Image via Wikipediaon the heels of the new york red bulls losing jeff parke to seattle in the expansion draft comes news that the man parke almost caught on most games played all-time for new york (mike petke) is coming back to new york for the 2009 season.

petke might be the person who most comes to mind to fans of the club when you talk about new york players, the others being cleetus and angel. Click to continue reading...

While the Colorado Rapids didn't lose anybody in the MLS Expansion Draft to Seattle Sounders, they did decide today to waive two defenders. Mike Petke, the 32-year old veteran and New York native, will be returning to his home state to play for the Red Bulls. Tim Ward, who didn't play for the first team this season after arriving from Columbus, is also waived. Click to continue reading...

Major league Soccer held their waiver draft today. The waiver draft process is as sexy as a pair of Rosanne Bahrs soiled undies. It's understandable tha tthe league's marketers didn't put effort into promoting the event.

Unfortunately for Rpaids fans Mike Petke was placed on waivers and taken by the New York Red Bulls.

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Gary Smith is a now officially the head coach for the Colorado Rapids. Smith was signed to a 3 year deal. The Rapids also announced they re-signed Pablo Mastroeni, coming off arguably his best year ever in the MLS, to a 4 year deal. Mike Petke, Bouna Coundoul and Jose Burciaga Jr. are all out of contract with no announcements having been made on their status. 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...

Everyone is up in arms about the Conor Casey sending off on Saturday. It was not a great call but I don't think it was actually the worst one of the night. We have to remember that we always think that calls that do not go in our favor are always thought of as worse than calls that benefit us. Click to continue reading...

Big, big game tomorrow for the Colorado Rapids. Having played in an unforgettable epic last weekend, thoughts must turn now to MLS big guns, Houston. The Texans visit DSG Park tomorrow night for the second time this season having drawn 0-0 back in June. Gary Smith, head coach of the Rapids, acknowledged how tough this game will be. Click to continue reading...

It was a wild ending but my team the Minnesota Thunder were elimindated 5-4 by Vancouver in the first round of the USL-1 playoffs last night. Damn it all. See details in the USL-1 section.

~and~

A big shout out to the fantastic Highbury pub in Milwaukee, where I spent a great Saturday morning. Click to continue reading...

Pablo Mastroeni, club captain of the Colorado Rapids, is getting closer to his dream of playing in Europe. This week, he has received calls, via his representative in Spain and Italy, from two clubs in Spain - Malaga and Seville's Real Betis. The offers are good, says Pablo, but much remains on the table. Click to continue reading...

The Colorado Rapids grinded this one out against one of the league's top teams and were unlucky in the end to only get a 1-1 draw. With Chivas beating Salt Lake, the Rapids are now third in the Western Conference with just five games to go. Gary Smith, head coach, now has one of the nine points he said he wanted from six games but this conference remains so tight, especially with Dallas' surprise victory over Chicago, that it looks impossible to predict what will happen. Click to continue reading...

Well, it could have been a first eleven. With a defense featuring Bouna, Ihemelu, Burciaga and Erpen and a midfield consisting of DiRaimondo, Peterson, Christian Gomez and Dalby, the Colorado Rapids fielded a very strong reserve team today in a straightforward 3-0 victory over visiting Dallas. Click to continue reading...

The Colorado Rapids look a very settled team. Something has happened since the coaching change and the Rapids finally look like they have a rhythm and the personnel to keep that rhythm going all the way to the playoffs. The team emerged victorious yesterday, dousing the Chicago Fire with an own goal and a splendid individual effort by Omar Cummings, both goals coming in the first half. Click to continue reading...

AP PHOTO

Throughout Mike Petke's Metrostars career a sign draped the wall at Giants Stadium which read Petke Power. For my money no lasting image of MLS early years was more vivid and more poignant than that sign. Mike Petke in fact has been one of the better defenders in MLS during his entire career.

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Facing a must-win home game Thursday evening against the Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas turned in an uninspired performance. A goal by Colorado's Mike Petke was all the Rapids needed to get all three points on the road and leapfrog Dallas in the standings. The loss puts any playoff aspirations in serious jeopardy as the Hoops head down the home stretch. Click to continue reading...

AP PHOTO Throughout Mike Petke's Metrostars career a sign draped the wall at Giants Stadium which read Petke Power. For my money no lasting image of MLS early years was more vivid and more poignant than that sign. Mike Petke in fact has been one of the better defenders in MLS during his entire career. Click to continue reading...

Holy Crap! Victory is ours. The Colorado Rapids went all the way down to Texas and beat FC Dallas 1-0. The team's first away victory since April. In a week that saw us down in the dumps having lost another road game against Salt Lake and in which we said goodbye to a fan favorite, a header from Mike Petke (where was the Dallas defense? Click to continue reading...

