Changing coaches often means changing playing styles, and the decision to hire Oscar Pareja as head coach means the Colorado Rapids of 2012 may look quite different from the teams of 2010-11.

Giving Pareja the reins of his first MLS team is going to create a roster shakeup. The Colombian, a veteran of MLS campaigns from 1998 through 2005, has already talked about the need to find a Carlos Valderrama-type playmaker for the Rapids.

Photo: Courtesy MLS Soccer

LA Galaxy defeated Houston Dynamo 1–0 to win the MLS Cup. Landon Donovan scored the lone goal and was named MVP. Player ratings are here.

All teams must submit their protected list to the league for Tuesday's Expansion Draft by 5pm today.

The league made two big announcements on Sunday, one concerning the shift to a conference-based schedule, the about changes to the playoff format aimed a rewarding those teams with better regular season records.

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.

The Colorado Rapids kick off defense of the 2010 MLS Cup tonight in conditions reminiscent of the night the team won the title in Toronto in November.

It will be chilly in Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the 8 p.m. battle with the Columbus Crew. But there will be plenty of heat on the field for the Rapids.

If you need any evidence of the uneven season the Rapids have endured so far in 2011, look no further than this season's golden boot winner.

On a team with Conor Casey, Omar Cummings and Caleb Folan, it should have been that one of them would win the title as the team's top scorer.

Surprises: However, it was not to be.

Twice Colorado led on Saturday night, and twice Chivas USA came back, eventually claiming a share of the points at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Goals from Caleb Folan and Jeff Larentowicz, both clinical strikes, were countered by the visiting Goats, who exploited the few openings they found on the night.

Sanna Nyassi maneuvers past an Isidro Metapan defender during a CCL match in Seattle on July 28, 2010. Nyassi and the Colorado Rapids face Metapan on Wednesday. (Photograph by Jane Gershovich/Prost Amerika Soccer)

Nearly nine months after winning the team's first title, the Colorado Rapids finally start the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League on Wednesday night.

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.

Although there have been many wide open games in the previous 15 MLS All-Star gatherings, Colorado Rapids players have rarely stolen the spotlight.

With Omar Cummings picked at the lone representative for this year's showdown against Manchester United at the New York Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.

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.

An offensive explosion the likes of which the Colorado Rapids haven't produced in three months proved to be not quite enough on the road against the Seattle Sounders.

Wells Thompson and Jeff Larentowicz scored in the first half to put the Rapids up 2-1 at the break. Seattle came back with three second-half goals and held on after a late Caleb Folan strike to win 4-3 on Saturday.

The Colorado Rapids are undefeated when Scott Palguta scores.

Admittedly, the reserve defender has only scored twice in his career, with both goals coming this season. Each strike, however, has been the winner in 2-1 decisions for the Rapids (6-5-9, 27 points).

Palguta, who came on when Danny Earls couldn't continue after 23 minutes, was in the right place at the right time to stroke home a rebound from a Conor Casey header and put the Rapids up 2-0 on the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night.

The MLS and Red Bull New York announced today that individual tickets to the 2011 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 27 at Red Bull Arena featuring the MLS All-Stars against Manchester United are sold out to the general public.

The match will be telecast live on ESPN2, Galavision, and TSN at 6:30 p.

Do you celebrate a record number of consecutive ties?

If a tie is like kissing your sister, then what is six draws in a row?

Can you be both winless and undefeated over a month of games?

These are questions for the ages, but the reality is that the Colorado Rapids have now set an MLS mark with six consecutive draws.

Justin Mapp tells it like it is ahead of Saturday's game in Colorado. "We always want to score, but it's a work in progress, and we have to keep working and can't get frustrated with each other. We scored multiple goals the last two games, and that is great, but now we have a new game and have to go out and produce again.

Philadelphia Union midfielder Justin Mapp was voted MLS Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters for his two-goal performance that helped his club to a 6-2 win at Toronto in Week 11.

Entering the game having scored just eight goals in 10 games, the Union's offense exploded at BMO Field.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Carlos Ruiz said he accepted the invitation to join the Guatemala national team squad for the Gold Cup with some reluctance. But he also said the Union will have no problem replacing him. "We have great players on this team," Ruiz said, "and any player can play the same or better than me.

Jeff Larentowicz provided the offense and the Rapids produced just enough defense to escape from New York with a 2-2 draw on Wednesday night and a vital point on the road.

In a game that featured four goals in the span of five minutes, Larentowicz got the first and third tallies, putting in a rebound of his penalty kick and delivering a scorcher to the far post off another restart.

Photo by Nathan Forget

Looking back on Earl's preseason preview of the Colorado Rapids, you will see the following players listed as anticipated starters:

Pickens (10)
Kimura (10) - Wynne (8) - Moore (10) - Wallace (5)
Mullan (5) - Larentowicz (10) - Mastroeni (8) - Smith (9)
Casey (2) - Cummings (6)

With pretty much the entire team coming back from last year's MLS Cup winning side and the key additions being for depth, this team was expected to compete again for a championship.

As the Colorado Rapids see the revolving door at forward continue with injuries, the team keeps finding a way to pull a point.

On Saturday in Washington, D.C., Drew Moor found the net off a set piece in the 23rd minute off a free kick from Jamie Smith. Moor's strike appeared it would be enough in the first half as the Rapids controlled play and D.

Three days after coming back to tie and then beat the Houston Dynamo, the Colorado Rapids settled for a 0-0 draw with the New England Revolution on Saturday night.

The tie moves the Rapids to 4-3-2 (14 points) and gives the team four points from the first two games of a three-game road trip.

(Editor's note: This is part three of a series looking at how the Rapids will fill out an expanded roster for 2011.)

The Rapids won an MLS cup with a team that relied on a midfield built to challenge balls, disrupt attacks and allow little room for opponents.

Colorado midfielders spent a lot of energy.

MLSSoccer.com has a piece on five rivalries to look forward to in 2011. Of the I-95 Corridor derby you'll be happy to learn that "so many Union fans are ex-Screaming Eagles," that "the Sons of Ben maintain United's animosity toward everything NY-related" and that "the Union [have] already made major offseason acquisitions.