The Red Bulls and Rapids get ready to battle in the final play-in game to reach the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup (8PM streamed live starting at 7:55PM at http://www.newyorkredbulls.com/).

The Rapids defeated the Wizards 2-1 on April 13th to advance to this stage of the USOC.

The Rapids continued their pattern of futility in Kansas City Saturday night. A 1-0 loss for the good guys. The Rapids didn't look great at any point in the game, but in the first half they had the better chances. Both Cummings and Ballouchy had clear shots on goal from inside the box. Cummings powered his in and the keeper made a save off of his face.

By TRAVIS CLARK

On the road or at home, goals have been hard to come by for D.C. United. And a familiar tune played out Saturday evening as a Mehdi Ballouchy goal in the 69th minute sent United to yet another defeat.

United trotted almost the exact same lineup as last weekend's loss against FC Dallas, perhaps hoping that that familiarity would breed success.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By TRAVIS CLARK

On the road or at home, goals have been hard to come by for D.C. United. And a familiar tune played out Saturday evening as a Mehdi Ballouchy goal in the 67th minute sent United to yet another defeat.

It was a fight from start to end as Rapids Marvell Wynne (center) is double teamed by Sounders Leo Gonzalez (left) and Steve Zakuani during the game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park May 29, 2010. Rapids come out with the victory 1-0. (Photograph by Jessica Taves/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

A cheeky chip from Conor Casey provided the winning margin Saturday night as the Colorado Rapids outplayed, outshot and finally beat the Seattle Sounders 1-0.

A place in Major League Soccer's final four, and a chance to host the Eastern Conference Final are on the line today at Crew Stadium as the Columbus Crew takes on the Colorado Rapids in the second leg of their first-round MLS playoff series.

The Rapids posted a 1-0 victory against the Crew in the first leg, but Columbus has the home edge tonight and needs to win by multiple goals to win the series, or a one-goal victory to force overtime and potentially penalties.

Here's the release from the front office. I believe Earls played primarily at left back and did a decent job there, and I would be even less surprised now if Leo isn't on the protected list.

Midfielder Peter Vagenas Traded to Colorado. Seattle Acquires Julien Baudet, Danny Earls

RENTON, WASH.

Sounders FC trades Vagenas to Colorado for defenders Baudet and Earls.

Josh Mayers tweets it. The Twittersphere speculates that this trade may have been delaying the protected lists (since Colorado will no doubt want to protect Pete after trading for him).

The Trade - Peter Vagenas for Julien Baudet and Danny Earls

MLS had a ton of activity on Protected List Day this year. Several trades went down and the Sounders were in on one of them (Initial News, Press Release, UZ over at BW, UZ here). In the short term it seems this deal was done by Colorado so that they could protect an additional domestic player, but it should be noted that it was also likely a salary dump.

Sounders losses are Tyrone Marshall, Peter Vagenas, Nathan Sturgis and Sanna Nyassi
Sounders gains are Erik Friberg, O'Brian White, Danny Earls and Julien Baudet (or at least his rights)

Here's the list of recommendations from Soccernomics in chapter 3 - Gentleman Prefer Blonds, somewhat condensed.

It all looks official now, barring the dotted Is and crossed Ts. This might be a move in the right direction with Larentowicz. The view on Thompson seems to be mixed. But the Rapids are in desperate need of a dominant, creative midfielder and the national team's Larentowicz might just fit that bill. According to the Boston Herald report, the Revolution will get Preston Burpo and Cory Gibbs in return, plus some money and a draft pick.

The Rapids faced the Galaxy in Arizona this afternoon. They lost 2-0 on a pair of first half goals. For the second game in a row the opposition scored int he first 10 minutes, which isn't a positive sign. Significant halftime changes again. Here are the lineups:
* = Unsigned trialist
First Half:
Pickens
Kimura - Baudet - Holody - Moor
Smith - LaBrocca - Ballouchy - Noonan
Cummings - Hodges*
Second Half:
Ceus
Kimura - Dalby - Holody - Valentino
Thompson - Ballouchy - LaBauex* - Lorei*
Schunk - Akpan
Still no signs of Palguta and Earls, which is unusual.

Sorry for the delayed update. I spent yesterday in Boulder finishing with the Great Big Sea concert at the Boulder Theater. Great time and I was tempted to buy tickets for tonight's show.
The Rapids finished their London trip with a match against San Jose at Tottenham Hotspur's training grounds.

