Colorado Rapids striker Omar Cummings has missed the last two matches due to injury, and now Conor Casey is on the shelf again.
As challenging as it could be without two of their top players, the Rapids have no choice but to keep pushing forward.
Colorado and the expansion Montreal Impact meet for the first time Saturday night at Dick's Park in each team's final match for three weeks.
Out since spraining his left ankle in a 2-0 victory at FC Dallas on May 6, Cummings - tied with Jaime Castrillon and Kamani Hill with a team-best three goals - will be sidelined again before the Rapids (5-6-1) get an extended break.
Casey also will be unavailable after suffering a strained right hamstring in last Saturday's 2-2 draw against Kansas City. The team's all-time leading scorer was making his second consecutive start and fourth appearance after missing nine months with a torn Achilles.
The Rapids also likely will be without defender Marvell Wynne (right hamstring strain), midfielder Brian Mullan (left knee sprain) and midfielder Pablo Mastroeni (concussion-related symptoms), meaning they'll have to lean more on Hill, rookie Tony Cascio, Andre Akpan, Edu and Kosuke Kimura, who scored the equalizer against Sporting to complete Colorado's rally from two goals down.
"Everyone needs to step up," Kimura told the Rapids' official website after Casey set up his first goal of the season. "If 11 guys step up, that's 11 guys, not just one or two guys. Everyone has to be dangerous all the time. We just need to keep doing that."
Despite the growing number of injuries, Colorado enters Saturday's match with a 3-1-1 mark in Commerce City. The Rapids have outscored their opponents 11-4 in those matches.
"I know firsthand how the altitude will be a factor in the game," Montreal midfielder Collen Warner, a Denver native, told the Impact's official website. "We have to be ready for it, know what's coming and keep playing our game. We have to make sure we aren't too spread out."
Montreal, 1-0-1 on the road since opening with five straight losses as the away team, is looking to rebound from a 2-1 home loss to New York last Saturday. The Impact led 1-0 on Bernardo Corradi's first-half penalty kick - his fourth goal in his last five contests - but the Red Bulls beat Donovan Ricketts in the 67th minute while playing a man down.
"We just have to keep pushing and not feel sorry for ourselves," coach Jesse Marsch said after his team's 2-0-2 run ended.
Montreal (3-6-3) hasn't lost two in a row since a three-game skid March 24-April 4.
Midfielder Sanna Nyassi could face his former Rapids teammates for the first time after being selected by Montreal in the expansion draft. Nyassi scored five goals and set up five others in his lone season with Colorado in 2011.
Following Saturday's match, Montreal won't play again until June 16 when it opens the expanded Stade Saputo versus Seattle.
