The big story of the day is of course our new coach, but I wanted to throw some notes about the schedule out first.
Teams we play at home only:
Columbus (season opener)
Chicago
KC
Montreal
Houston (season finale)
Teams we play on the road only:
Toronto
Philly
DC
NY
New England (no Jameson's night this year)
Teams we play at home twice and on the road once:
Portland
LA
Chivas
San Jose
Teams we play on the road twice and once at home:
Vancouver
Seattle
FSL
Dallas
So FSL has the edge in this year's Rocky Mountain Cup, which will be decided by August, the earliest ever.

Colorado was the better team and controlled play for most of the game, but for the first time in Rocky Mountain Cup history there were no goals to be had in the game and both teams got a point. With it FSL maintains control of the Cup for a 5th straight year.
It was really a tale of two halves.

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!

Two weeks ago I wrote this in reference to Mullan's 10 game suspension:

If MLS cracks down going forward then I'll have no problem with the 10 games. Given the league's track record so far this season and their inconsistency over the history of the league I have no expectation that they will.

As long time readers of this blog know, the Rapids-Sounders matches always leave me in a bit of a pickle, as I was born in Seattle and raised in the Seattle-area. Every year that goes by makes it a bit easier though, especially since a couple of cousins have become die hard Sounders fans and season ticket holders.

What is this bullshit? I can tell you with certainty that's not me in the video wishing Fake Salt Lake the best of luck. Hanauer asked if he could borrow the Sigibot for a few minutes after practice while I was busy teaching Montero to care about the outcome of games. I was like sure, fine. I had no idea that video would be the result.

The undermanned Rapids played Fake Salt Lake even for 92 minutes. Then the refs got involved and the Rapids were out-manned 15 to 11 which resulted in a 1-0 loss.
The weather was as bad as we've seen it in years, cold, wet, window, and snow at the end. This may have been an equalizer for the teams as the Rapids were missing 3 starters (Casey, Mastroeni, Wallace) and lost two more players to injury during the game (Amarikwa, Smith).

Its that time of year again! The Rapids make their way West to play FaKe SaLt LaKe. I shouldn't need to remind anyone that on top of this being a big regular season match the Rocky Mountain cup is at stake! Unfortunately the "geniuses" at MLS League HQ decided this rivalry wasn't important enough and scheduled the game for a Wednesday night.

"No disrespect to the Eastern Conference, but tonight was the championship" -- Dallas defensive midfielder Daniel Hernandez after winning the Western Conference Championship in 2010
Since making that statement Dallas has yet to win a game, while Colorado has won every league game, including the 2010 MLS Cup over Hernandez and his Dallas teammates.

Two pieces of news today:

• Casey will miss 2-4 weeks with the hamstring strain that caused him to leave Sunday's match against DC. That means he'll miss the road games against Dallas and FSL for sure, and probably the next home game against Seattle. Hopefully he'll be back in time for the home game against Chicago.