Colorado Rapids: Three hopes, one fear

Hope #2: That they are fully healthy.

All teams suffer injuries throughout the season, but it seems like the Rapids have been hurt more than most this season. At times the club has played without Jermaine Jones, Bobby Burling, Marlon Hairston, Marc Burch, Dillon Serna, Dillon Powers, and Marco Pappa. Yet somehow someway this club has persisted and have put themselves in a position against a Galaxy side that have feasted on wounded teams through the years.

Make no mistake about it: in order to beat the Galaxy the Rapids have to be at or near full strength. Particularly in the defensive third where they are going to face a barrage of shots from all sorts of different areas, they can ill afford to be playing at half strength.

Of the returning players Burling is perhaps the most important in this regard. It would be easy to say Jones is more important based off of his work in the defensive midfield and his counter-attacking abilities. But the Rapids are going to need an experienced center-back to either go with Axel Sjoberg or to spell Jared Watts late in matches. Even if he is asked to just come up with a couple of clearing balls and to defend on set pieces Burling will play a major role in this series.