The woeful Portland Timbers proved once again to be the salve to whatever ails the Colorado
Rapids.
The Timbers came to Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City on Wednesday night and fell flat
in a 3-0 drubbing. This scoreline was the same as the one that Portland suffered when last visiting
Colorado at the end of June, and came five days after the Timbers beat the Rapids 1-0 in
Portland.
Maybe Turbo and Ozone can help us... Due to being in Portland for the weekend,
this will be a combined game review, such as it was, and game preview. Though there really isn't
anything to review, due tot he nature of the game and the fact that I was seeing it in person from
a lousy seat there isn't much to talk about.
The Colorado Rapids got a first half goal and then made the lead stand up for the first time in
more than a month, bringing to an end a record-tying worst losing streak.
Joseph Nane got the goal, sending a left-footed smash into the roof of the goal in the 38th
minute, and the Rapids got the win over rival Real Salt Lake on Saturday night at Dick's Sporting
Goods Park in Commerce City.
This time Colorado fell behind in the opening moments, immediately tied the match, and then
faded out on Saturday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City.
This time the Seattle Sounders were the beneficiaries of this latest loss, but the victors
hardly mattered as the Rapids completed an 0-for-July streak that leaves the team questioning its
ability.
Colorado Rapids rested a host of regulars on Saturday night hoping to find some new fortune
heading into the all star break.
No such luck.
A late strike from Will Johnson sealed a 2-0 Real Salt Lake over the Rapids in Sandy, Utah. With
a second win against the Rapids, Salt Lake retains the Rocky Mountain Cup for the sixth straight
year.
Rarely have two teams demonstrated what a tale of two halves can look like until the Colorado
Rapids Women and the Santa Clarita Blue Heat squared off over the weekend.
Playing at home, the Blue Heat dominated the first half and took a commanding 4-0 lead in to the
locker room.
For Santa Clarita, Laura Luis scored early off an Edite Fernandes assist in the fourth minute of
play.
The Rapids definitively needed a win and on Saturday night the team delivered a definitive
victory in eviscerating the Portland Timbers 3-0.
Colorado (7-8-1) scored early to take control and late to make it a rout in dismantle the
Timbers. Jaime Castrillon scored in the 18th minute and Conor Casey tallied four minutes later as
Oscar Pareja's offense finally showed signs of coming together.
The Colorado Rapids parlayed one goal into four and turned a tight match with Chivas USA into a
4-0 victory Saturday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City.
Kamani Hill got two goals, Jeff Larentowicz buried a penalty kick and rookie Tony Cascio found
his second of the year as the Rapids ended a three-game losing streak.
Chicago Dog Week at the Class VI/Pid Army tailgate
After a long two weeks in the Northeast the Rapids are finally back at home on Sunday. The Fire are
in town and Colorado is trying to right the ship after a bad outing in NY. Game time is 5pm and
since its a themed tailgate (see above) the grills start and kegs open at 2pm.
Mastroeni is experiencing post-concussion -like symptoms and has been held out of practice the
last two days.
Obviously this is not a good sign. Kyle Martino reported during Sunday's game that Pablo felt he
was one bad concussion away from retirement, and now he's having post-concussion symptoms 10 days
after suffering a head knock against Columbus.
Following the shortest offseason, Major League Soccer swings into action on Saturday and the
Rapids face Columbus at home in Commerce City.
The March 10 first kick comes less than four months after the Los Angeles Galaxy claimed the MLS
Cup title. Now the league and the Rapids begin their 16th season of play less than two weeks from
the start of spring.
A surprise announcement from Commerce City today as Brazilian Luis Eduardo Schmidt, aka Edu, has
started a trial with the team. He contacted the Rapids about a trial, as opposed to the usual other
way around. He's a 33 year old midfielder/forward with 15 years of experience in Brazil and Spain.
He has 63 goals in 253 La Liga appearances over 9 years.
The Force is the Force of course, of course, unless of course the Force is no more.
The Colorado Force became the Colorado Rapids Women on Tuesday, wiping out the name of a past
W-League champion, but also paving the way for a new experience in women's soccer in Colorado.
Based out of Fort Collins and playing in Loveland for the past several years, the Colorado Force
had provided inexpensive, family-centered entertainment.
Bad news out of Commerce City today as Anthony Wallace ripped his Achilles in training yesterday
and he'll miss 6-9 months. That means if he takes exactly 6 months and no longer he can get back
for the final 7 games. Realistically he'll be back closer to the final 2 games, at which point
hopefully the Rapids will be in their playoff push.
Last night the Rapids held a Supporters Forum at Fado's in Lodo. I was unable to attend, but the
big news that came out of the forum was that Colorado is pursuing a young #10-style Argentine
midfielder. No details have been leaked on his name or his background but there may be a new
arrival from South America in Commerce City soon.
The addition of Wilmer Cabrera as Pareja's right-hand man has been the worst-kept secret in
Commerce City for some time. Today the Rapids made it official, along with the rest of the coaching
staff (all of which had been leaked prior to today). The new additions:
Wilmer Cabrera - Assistant Coach
Former Men's U-17 coach for the U.
