Colin Clark and Conor Casey make up a big part of the Rapids. (Getty Images)

We are moving forward today in our expansion draft coverage. So far we've knocked out both the Fire and Chivas USA, today we stay out west with a look at the Colorado Rapids. Now this is a club that may go through a bit of a change this winter because of their collapse late in the season.

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The Colorado Rapids traveled to California yesterday to prepare for tonight's game against San Jose before, bizarrely, playing the same team again next Wednesday at DSG Park. What an important game tonight's game is. After losing at Toronto to record their fourth straight away defeat, the Rapids know that a point tonight against a struggling team will be the least they can come away with before, hopefully, picking up three points at home next week. Click to continue reading...

Gary Smith and the Colorado Rapids coaching staff don't look to have been able to snatch an extra player to add to their decimated ranks in time to beat the September 15th transfer deadline. It did seem a little bit of a stretch for the team to be able to secure a midfielder that would fit both short and long-term needs. Click to continue reading...

If you didn't watch the Colorado Rapids' 3-2 loss to Toronto on Saturday, don't be fooled by the score. This was no five-goal explosion of offense. It was a 1-1 struggle blown open by two quick Toronto goals midway through the second half.

Substitute Michael Holody scored his first Major League Soccer goal in his second Major League Soccer game, but by that time (the 89th minute), the deed was done.

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Well, they tried. A banged up Colorado Rapids gave it all they got against a Dwayne De Rosario-inspired Toronto and almost came up with the goods in Canada. Instead, they return home defeated for a few days to regroup before a vital home and away series against San Jose.
Conor Casey, with his 13th goal of the season, equalized early in the second half after some rubbish defending from Toronto made Kosuke Kimura's floating cross much more dangerous than it should have been and Mike Holody, in only his second MLS game, notched a crucial goal very late on to give the Rapids some hope but it wasn't to be. Click to continue reading...

Players can be a little forgetful of the details and the Colorado Rapids are no different. On a whiteboard in the locker room, they are this week being urged not to forget their passports as they travel to Canada. More tellingly, there is also a note on that same board that reads "If you are healthy and not suspended, you are traveling. Click to continue reading...

Today we hear from Regis University men's soccer coach Tony McCall, and we take a look at the Colorado School of Mines men's and women's teams, Colorado Rapids coach Gary Smith's comments on the Ugo Ihemelu trade, my votes for Major League Soccer player of the month, the Super Classico between Chivas USA and Los Angeles Galaxy and more!

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Two weeks ago the Rapids went up 2 in the first 5 minutes and never let Chivas back into the game. This week we went up two between the 48th and 58th minute, then collapsed and let Chicago win the game.
The first half was completely forgettable by both teams (o cards, 0 corners, 0 subs, 0 shots on goal) so we'll jump straight to the second half. Click to continue reading...

It will be interesting to see if Terry Cooke laces up this weekend against DC United. With Colin Clark still absent on US national team duty and the team more likely to shift back to a 4-4-2 formation now that Omar Cummings is back to play upfront with Conor Casey, it would appear as if the veteran winger may get the nod. Click to continue reading...

Rapids striker Omar Cummings has the ball poked away in the second half Wednesday night against Club America. (photo by Tom Auclair/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

Rapids coach Gary Smith said Wednesday's exhibition against Club America at Dick's Sporting Goods Park was a good opportunity for some members of the squad to get playing time against a quality opponent.

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League News

Your USL Week in Review links you to all USL-1 news and games from this past week. This week's USL-1 news is abbreviated again. Next week, USL Week in Review will be back in full swing. I promise!

USL First Division Team of the Week:
United Soccer Leagues named Charleston's Tyler Hemming as the USL First Division Player of the Week for week 9.

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League News

Your USL Week in Review links you to all USL-1 news and games from this past week. This week's USL-1 news is abbreviated again. Next week, USL Week in Review will be back in full swing. I promise!

USL First Division Team of the Week:
United Soccer Leagues named Charleston's Tyler Hemming as the USL First Division Player of the Week for week 9.

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Because of the holiday (and a busy week previewing the season opener for the Colorado Force) this week's Tuesday List comes on Friday and (as a bonus) comes in two parts.

Today we take a look at the Colorado Rapids' leaders in minute played.

810: Colin Clark
810: Jordan Harvey
793: Conor Casey
791: Ugo Ihemelu
785: Omar Cummings
711: Mehdi Ballouchy
710: Nick LaBrocca
697: Pablo Mastroeni
559: Kosuke Kimura
509: Scott Palguta
492: Cory Gibbs
450: Matt Pickens
360: Preston Burpo
210: Terry Cooke
173: Jacob Peterson
34: Ty Harden
11: Gregory Richardson
5: Greg Dalby

Observations: This is just a snapshot of where we are after nine fixtures, and this order will shake up considerably in the coming weeks.

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After 72 hours off the Rapids and Galaxy faced off again at the HDC, with the same result. The game itself was a bit different though. Neither side fielded a full-strength lineup, and both teams seemed to sit back for a while. Then int he 36th minute Greg Dalby was sent off for a dangerous tackle and the Rapids were playing a man down. Click to continue reading...

