Colorado spent 3,330 minutes this season defending the 2010 MLS Cup Championship, which put the
team 180 minutes shy of defending its title.
Graham Zusi provided the services in the 28th and 76th minute as Sporting Kansas City recorded
another 2-0 victory over the Rapids, giving KC a 4-0 aggregate win in the Eastern Conference
Semifinal.
Home-and-away series in MLS playoffs tend to play out like the company Christmas party: things
may start out a little slow, stodgy and cautious. But pretty soon furniture is being tipped over,
fights are breaking out, things are gettin' wacky and, by the latter stages, you just don't know
what kind of craziness may claim the night.
That's Jamie Smith dressed up as the Mad Hatter for Halloween yesterday.Another quick turnaround as the Rapids face the end of their season tomorrow in Kansas City. Down 2
goals Colorado mus win by 2 to force overtime and PKs or 3 to win and move on. On top of the other
problems a storm is rolling into KC tomorrow night (probably the front edge of what's rolling into
Denver tonight) which could make the game sloppy.
Photo by Bill Barrett/ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
Teal Bunbury doesn't accept success as a given, even if things are set up quite nicely for him
on a couple of levels.
Bunbury, who scored both goals in Sporting Kansas City's 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids in
the first leg of the MLS Eastern Conference semifinals, has the scales tilted heavily in his favor
heading into Wednesday night's second leg match at Livestrong Sporting Park (Wed.
Teams that can't score don't make it far in the postseason, and the Colorado Rapids are a team
that can't score.
The latest evidence came Sunday evening as the Rapids fell 2-0 to Sporting Kansas City in the
first leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Colorado, which edged the Columbus Crew 1-0 in the wild card match on Thursday, couldn't
generate legitimate threats as Sporting spent the evening shoving them around the field.
Teams that can't score don't make it far in the postseason, and the Colorado Rapids are a team
that can't score.
The latest evidence came Sunday evening as the Rapids fell 2-0 to Sporting Kansas City in the
first leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Colorado, which edged the Columbus Crew 1-0 in the wild card match on Thursday, couldn't
generate legitimate threats as Sporting spent the evening shoving them around the field.
The Colorado Rapids' uphill battle in the Eastern Conference Semifinals just got tougher.
Kosuke Kimura, Drew Moor and Caleb Folan are all expected to miss extended time after picking up
injuries in the first leg of the home-and-home series against Sporting Kansas City, the Rapids
announced Monday.
By DAVID GUBALA
Sporting Kansas City went into Sunday's Eastern Conference semifinal first leg looking to
hopefully come away with a draw against the Colorado Rapids to send the series back to Kansas City
A nightmarish night for the Rapids helped Sporting KC return to the Midwest with so much
more.
The MLS playoff schedule was set late Sunday night (it's down below here).
We'll review with a thorough handicapping later this week, but for now...here's our quick odds,
brief summary and the schedule.
Please lend your voice to the odds and we'll republish on Wednesday or
Thursday:
Evans for Seattle (and previously for Columbus)
TSG's MLS Playoff Odds:
Seattle Sounders: 3 to 1* (pending Rosales injury update)
Los Angeles Galaxy: 4 to 1
Real Salt Lake: 6 to 1
Philadelphia Union: 7 to 1
Sporting KC, FC Dallas: 8 to 1
Colorado Rapids: 10 to 1
Houston Dynamo: 14 to 1
New York Red Bulls, Columbus Crew: 15 to 1
-
TSG's Pick (may change by Thursday): Seattle
TSG Skinny: There are a just few basic things you need to reach the MLS Cup
Finals after journeying through its playoff gauntlet.
Tomorrow its on. Rapids - FSL with the Rocky Mountain Cup on the line! Need I say more?
OK, I will, but only because the tailgate is almost as impressive as the game. About 5 hours from
now the crack Class VI/Pid Army chefs will be arriving at the Dick to start the grill on the
biggest tailgate they've ever done, a full pig roast!
Sorry for the double pun. ;) Saturday night a solid game from Colorado resulted in a much needed 3
points. Much like MLS Cup (but not quite as bad) the game wasn't pretty but it was successful.
The Rapids had the better of the play for most of the first half, punctuated by 2 shots on goal
between the 23rd and 26th minute.
The Saturday night showdown between FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids was not so much a rematch
of the 2010 MLS Cup as it was a desperate 90 minutes for two teams stumbling toward the
playoffs.
Colorado came in winless in its last five MLS matches (0-3-2) and Dallas arrived on a string of
getting shutout in three straight matches.
