The final road match of the year will also be the hardest for the Colorado Rapids

Now, the Rapids are going to be in probably the toughest road test of the season as their final stand away from home.

Simply playing in Seattle is difficult of course, but that's not the only reason I say that. After all, part of the Rapids' improbable lossless streak earlier in the season included a shock 1-0 win over the Sounders. But these are two teams in different circumstances than before.

Gashi, of course, is also in doubt for the game after the ankle injury he suffered against Los Angeles.

The missing Rapids players will hurt a hell of a lot, but this is also probably the hardest match-up the Rapids have seen this season.

Seattle is on fire right now. They didn't just take down the league darlings FC Dallas in their match-up, they demolished them. They lost the away leg, but rather comfortably after getting a road goal. The defense impressed as usual last round, but none of the players the Rapids faced against LA were anywhere near as dangerous as on-fire Uruguayan Nicolas Lodeiro. They score goals in bunches, the biggest nightmare for a Rapids team that, when they don't shut out their opponent, almost never win. Since the start of September, they've gone 5-1-0 at home and beat their opposition 8-1 over that period.

In short, this one is going to be tough. And against a team far better than LA, it might be hard to argue that a 1-0 loss is going to be good enough this time around.

This isn't to say that the Seattle match on Tuesday isn't a game that a result can be pulled from, or that the Seattle series isn't winnable. But if the Rapids are going to go into their penultimate (ideally) home match of the season with the chance for another 1-0 win to take them through, they're going to have to pull out the biggest rabbit from the smallest hat they've been handed this year. And that's where I've taken that metaphor so far that it dies.