Reports over the weekend linked former Boro favourite and now Peterborough forward George Boyd with a £6m move to Tottenham. Boyd has been arguably the Posh's best player in their first season in the Championship so far and his recent form is thought to have alerted Premier League clubs to making an offer.

Click to continue reading...

I have to declare an interest here. I wasn't able to see this game. All I have are the postmatch comments of both the team and friends who called me after the game to fill me in.
What I can say is that a point in Kansas is a very valuable one at this stage of the season. I know the Rapids are not picking up three points on anything like a consistent basis but we cannot underestimate the injuries that have befallen them. Click to continue reading...

• Adidas and Puma, founded by two feuding brothers, buried a 61-year-old grudge by playing a soccer match this week [NY Times]

• Some relevant Carling Cup injury news from Tuesday's matches. Stoke's Ricardo Fuller injured his groin, while Burnley's heroic goalkeeper Brian Jensen also went off due to injury [Sky] and [Sky]

• England's one cap wonders.

Click to continue reading...

This week ITS brings you our top ten one hit wonders, we will show you ten players who defined the odds by getting the honour of putting on the England shirt....erm once!

10. Joey Barton (VS. Spain, 2007)

Schteve Maclaren is a manager full of good ideas. One of his best was to give Barton an England Cap just after he had lamented his frustration at the whole England squad in his book.

Click to continue reading...

Imagine the array of emotions for Ryan Johnson on Friday night. The San Jose Earthquakes striker scored his team's only goal in the eighth minute of a 1-1 tie against the Colorado Rapids. Then the 24-year-old committed the foul deep into extra time that produced a penalty kick for Colorado and the Rapids' only goal.

Click to continue reading...

Hard to argue with this Daily Mail list was probably surprisingly easy to assemble!

10. Keith Curle (3 caps, 1992)
Never an obvious candidate for international football, Curle had spent his formative years on the boggy pitches of the lower leagues.
Graham Taylor's scatter-gun approach to selection saw the Manchester City player appearing at right-back, only to be replaced by the left-midfielder Andy Sinton.

Click to continue reading...

I've had this post in mind for a while now and it doesn't cast certain parts of the Rapids organization in the best light. This isn't to say that the Rapids Front Office isn't doing a good job most of the time, and I've had great interactions when I've dealt with them. I do want to point out where the organization needs to improve though, and I ask that you read it all and keep that point in mind. Click to continue reading...

Gary Smith isn't ruling out going into the transfer market to replace the unfortunate Colin Clark but don't hold your breath. At this stage in the season, the head coach doesn't want to upset the balance of the squad he already has and, as assistant Steve Guppy also said recently, it's not as if you can just go out there and pick up another Colin Clark. Click to continue reading...

After weeks without a game, Boro are back in action again tomorrow night when they travel down to Church Road, Hayes to play Hayes & Yeading FC. It will be Stevenage's first ever fixture against the club formed in 2007, but many fans will have fond memories of the trips to Hayes in the mid to late nineties, when former Aldershot boss Terry Brown used to manage the Middlesex club.

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...

The Rapids enter a huge game tomorrow night. It has Must Win written all over it. After only one point in the last three games, a home win against a Kenny Cooper-less Dallas is surely that. The team will not want to go away to DC next week with anything less than three points tomorrow night. Click to continue reading...

One western side isn't taking a backseat this summer. The Colorado Rapids are actively perusing a couple players in hopes to bring on to help their lack of depth going into the second half of the season.

Currently the Rapids sit forth in the west and 8th overall, which would be good enough for a playoff spot today.

Click to continue reading...

Onetime Toronto FC target, Aberdeen's winger/striker Jamie Smith is set to sign with Colorado as is Argentine striker Facundo Diz, who has long been rumored to be joining the mile high club.
Excerpt courtesy of the Denver Post:

In addition to signing 30-year-old French defender Julien Baudet, the Rapids — pending any paperwork snafus — will add 30-year-old Argentine striker Facundo Diz, formerly with Atletico Platense, and 28-year-old Scottish winger Jamie Smith, who was last at Aberdeen and played with Rapids assistant Steve Guppy at Celtic.

Click to continue reading...

Craig de Aragon this week interviews Rapids Assistant Coach Steve Guppy. Click here to Listen to the interview... Click to continue reading...

Sorry about the delay. Work is very busy right now and will be the rest of the month so don't be surprised to see other delays.
The Rapids came into Sandy short-handed, got more short-handed throughout the game, and still managed to walk out with a point and int eh driver's seat of the Rocky Mountain Cup. Click to continue reading...

The Rapids lost 1-0 to the Sounders last night, knocking them out of the U.S. Open Cup for the 14th straight year, and for the second straight year we fail to even make the USOC proper. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, even including qualifiers the Rapids have only made it past the second game twice. Click to continue reading...

As I mentioned in my Midseason Review last week the Rapids Front Office has been greatly improved this year. First and foremost they have made solid player decisions since the end of the 2008 season such as:

• Offering Bouna a 6-figure contract, then when he turned it down making a good move to get Matt Pickens
• Getting out of the Christian Gomez mess, and getting our DP slot + a player back
• Signing young players LaBrocca, Cummings, Clark, Harvey, Kimura, and Ihemelu to new 4 year contracts
• Trading a draft pick for Ty Harden
• Signing captain Pablo Mastroeni to a new long term deal

The only bad player move the Front Office has made is not making enough good moves. Click to continue reading...

Sorry, work and a dentist appt. kept me from many updates this week. No Weekend Roundup (It was a bad week for Blackburn anyway), but a game preview will be up tonight.
Well it appears that the rumors from last month are true. The BBC is reporting that Crewe captain central defender Julian Baudet has signed with the Rapids. Click to continue reading...

a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eG5nyD8m7lE/SdeMHQGt5hI/AAAAAAAAAqA/dubt2uLWHzc/s1600-h/Matt+Simon.jpg"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320875540971644434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 208px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eG5nyD8m7lE/SdeMHQGt5hI/AAAAAAAAAqA/dubt2uLWHzc/s320/Matt+Simon. Click to continue reading...

View From The Couch is reporting that it's rumored that the Rapids will announce their new coach today at 1pm. Money is on it being Gary Smith as the Rapids have already signed one of Smith's friend Steve Guppy as assistant coach. In fact Sunday while I was at work eating bugs, Brian Forbes over at the Denver Post reported that short of an official announcement from the Rapids, everything points to Gary Smith including Guppy on a radio show stating that it'll be Smith. Click to continue reading...

That may be a bit speculative but I have it on very good authority that the Colorado Rapids will be announcing the hiring of a permanent head coach in the very near future. Given that it appears that the Rochester Rhinos may have jumped the gun a little with their announcement last week that Steve Guppy, a longtime friend of Rapids' interim head coach, Gary Smith, was to leave his post at Rochester to take up a position as assistant coach at the Rapids, the Rapids may feel forced to clarify the situation a little earlier than they perhaps wanted to. Click to continue reading...

It's been two weeks now for the tears to dry and the hearts to heal. It's Real Salt Lake who play Chivas tomorrow for a place in the conference final and not the Colorado Rapids. The season is over for the boys from Commerce City, I am back from my UK trip and it feels like a good time to try and figure out what happens to the team from here. Click to continue reading...