The Saturday night showdown between FC Dallas and the Colorado Rapids was not so much a rematch
of the 2010 MLS Cup as it was a desperate 90 minutes for two teams stumbling toward the
playoffs.
Colorado came in winless in its last five MLS matches (0-3-2) and Dallas arrived on a string of
getting shutout in three straight matches.
photo by Patricia Giobetti/ISIphotos.com
If the Colorado Rapids entered their game against FC Dallas hoping to close the gap in the
standings between the two teams, it was a mission accomplished.
Colorado defeated FC Dallas 1-0 at Dicks Sporting Goods Park on Saturday night on a headed goal
from Drew Moor in the first half.
"No disrespect to the Eastern Conference, but tonight was the championship" -- Dallas defensive
midfielder Daniel Hernandez after winning the Western Conference Championship in 2010I just wanted to throw that in as a "friendly" reminder about our guests tomorrow. I expect him to
get the official Class VI welcome for 90 minutes!
Teams earn a share of the points in a tie, but rarely do they toil for it like the Colorado
Rapids did on Saturday night.
The record book will show that Chris Wondolowski scored an unassisted goal for San Jose in the
18th minute, and Drew Moor delivered an unassisted equalizer in the 71st. What the stats line will
fail to show is the frenzy and oddity on display at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Over the last year or so, we have discussed MLS' efforts to measure the value of its television
exposure through various local and national broadcasts. Through the website criticalmention.com,
MLS tries to alert media to the "value" of its presence on various television programs. Since a
few weeks have passed since we last checked in on this metric, we thought providing a snapshot of
this metric of MLS media exposure.
While much has been made of Major League Soccer teams' recent success in Mexico and Central
America during the CONCACAF Champions League, MLS teams have done fine for themselves on home soil,
as well.
None of the five MLS clubs in the tournament has lost to non-MLS opposition at home so far
during the CCL group stage, and the Colorado Rapids will look to maintain that streak when they
welcome Mexican club Santos Laguna to Dick's Sporting Goods Park (10 p.
Landon Donovan makes the most of his play against the Rapids, and he did it again on Friday
night, delivering the lone goal in the LA Galaxy's home win over Colorado.
This time, the goal came in the 36th minute as Donovan was unmarked when receiving a pass from
Sean Franklin. Unlike his miss against Costa Rico on the same field in a USA friendly a week early,
Donovan was clinical.
The U.S. men's national team returns to action in ten days with a pair of international
friendlies, meaning Jurgen Klinsmann will soon be calling his first full camp since taking over as
national team manager.
Klinsmann stated after the recent 1-1 draw with Mexico that he would call in the best squad
possible, all hands on deck, meaning no healthy top players left behind and no MLS standouts left
with their clubs.
Isidro Metapan's Alfredo Pacheco (left), watches as Colorado Rapids Andre Akpan (top), uses the
back of Pacheco's teammate Alex Escobar during the CCL opener, Aug. 17. (Photograph by Jessica
Taves/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
The Colorado Rapids players have to stop thinking about the three points at home that got away
in the 86th minute on Saturday and turn their attention to a Honduran champion.
The Rapids have taken 19 players on the long trip to Honduras, their first trip outside the U.S. &
Canada for a meaningful game in 13 years. Tomorrow they face Real Espana in San Pedro Sula in their
second Champions League match. While Pablo, Pickens, Wynne, and Smith stayed in Colorado the rest
of the starters traveled with the team and will be available for selection.
Last night the Rapids tried out a new lineup but got similar results to what they've been seeing.
Giving Cummings some continued rest Folan was put up front with Nyassi as a withdrawn striker
underneath him. Early on it paid off, as Kimura launched Mastroeni(?!?!) down the right sideline
and Pablo whipped in a perfect cross that Folan headed into the upper corner for the lead.
Omar Cummings tees up a shot during the Rapids home clash with Chivas in 2010. (Photograph by
Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
The Colorado Rapids start the final eight games of the MLS season secure in a playoff position
and tangling with one of the teams chasing them, Chivas USA.
This alone makes the Saturday night clash at Dick's Sporting Goods Park intriguing, but add in
the Goats' latest signing, the return of a former Rapid and the potential to watch an endurance
record, and the storyline gets a little overwhelming without even mentioning CONCACAF Champions
League play.
After a successful Champions League match in mid-week the Rapids are once again back in MLS play
which the Under-a-Chivas coming to town. Along with the game Class VI and the Pid Army are holding
their second annual home brew contest! Tailgate starts at 4pm and all are welcome to sample the
entries and vote for your favorite.