After playing three of the last four games on the road, United returns to RFK Stadium tonight for the first of three straight home games (including September 3rd's U.S. Open Cup final) as the Colorado Rapids visit the District. United has played its best soccer at home, putting together a record of 7-3 at RFK, outscoring opponents 25-13.

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Acting head coach Gary Smith punched the air as the referee blew for the 90 minutes. It sure was mighty relief for the Colorado Rapids organization and their fans that the team finally managed to score some goals and eke out a win against a frequently dangerous Kansas City side. Click to continue reading...

Our friends over at the Denver Post, aka my co-host this week on the From The Pitch radio show, Brian Forbes, is reporting that the Colorado Rapids will probably continue to play three at the back rather than four for tomorrow's game against Kansas. The only difference is that such a threesome would include two players making season debuts in Mike Petke and new signing Cory Gibbs in place of the injured Ugo Ihemelu. Click to continue reading...

Bouna Coundoul, Pablo Mastroeni and Omar Cummings have all been called up for their respective national teams for international fixtures next week. Bouna will be off to Tripoli for a Senegal friendly against Libya while Cummings and Mastroeni will represent their countries in World Cup qualifiers against Canada and Guatemala respectively. Click to continue reading...

With all the shenanigans going on at the troubled LA Galaxy organization, there have also been stirrings this week surrounding the Colorado Rapids. Rumors of coaching changes at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, new players coming in, supporters clubs airing their grievances with the organization. Click to continue reading...

Yes, it seems like a good fit but how do you get there? Colorado Rapids' skipper, Pablo Mastroeni, smiled at my idea of him playing for Everton next season. They have no players, they need to sign up to six new faces, he is looking to move to Europe and play and he wouldn't cost them as much as European players when there is controversy within Goodison Park about the transfer budget. Click to continue reading...

The Colorado Rapids are in Frisco, Texas today to play FC Dallas. Dallas has 2 wins and 3 ties in their last 10 games. While they're struggled for points during this stretch they've only been shut out once, a 1-0 loss at New York. Can the Rapids shut them out this time around?

The only injuries with the Rapids worth noting at this time, sorry Justin, are Mike Petke, Tom McManus and all-star Christian Gomez.

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Some good news on the Reserves front. The Colorado Rapids Reserves beat their San Jose counterparts 3-1 yesterday despite being a man down for much of the game after Jose Burciaga was sent off in the 34th minute. In terms of individual players, there was good news for Mike Petke in that he completed the whole match, building on his midweek second half performance against Tigres. Click to continue reading...

The footballing merry-go-round continues. The Colorado Rapids have waived Brazilian midfielder/defender Rafael Gomes to even up their roster given the reappearance of injured defender Mike Petke and their wish to sign Greg Dalby. Always sad to see a player go and everyone wishes him the best. Click to continue reading...

I read somewhere that Colorado Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo made building a solid defensive corps his top priority for 2007 (here? Yep; it's toward the bottom). I'll leave it to others to explain how taking care of half of the overall equation brought to fruition Clavijo's "Three-Year Plan," but the numbers argue he succeeded in that specific aim: after surrendering 49 goals in 2006, and too often in bunches, the Rapids allowed a stingy 34 goals through 30 regular season games in '07.

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View From The Couch (VftC) pieced together a plausible starting XI for the Colorado Rapids from a report on an intra-team scrimmage. This came, as all communications regarding the Rapids, from official sources. By combining what looked closer to the first team from the two scrimmage squads with who he expects would take their place [. Click to continue reading...

Colorado Rapids Record (W-L-T): 9-13-8; 29 GF; 34 GA Source Material: Schedule/match reports Overview It seems fitting somehow that I should approach a review of the Colorado Rapids 2007 in the same almost aggressively feckless manner in which that team's front office runs the team - e.g. not reading the match reports, but operating from memory. Click to continue reading...

� (* The title gets explained all the way down at the bottom.� I bury leads with the best of 'em.) Not even a late goal could retrieve the game that struck me as the snoozer of Week 26.� Only the most rabid of partisans would call New England's win over the Rapids anything like just or [...] Click to continue reading...

It's that time of year again. Major League Soccer's season is winding down and the last spots in the playoffs are being decided. There is one thing about this time of year that really bothers me though, the cliched statement about peaking too soon.

I don't have an issue with cliches as a whole. They're often useful in us having a common language to describe what is going on.

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That would seem to be the case with several fans at Colorado - Houston match reporting that Petke and Clavijo were openly arguing during the game. Clavijo has a history of dumping players that go along with his program (Beckerman, Cunningham, Denton, Kotschau, etc). Is Petke next? Click to continue reading...