Preview: Colorado Rapids vs. Seattle Sounders

Sports Mole previews Thursday’s Major League Soccer clash between Colorado Rapids and Seattle Sounders, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Having ended a run of seven games without a win last time out, Colorado Rapids welcome Seattle Sounders to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Thursday.

The away side, meanwhile, make the journey to Commerce City having had to settle for a stalemate for the second game running last time out.

Colorado Rapids snapped a five-match losing streak across all competitions by beating New England Revolution 2-1 in Sunday’s encounter involving the teams.

Cole Bassett and Calvin Harris netted early in the second half to put Chris Little’s men in the driving seat before Omar Gonzalez pulled one back in second-half stoppage time.

Nonetheless, the Pids remain bottom of the Western Conference of the Major League Soccer table, a whopping 14 points adrift of any form of playoff contention.

Lying in store next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who are in search of a third consecutive win in this fixture having won each of the most recent two editions by a combined score of 6-1.

Despite what has been largely an abysmal campaign to date, the home side are unbeaten in six straight games in front of their fans which makes for good reading ahead of Thursday’s affair.

Seattle Sounders played out a second consecutive share of the spoils following a 1-1 draw against FC Dallas at the Toyota Stadium on Sunday.

Brian Schmetzer’s men wet into the interval training at half time thanks to Jader Obrian’s opener after which Alexander Roldan levelled matters.

Currently with 22 points from 27 matches to date, The Rave Greens sit third in the Western Conference standings, seven points shy of division leaders St. Louis City.

Having scored the second-most goals away from home this term, Thursday’s visitors will be looking to put on another attacking masterclass on enemy territory.

Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer form:

Seattle Sounders Major League Soccer form:

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Team News

Leo Chu missed Seattle Sounders’ last outing through a one-game suspension but the Brazilian is now eligible to feature in this one.

American duo Kelyn Rowe and Cody Baker are both ruled out, although the former is drawing increasingly closer to making his return to action for the visitors.

Colorado’s Jack Prince is still facing an extended spell on the sidelines due to a knee injury which he picked up in the third week of March.

The home side will also have to cope with the absence of Max and Alex Gersbach who are battling ankle and muscle injuries respectively.

Colorado Rapids possible starting lineup:
Ilic; Rosenberry, Bombito, Maxso, Gutman; Tavares, Ronan; Harris, Bassett, Cabral, Navarro

Seattle Sounders possible starting lineup:
Frei; Baker-Whiting, Ragen, Gomez, Roldan; Paulo, Vargas; Rusnak, Lodeiro, Morris; Ruidiaz

We say: Colorado Rapids X-Y Seattle Sounders

Both teams have struggled for clean sheets of late so we are expecting goals at either end here. That said, we can see the sides canceling each other out and settling for a point aiece in the end.

How to watch

You can watch Colorado Rapids vs. Seattle Sounders and every MLS match this season live on Apple TV. Click here for more details on how to subscribe.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Top tip

Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 2.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 2.5:data

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