Apologies for the delay, a summer flu has knocked me out for the last 24 hours. Preview of
tomorrow's Chivas game will be up later tonight.
After the worst first half the
Rapids have played in years they straightened things out and halftime and dominated the second half
en route to a win.
The Colorado Rapids couldn't have gotten off to a worse start in their CONCACAF Champions League
match on Wednesday night, surrendering an early penalty to go down 1-0 to visiting Salvadoran side
Metapan.
The defending MLS Cup champions didn't buckle though, not even after a Matt Pickens blunder gave
Metapan a 2-1 lead.
When you saw the Colorado Rapids and FC Dallas in last season's MLS Cup Final, you thought it
was going to be a boring final. But to be fair it was a very good final that sadly never had the
star power it could've had if the Galaxy or the Red Bulls would've faced each other.
But as two rookies in the CONCACAF Champions League that finally got their chance in
international club competition, you never thought you would see a crazy first half and all of a
sudden history would be made on the same night.
Isidro Metapan and the Colorado Rapids combined for five goals on Wednesday night, but it was a
brace from Macoumba Kandji that made the difference in the home side's first CONCACAF Champions
League match.
Kandji's goals, in the 16th minute and first-half stoppage time, rescued a discombobulated
Rapids side and paved the way for Andre Akpan's second half winner at Dick's Sporting Goods
Park.
For the first time in a couple months it seems as though the Power Rankings have seen a good
deal of movement. No new number one team, or even a change in the top three but one Eastern
Conference club is sneaking up the standings while the rest of that conference continues to be a
jumbled mess.
Anyways, here is where we stand after an exciting week 22.
At 10:35 p.m. on Saturday, Colorado Rapids fans got a funny feeling. It's called satisfaction
and it came in the form of a 2-1 win over the stumbling San Jose Earthquakes.
It was satisfying because it was the sort of game the Rapids should win, but the team has
stumbled to get earlier this season and at many times in the past three or four years.
The Rapids are on the road this week, some of them on a very long road trip, in San Jose. Last time
these two teams met a great Kosuke Kimura goal gave the Rapids the win and, more importantly, the
Eastern Conference Championship en rout to their MLS Cup victory. I think we can expect the
Earthquakes to be looking for some revenge after that loss.
The Colorado Rapids have only four home games remaining in the MLS regular season, and as the
dates dwindle, The Tuesday List takes a look at how the roster has changed since the team moved to
Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the 2007 season.
Looking at the 2011 roster, we go back in time to who was here in each of the previous
seasons.
Call them the bananas, call them the Village People, call them traffic cones, or call them the
Crew. Whatever you call them, they're in town to play the Rapids tomorrow night. Columbus is the
top team in the East but are level on points with the Rapids. The last two times Colorado has
played a team from the East they were on top of the table and the Rapids beat them.
PSP photographer Paul Rudderow was on hand for Friday's nights 2–1 loss to Colorado
Rapits. Here are some photos from Friday's match. (Click on the photo for a full-size
photo.)
Amy Rodriguez of the US Women's World Cup Team was honored at the Union
match.
Well they also have to play the Union, but I'm guessing that at least a couple of the guys will
take the opportunity to try a cheesesteak. Its somewhat of a homecoming for the Ginger Ninja as he
went to high school and college in the Philly area. The Rapids get the honor of being FOX Soccer
Channel's Game of the Week tomorrow night, kickoff is at 5:30.
The New England Revolution are in town tomorrow and long-time Rapids fans know what that means,
Jamesons Night! (Go here for the history of this fan tradition) Both teams are coming off of
mid-week wins, so they have momentum but may be tired. Game time tomorrow at the Dick is 7pm, so
the kegs will be tapped at the tailgate at 4pm and the grills fired up at 5pm.
Conor Casey could only smile as he scored his sixth -- and ultimately final -- goal of the 2011
season in a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps. With Casey out for the season, Colorado begins
the search for a new scorer. (Photograph by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
Maybe Scott Palguta has a few more goals in him this season.
Conor Casey could only smile as he scored his sixth -- and ultimately final -- goal of the 2011
season in a 2-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps. With Casey out for the season, Colorado begins
the search for a new scorer. (Photograph by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
Maybe Scott Palguta has a few more goals in him this season.
Photo by Stephen Brashear/ISIphotos.com
By ALAN LEDBETTER
When planning for each week of Fantasy MLS, there are many factors to consider. Then there are
the things for which fantasy owners can't possibly prepare. Last week, Vancouver postponed its game
vs.