Alchemy elements that is, They'll all play a factor tomorrow:
Water - Colorado RapidsFire - Chicago FireEarth - The Best Pitch in MLS at The DickAir - Thin At Altitude
The experiment kicks off at 2pm tomorrow. The Supporters Groups will continue their tailgates this year. Tomorrow's starts at 11am!

Here are a few notes before the match today.........

The injury list for both teams:

Colorado

Out: M Ciaran O'Brien, F Ross Schunk

Doubtful: G Ian Joyce

Questionable: M Jamie Smith

Probable: D Julien Baudet, F Conor Casey (foot sprain), F Omar Cummings (knee sprain)

Chicago

Questionable: M John Thorrington (quad strain), F Calen Carr (quad strain), D Wilman Conde (foot contusion)

Probable: F Patrick Nyarko (ankle contusion)

It will be interesting to see if Casey and Cummings are both 100%.

The Rapids head out on their second road trip this season to Kansas City. They'll be there for two games, the league game tomorrow night and a U.S. Open Cup qualifier on Tuesday night. Game time is at 6:30pm on KWGN, and the Supporter's Groups will be having a watch party at Katie Mullins on the 16th Street Mall.

The Rapids are back at home this weekend hosting the Toronto Rapids. Sorry, Toronto FC. They just look like the Rapids with Gargan, Harden, LaBrocca, and Peterson. This game has trap written all over it. home game against a team that's playing bad soccer and coming off an emotional home opener less than 72 hours earlier.

Colorado takes its longest road trip of the year (in distance), all the way to Foxboro, MA to play New England. They'll be greeted by familiar faces and they see Preston Burpo and Cory Gibbs again. Game time is at 5:30pm MDT and the game is on Channel 2 KWGN.
Injury Report:
OUT: MID Ciaran O'Brien (L hip sprain), FWD Ross Schunk (R ACL tear) DOUBTFUL: MID Jamie Smith (R hamstring strain)
Jamie Smith's injury will make for an interesting choice for Gary Smith.

Editor's Note: Forgive the tardiness of this post. After last night's result, I was in no hurry to share the news.

Behind a brace from John Wolyniec, the New York Red Bulls shot past the Colorado Rapids 3-0 and into the main draw of the U.S. Open Cup. With the win, the Red Bulls advanced to the third round where the team will face an opponent to be determined later this summer.

The Colorado Rapids come into Toyota Park riding a string of five consecutive 1-0 matches, an MLS record for consecutive matches with that score line. Colorado is 3-2 in that same period and currently on a three game winnning streak. The Rapids have been solid defensively all season, only allowing seven goals (their season high in goals against was 2 against the Fire on April 3).

The Rapids played their worst game in about two months and still got away with a point last night. The game started on a down note as Julian Baudet was injured in a non-contact injury just 2 minutes into the game and replaced by Scott Palguta. There was only one bright note in the first half, Omar Cummings great strike from about 16 yards to give the Rapids a 1-0 lead.

Name2010
Guaranteed Compensation
Andre Akpan
$65,000.00Quincy Amarikwa
$40,000.00Mehdi Ballouchy
$88,800.00Julien Baudet
$181,750.00Conor Casey
$350,000.00Steward Ceus
$40,000.00Colin Clark
$94,250.00Omar Cummings
$80,250.00Danny Earls
$41,250.

The MLS season gets re-started again tonight after the break for the World Cup group stage. American soccer fans are riding a high right n ow with Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria that put the U.S. into this afternoon's Round of 16 game against Ghana. Let's hope we can keep the ride going with a spot in the quarterfinals.

The traditional 4th of July game in Colorado is here. The Rapids always play well on the 4th, in 14 seasons they have 11 wins and 2 draws, with the only loss being last year to Chicago. They've also averaged 2 goals a game, and had some notable moments like the first two hat tricks in team history (John Spencer and Chris Carrieri).

It's only appropriate that on the hottest day in two years the Colorado Rapids would return to action and ColoradoSoccerNow would return from vacation.

After seven days of sweltering in the wilds of eastern Oklahoma, even triple digits in Denver feels nice. Now the challenge will be seeing what sort of soccer is played on the the High Plains this evening at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Mehdi Ballouchy jumps the fences to celebrate with the fans when he scores his third goal of the season, tying the game against FC Dallas, Saturday, July 31, 2010 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. (Photograph by Jessica Taves/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the image above took less than 35 words to describe; an apt statement on the amount of joy found in Commerce City on Saturday afternoon.

