The Rapids will rely on their own Young Punks tomorrow
The relation of the image and title to tomorrow's game is left up to the reader to figure out, though if you've read this blog for more than a year you should already know. The Rapids are in Norther California tomorrow to face the Earthquakes.
Two bits of news.
- Edson Buddle, as I expected, was suspended today for his stupid and dangerous tackle at midfield in the 2nd half of Saturday's game against the Crew. He'll miss Saturday's game in San Jose.
- The 3rd round draw for the U.S. Open Cup was posted. The Rapdis will face the winner of next week's Ocala Stampede (PDL) - Orlando City (USL) match.
The 2013 USA Pro Challenge Host Cities
Time for one of my diversions into another of my favorite sports, pro cycling. Yes, I know, its been a bad offseason for cycling with Lance Armstrong admitting what many people have known for a while. He doped. The sport shouldn't be seen from the perspective of its biggest failures though.
Colorado played perhaps its most complete game of the season as they picked up a solid win in Columbus for the first time since 2004. The Rapids got on the board early of a long clearance from Irwin that Buddle headed to Mwanga. Danny saw Harris in the box and chipped it to him. He was able to flick it into Buddle's path and Edson settled it and beat the keeper far post for a 1-0 lead after 8 minutes.
Ohio During The War of 1812
200 years ago next month the War of 1812 started. Prior to the U.S. actually declaring war, forces gathered around Dayton, Ohio in May in preparation. 200 years later, just down I-70, the forces of the Rapids will gather in Columbus to face the Crew tomorrow. Kickoff is at 5:30pm MDT on Altitude.
The 2013 Salary List is out, here are the Rapids salaries:
| Player |
| Pos | Base | Guaranteed |
| Armstrong | David | M | 46,500. |
That was a lousy game to watch as a neutral fan, worse as a Toronto fan. It probably wasn't very pleasant to watch as a Rapids fan but at least we can celebrate 3 points at the end of the day. Two teams that were lucky to string 3 passes together wasted 90 minutes on the field. At the end of the day the difference was that one team (Toronto) were absolute clowns and one team (Colorado) were merely lousy.
Game recap tonight (if I can quit laughing about it long enough to write it), salary discussion tomorrow, but first this. Colorado just announced that they've signed German Mera, a big left-footed centerback on loan from Deportivo Cali until the end of the season. He fills the roster and international spot freed up by Calderon (or Castrillon, or Harbottle) being on IR.
Maple-Drizzled Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dogs at the tailgate
One of our annual invasions from Canada this week as Toronto comes to down for the only meeting of the year. TFC had a mid-week game in Canada's version of the U.S. Open Cup, where they lost 6-0 to their rivals from Montreal. So they're either going to be ready to put a beat down on the Rapids or completely whipped and ready to slink home.
Watch these highlights!
At lunchtime today the Timbers faced local side Green Machine and lost 10-9!
Green Machine being the club of 8-year old Atticus Lane-Dupre, who missed the end of the fall season with his team while fighting cancer. Through the Make-A-Wish foundation what he wanted to do was play the Portland Timbers with his Green Machine teammates, and the Timbers organization along with the Timbers Army went all out to make his wish come true.
Today Colorado announced they signed their 2nd Round Supplemental draft pick (first pick the Rapids had in the draft) Brenton Griffiths. Griffiths is a Jamaican international youth defender, playing for their U-17 and U-20 teams and played college ball at Tyler Junior College and the University of South Florida.
Colorado outplayed Houston for much of the match, but yet again an untimely injury changed the match and Houston managed to scramble back into it for a point. The Rapids were the dominant team in the first half, pressing Houston repeatedly and not being afraid to get physical with them. Harris had the first two chances but couldn't get them on frame.
Water and Electricity Don't Mix
Sorry for the lack of anything but previews/reviews lately. big project at work finally finished today so I'll hopefully have more brain cycles to dedicate to writing. Look for a post either tomorrow or early next week about this year's USA Pro Challenge route.
Sunday the Rapids are in Houston to face one half of the former C+C Goal Factory, Omar Cummings, and the rest of the Dynamo.
That was a lousy game to watch as a neutral fan, worse as a Rapids fan. It probably wasn't very pleasant to watch as a Sounders fan but at least they could celebrate 3 points at the end of the day. Two teams that were lucky to string 3 passes together wasted 90 minutes on the field. At the end of the day the difference was that one team (Seattle) followed up a rebound and finished it and one team (Colorado) didn't.
Trap Game!
Tomorrow the Sounders are in town to play the Rapids. As long time readers of this blog know, games against Seattle hold a added importance to me due to it being my hometown and a number of my family members (Hi Anthony!, Hi Rob!) who are Sounders season ticket holders. Game time tomorrow is at 4pm so the tailgate starts at 1pm with a double-theme of fish tacos and munchies.
