the ball. If Acosta gets into attacking positions deep in the Rapid zone he could be a handful for Colorado’s tall center backs Jared Watts and Axel Sjoberg. Acosta is small in stature, but his low center of gravity and nimble footwork could provide problems for the Colorado backline.
For Colorado the player to watch will be last week’s hero Marco Pappa. Last week Pappa scored with a dramatic volley that careened off the underside of the crossbar deep into stoppage time, giving Colorado their first three points of the season against a star studded Galaxy side. Coach Mastroeni has brought Pappa in off the bench in each of Colorado’s games this season but with the absence of Gashi, Pappa should see a sharp increase in minutes and may even start for Colorado. When Pappa plays he’s given a lot of freedom to roam around the pitch and get on the ball, containing the Guatemalan will be a priority for the United defense.
D.C. has been out possessed in each of their first two matches this season while Colorado has out possessed their opposition in each of their opening matches. Look for that trend to continue. Colorado has made a concerted effort to build out of the back more than in previous seasons and they use their back four to switch play often. D.C. holds their shape very well with Captain Bobby Boswell directing traffic from the back-line; the Rapids will have a tough task in breaking down the Boswell lead defense.
Expect a low scoring game at RFK. An early goal would go a long way to opening the game up and forcing the teams to risk more than they’re comfortable with in attack, but a low-scoring draw wouldn’t be a surprising outcome. Colorado would be happy to come away from the road game with a point, but D.C. will hope to collect all three points in their home opener, especially as they have only collected one point from their first two MLS games in 2016.