The Rapids tied Dallas 1-1 on an own goal by Julian Baudet and a PK by Mehdi Ballouchy. Other than the difference in the goal scorers you can just read my recap of the Kansas City game two weeks ago to see what happened this game. Same result, same order of goals scored, same uninspired play.
My key to the game was being able to score more than one goal.

Two Rapids stalwarts have returned to training, while a third waits on scans to see what will become of his season.

Conor Casey is back on the pitch after missing two games with a head injury. Casey was injured late in the July 25th match against Seattle, and has missed matches with FC Dallas and San Jose Earthquakes.

Game time: Saturday, 4 p.m.

TV: 6abc/MyNetwork TV, Telefutura

Five games in 15 days. That's the stretch of games Philadelphia Union has played since the all-star break. Two draws and two losses, with the three of the four games against top 5 clubs in Major League Soccer.

The Rapids are looking at another must-win game tomorrow. The win last week combined with the other results took a bit of the pressure off, but the Under-a-Chivas are the worst team in the conference and if we can't beat them, we don't belong in the playoffs. These teams faced off in the opening game of the season, where the Rapids got their first ever opening day road win.

Colorado is in NY tomorrow facing the Red Bulls. Its their second trip to NY this year after losing there in the U.S. Open Cup play-in. After their two 3-0 wins the last two weeks the Rapids are riding high, but they face a much improved RBNY team who now sport Rafa Marquez and Thierry Henry. Game time is an early 2pm Denver time, with the game both on KWGN and on Telefutura.

The New York Red Bulls take on the Colorado Rapids at Red Bull Arena today in a battle of teams looking to solidify their holds on playoff spots (4pm, Telefutura).

The match-up features two of the best forward tandems in Major League Soccer, with Thierry Henry and Juan Pablo Angel looking to outduel Rapids tandem Conor Casey and Omar Cummings.

Prior to each match, New England Soccer Today will invite a reporter from the other side to provide insight regarding the Revolution's next opponent.

This week, Colorado Soccer Now writer Shaun Schafer shared his thoughts on the state of the Colorado Rapids and what the Revs can expect when they travel to take on the Rapids on Saturday night.

Tomorrow night at the Dick the Jameson's Night tradition continues. Undefeated when the supporter's groups break out the Irish whiskey, the Rapids look to get one step closer to the playoffs by defeating the Revs. New England is already looking towards next season, so Colorado is expected to win this.

Its the first of the two best games of the year, the Rocky Mountain Cup matchups with FaKe SaLt LaKe. The Rapids head West for the first game to the "wonderful" Salt Lake City metro area. Just as a reminder, the Cup is awarded based on points, with total goals as the tiebreaker. If the teams are tied on points and goals the current holders (right now FSL) retain the cup.

The Rapids went to Salt Lake and drew those FaKeRs 1-1. Many tears will be shed over the last minute equalizer that FSL scored. Instead of a recap I want to address that.
Yeah, it sucks that we had our rivals on the ropes and were about to end their home unbeaten streak, only to lose 2 points in the final minute.

This week the Rapids play the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday and DC United on Saturday, both at the Dick. The results against this Union/United combo will go a long way towards Colorado separating itself from the pack of teams at the bottom of the playoff field. We currently hold a 5 point lead over Kansas City in 9th place with 5 games to play.

Note: I'm starting a family visit this weekend, so the blog will have little or no posts after this until after the Dallas game next weekend.
The Rapids play their second home game this week against one of the "combined" teams of MLS, DC United. DC is awful this year, and they have as hot at one of the worst 5 seasons on MLS history.

So I go away for a week and a half with the Rapids on the verge of clinching a playoff spot and I come back to Gary Smith overlooking the worst team in the MLS en route to a home loss and then pulling out a huge point in Dallas against the hottest team in MLS. Yep, same old Rapids.
This week we're in LA for our penultimate game of the regular season, and maybe of our whole season.

After the game on Saturday Class VI will award its Player of the Year award and the Pid Army will award its Defensive Player of the Year award. I thought I would tell you who I voted for and why.
First let's look back and who I named Player of the Game for the 27 games I've awarded it this year:

• Omar Cummings - 6 times
• Pablo Mastroeni - 4 times
• Marvell Wynne - 4 times
• Matt Pickens - 3 times
• Mehdi Ballouchy - 2 times
• Jeff Larentowicz - 2 times
• Drew Moor - 2 times
• Julian Baudet - 1 time
• Conor Casey - 1 time
• Claudio Lopez - 1 time
• The fans - 1 time (the KC home game mess)

For player of the year I already had a pretty good idea of who I would vote for and the review of my Player of the Game awards reinforced it.