Colorado vs. Toronto: Three Questions with Waking The Red

You can find the great info I gave him about the Rapids on this here page, check out his answers to my TFC questions below!

UZ: I read in your post-game recap of the Cup game against Vancouver on Thursday that Tony Tchani went down injured. How serious was the injury and is there a chance we'll see him at Commerce City on Sunday?

WtR: So far, almost exactly as you predicted.  We certainly haven't gone from strength to strength in his absence and are struggling to replace his goals.  The main thing we've lost is a good plan B, when things weren't working, there was always the possibility De Rosario would take it on himself to make something happen, usually it wouldn't work, but occasionally it did with spectacular results.

I think in the end, it will help the team get better, but right now we're still in the 'just taken our training wheels off' stage. Maicon Santos was given a few games in the attacking midfielder spot De Rosario vacated, but didn't impress at all. The team's still learning to play how Aron Winter wants them to, which is a more team oriented, possession based game and it's all very much a work in progress, with the team often looking slow, uncomfortable and generally uninspired up front.

UZ: With the Voyagers Cup days sandwiching the Rapids game, do you think Toronto will be looking ahead for that or even not put out a full strength squad against the Rapids in preparation of wanting to snag the silverware a few days later?

Having said all that, Aron Winter has so far shown that he either doesn't believe in squad rotation, or he just doesn't have that many players he trusts, or he thinks they need as much time together as they can get to become more comfortable (that's certainly true, they do).  He's been pretty much going with his first team all through this run, and though I hope I'm wrong, I feel that he may keep going with that.  Some changes will be forced on Winter, Julian de Guzman's suspended, and Tchani and Peterson have injuries, so there'll definitely be an experimental midfield.  Beyond that, though I'll hope for more, there'll probably be only one or two further changes, but it'll still be a team the Rapids definitely should beat.