It's the downside of having a good scouting system: as soon as any foreign Rapids player gets good, they get snagged by their national team. But, for having a keeper like Bouna in the nets or a forward like Omar up front, it's the price you pay. Both Bouna Coundoul and Omar Cummings have been called to their homes overseas to help their countries get to the World Cup.

I mentioned it in the recap, but we should really flood the box for Connor Casey's goal as Goal of the Week. It was an amazing, last-second, game-winning, hat-trick-clinching strike. So vote early and often Rapids fans. We really don't get enough of these.

How did New York win the Super Bowl? They peaked at the end of their season, going into the playoffs. That's a different sport, of course, but it's a good lesson to remember: to win a title, you have to finish strong. And so far, the Rapids are doing just that.

It's hard to say that the Rapids don't have momentum right now.

What was with the end of that match? Calling the game in the middle of a breakaway? Next to just before a PK, that is the most absurd time a ref could possibly call a game in soccer. If you watched the game from your home (at least the part that made it on the air), you heard a lot of complaining about inconsistent officiating, but over all, it seemed pretty normal for MLS.

Who doesn't love a giant-killer game? Despite being at home, the Rapids were the dogs on Sunday and they knew it. They had to shut down Blanco and McBride, and they did it. That's going to (or at least should boost the confidence). It should also help that this was our first back-to-back win all year.

I should probably mention this trade: Herculez was sent to Kansas city in exchange for early draft picks. Not to say that I won't miss the first player to score at Dick's; he has a lot of fans, but as it stands now, this probably comes out in the "win" column. We don't NEED him. He helps to have around, but we don't need him.

WE NEEDED THAT. Big time.

Props to Terry Cooke on his service on that corner; he did a good job spotting the coverage lapses. It was probably more of a Dallas error than a Rapids play that scored, but a big part of soccer is capitalizing on errors. And Mike did just that.

Tight road games might be the best example of why the Rapids need Pablo so badly, so I'm glad he didn't go down to Cuba as a Rapids fan (although it's always a bit of a let down as an American.

When you talk about the Rapids' defense, you don't always call them great, but you usually don't call them sloppy. The goals themselves, particularly the first two, were pretty incredible, and it's hard to fault them for not stopping those, but they just allowed way too many chances for DC. DC had 15 shots.

It's finally happened. The Rapids have fired their coach, Fernando Clavijo. Surprisingly, Gary Smith is going to take over for him on an interim basis, whatever that means. I say suprisingly, because it seemed like the Rapids have been preening assistant coach John Murphy for the job. He's been the face of the coaching staff for years, and the Rapids even sent him over to Europe to become the first American to be a UEFA certified manager.

Hey, long time, no post. Sorry about that. I promise both of my loyal readers that I will mention something about our club's much needed win over KC.

In the meantime, switch on ESPN2 tonight, because Pablo is going to be down south helping the US qualify for the World Cup tonight. Gotta love him and Bradley in the central defense and Donovan up front playing for a team who doesn't hate one another right now.

Oh no.

Not a good outing for the Rapids on Saturday. The bad news is the Rapids seem to be falling back into their old habit of choking on great scoring opportunities. Our midfield is still class, but the goals just aren't coming. When the midfield has to resort to 30 yard blasts, you know there's a problem.

The Toffees pulled of a win in the 87th beating the Rapids on Sunday and leaving the US with a 1-1 record. They looked much fitter then they (reportedly) did against Chicago, so I guess they adapted to the air quicker than I hoped they would.

The turnout was good (about the same as any other midseason Rapids game) and was surprisingly non-Everton.

Man, it's been a slow week; kind of a downer, really. Between that and the loss against Columbus which was more of a fist fight than a soccer game, if this were a bye week like originally scheduled, the only thing keeping me going would be the knowledge that the first football game of the year is Sunday (if you are reading from outside the US, just don't bother asking).

Not a lot to say other than: that's why we love Christian here in Colorado. The other good news is that Stevie seemed to know a bit better than the voters and started Christian AND Pablo. So the midfield started with Beckham, Gomez, Mastroeni, and Joseph. That gives any club in the world a run for its money.

Man, what a week: Great league games, SuperLiga, the All-Star game, and the U-23 – Senior Team match on Wednesday. The Rapids in fourth place isn't quite as nice as I would like it to be going into the unofficial halfway point of the season, but at only three points back, it's about the comfiest fourth place there can be (three points back from Salt Lake: even more inspiring).