Only three days removed from their last meeting, the Colorado Rapids and Los Angeles Galaxy tangled again on Tuesday night in the first play-in game for the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. As was the case with Saturday night's game, the Rapids again came out victorious, though they didn't score in the first 16 seconds of the game this time; in fact, nobody scored for a full 120 minutes, as penalty kicks were needed to decide a winner. Click to continue reading...

The Colorado Rapids and the Los Angeles Galaxy faced off in a US Open Cup play-in game on Tuesday night, with Colorado advancing 4-2 on penalties after the game ended 0-0. Colorado played a man down from the 36th minute when Greg Dalby was red-carded for serious foul play. The Rapids advance to face the winner of Real Salt Lake - Seattle when those teams meet on April 28th. Click to continue reading...

The result in last night's US Open Cup play-in game is that Colorado moves on while the Galaxy only have MLS to focus on this season.
This sets up a tasty game regardless of who wins the April 28th game between Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders FC.
Should Real Salt Lake win on the 28th then Colorado will face it's Rocky Mountain Cup Rival in the US Open Cup again after having defeated them 1-0 in the Fourth Round in 2006. Click to continue reading...

This is a reserve team game in every sense of the word.

The Rapids are down to 10-men after an innocuous-looking Greg Dalby challenge on Stefani Miglioranzi in the 36th minute in the middle of the park earned him a straight red.

That was either an incredibly harsh one or an incredibly inept one.

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Remember if you have questions for the strongplayers/strong, let me know in the comments section and I will try to get the answers from the players.br /br /Lineups:br /br /strongColorado Rapids/strongbr /GK Preston span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"Burpo/spanbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"DF/span span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"Kosuke/span span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"Kimura/spanbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"DF/span Cory Gibbsbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"DF/span Ugo span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"Ihemelu/spanbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"DF/span Jordan Harveybr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"MF/span Nick span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"LaBrocca/spanbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"MF/span span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"Mehdi/span span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"Ballouchy/spanbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"MF/span Pablo span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"Mastroeni/span - Captainbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"MF/span Colin Clarkbr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"FW/span Conor Caseybr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"FW/span Omar Cummingsbr /br /emSubsbr //emspan class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"Steward Ceus/spanbr /Terry Cookebr /span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19"Greg Dalby/spanbr /Ivan Guerrerobr /Ty Harden (YES, Ty Harden! Click to continue reading...

Time is running out for MLS teams to make changes to their rosters this season; after 5:00 p.m., they will no longer be able to do so until MLS Cup has been played. With today being the 'deadline day,' should you expect to hear about any significant trades going down? Probably not, but names like Hunter Freeman, Abe Thompson and Herculez Gomez have all been on the move in the past week, showing that there are still teams out there willing to make a move at the last minute. Click to continue reading...

In just under 24 hours as I write this, at 5 p.m. Monday, MLS rosters will be set in stone for the rest of the season, until the day after MLS Cup.

Which means, incidentally, the Galaxy will be stuck with $130,000 a year defender Eduardo Dominguez ("he was all we could afford," one team official allegedly told a colleague of mine).

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There's a growing sense that the Colorado Rapids may be able to take advantage of a weakened Dallas side this weekend and further consolidate the good momentum which started with the July 4 victory against the New York Red Bulls. Contrary to the doubters out there, last weekend's 1-1 draw with San Jose was a point well won. Click to continue reading...

Here's my effort to track players (all nationalities) on their way to MLS, MLS players heading elsewhere and U.S. players moving from foreign team to foreign team during this transfer window. The window to MLS closes Aug. 15. The window in Europe closes Aug. 31.

If I've forgotten someone, please speak up, with two caveats:

1.

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We've written about Greg Dalby's path to the pros a few times here at FCTP. Take a look for yourself. Here are just a few examples.
His name is probably one of the most used on this blog due to him being a hot prospect going into the 2007 SuperDraft, being drafted by my team and then his going AWOL and ending up in Europe. Click to continue reading...

Texan Jared Jeffrey signed a professional contract with Club Brugge of the Jupiler League, joining Oguchi Onyewu of Standard Liege and Greg Dalby of Charleroi in Belgium's top division. Click to continue reading...

Happy Friday to one and all, I figured I would get a few news tidbits out of the way before I hammered out those weekend previews/predictions. I'm glad its the end of the week and that there is plenty of soccer to be viewed starting tonight in Boston with New England and Dallas (followed by [...] Click to continue reading...

Rating: 5 (Very Good)
As reported in the Denver Post...

The Rapids are on the verge of signing 2007 second-round draft pick Greg Dalby to fill their vacant roster spot.

Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo said Dalby, 22, has agreed in principle to join the club but may be forced to wait to play until after his contract with Belgian club Royal Charleroi SC expires June 30.

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Several, actually. There's quite a bit of news about Americans overseas, or potential migrations thereof.
- Beasley is pleased with himself after just his first match with Rangers, a friendly against German side Gutersloh. His confidence is encouraging, especially when you consider the fact that Beasley could be facing Champions League football later in the coming season. Click to continue reading...

I have no idea how I heard about this, but apparently Preston North End of the English Championship is close to signing former US U-20 captain Greg Dalby. North End, which came narrowly close to earning promotion to the EPL last season, is waiting to sign Dalby pending the Home Office granting a work permit. I'm not holding my breath.
Why have I never heard of this kid? Click to continue reading...