Busy day in Commerce City as the organization has a new face, a returning face, and a promoted
face.
Let's start with the roster moves. In today's re-entry draft the Rapids selected Chicago midfielder
Baggio Husidic and Houston defender Hunter Freeman. Husidic is a 24 year old former Generation
Adidas player who's been with Chicago since leaving college 3 years ago.
Sorry I went AWOL on everyone (which I'm guessing is about 5 readers at this point in the offseason
;)) for a few days, stomach flu sucks. A couple of interesting news items came out this week.
Colorado declined the options on Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, Steven Emory, and Michael
Holody.
Holody's 3 years of service means he's eligible to be selected by other MLS teams in next week's
re-entry drafts.
Gary Smith, who led the Colorado Rapids to an improbable championship in 2010, was shown the
door on Monday.
The coach, who had agreed to a new contract, and the team announced a parting of the ways on
Monday afternoon. The departure came the same day that Rapids players cleared out their lockers
following a 4-0 aggregate loss to Kansas City in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
A cold night in Commerce City worked to the Rapids advantage as they got a first half lead and then
suffocated any chances the Crew might have had to get back into the game. Colorado won 1-0 and
moved on to the Conference Semi-Final round to face Kansas City.
The Rapids took control early as they had the majority of play in the first half.
After a stellar 2010 campaign, Omar Cummings has had a season to forget. On Thursday night,
however, he reminded everyone just how deadly he can be.
Cummings was alone in the penalty area when his roommate, Kosuke Kimura, passed to him in the
waning moments of the first half. Kimura, who made regular forays into the attack, saw Cummings
just after receiving a pass from Brian Mullan.
The Colorado Rapids will host its first match of the 2011-2012 CONCACAF Champions League on Aug.
17 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, taking on either Isidro Metapan of El Salvador or the Puerto Rico
Islanders in the competitions Group Stage.
CONCACAF announced on Thursday the first two matches of the Group Stage, with the Rapids
traveling to face Real España of Honduras on Aug.
On the tail end of their busiest stretch of the season, the New England Revolution will need to
find the energy to do something they haven't done in over nine years if they are to build on
Wednesday's win over D.C. United, their first victory since mid-May.
A.J. Soares and the Revolution defense will have a tough task Saturday against Colorado's speedy
offensive line.
So, your team's going to play a tournament in Colombia and you need a place to train. How about
Colorado?
Evidently, that is the thinking of the English U-20 team, which departed for the Rocky Mountains
today. The U-20s are training for the U-20 World Cup, which opens on July 29.
The Young Lions squad met up in Hertfordshire on Thursday before traveling Friday to spend 10
days in Commerce City using the Colorado Rapids facilities in order to help acclimate to the
conditions they will face in South America.
For crying out loud, another tie?! Midfielder Jeff Larentowicz goes down after being fouled
during the Rapids 0-0 tie with Houston at home on July 3. (Photograph by Jonathan
Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com.)
The Colorado Rapids have exhausted the thesaurus entry for "disappointing" this season, and now
the team has moved on to "frustrating.
Just a quick reminder that the USWNT is starting their Victory Tour tomorrow in Rochester, New
York. The game sold out the 11,000 tickets so quickly that the stadium added another 2,000 seats,
which also sold out within 30 minutes. Abby Wambach will be playing in front of her home town to
start the tour off right.
We asked a Trivia question on twitter (@ussoccer) earlier today, seeing if you knew how many
members of the delegation have played for the USA against Guatemala?
The answer: 13.
Most of the delegate members played in the 2008 Home and Away matches with Guatemala in the
semifinal round of the Last World Cup cycle.
While Timbers fans were watching their team get torn to bits in Colorado, the LA Galaxy were
scoring three goals for the third straight match, this time against the first place San Jose
Earthquakes. Those Timbers fans who decided to switch over to ESPN after the final whistle in
Commerce City (or before -- I certainly wouldn't think any less of you if you cut away early) saw a
performance that has been as rare for the Portland Timbers as it has been common for the Quakes --
a comeback victory.
Last week Ryan and I shared our competing analyses projecting what the MLS table is likely to
look at by the end of the season. While there were some minute differences between our approaches,
one trend seemed to be present in both models. Two groups are emerging in the Western Conference
this year: a group of five teams that look set to take the playoff spots, and a group of four teams
that might be out of the running long before the season ends.
Columbus hopes to remain on top this weekend in the Eastern Conference. (Getty Images)
What a wild night in Major League Soccer it was last night. Week 21 got off with a bang in some
ways as the LA Galaxy saw their long unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of the Portland
Timbers of all teams.
It's still hard to grasp how the Revs didn't get absolutely obliterated in their last two
games.
Despite being outshot, outplayed, and generally outclassed on the whole by a mediocre D.C.
United, the Revs miraculously clinched their first road victory of the 2011 season last Wednesday
thanks to an opportunistic Stephen McCarthy header.
