Three things to watch against Colorado Rapids

Last week, we watched for ...

Will Alvaro Saborio continue to impress?

This turns out to not be a very fair question. We can wonder this in an 11 v. 11 situation, but Saborio didn't have nearly enough time to make a difference.

Will we see our preferred (for now) attacking pairing of Joao Plata and Alvaro Saborio?

Yes, but it wasn't enough to circumvent our down-a-man status. Whoops.

Who wins the midfield battle in Seattle?

I might actually venture that we did, in fact, win that battle for most of the match. However, late on, we found possession difficult to come by, and that's hardly winning the battle — much less the war.

This week, let's watch for ...

How does our defense look without Nat Borchers?

Borchers is clearly a very good defender, even if he is a bit on the getting-older side of the train tracks. It's no shame, because while he's not having quite a career season, he's not doing too badly. Indeed, when we've been without him, we've looked a shade of our usual selves defensively. Will that remain the case today?

How open is the game?

Colorado Rapids, more or less, need nothing but a win to even have a shadow of a chance at the playoffs. This should provide for an open, exciting game — after all, you don't score by sitting back, right? Maybe. We'll see how Pablo Mastroeni and co. take this one.

The question we ask every week: Who plays up top?

It's the million dollar question, but Alvaro Saborio might just be ready for a starting spot, and Joao Plata is almost certainly ready to continue starting every match he can. There is nary an element of surprise to this. But who comes off the bench? Will all three of our available strikers — Olmes Garcia, Robbie Findley, and Sebastian Jaime — be on the bench, or will somebody get left out?