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...

Well, maybe it's a bit broken now. Defensive lapses in the opening 20 minutes of this game put paid to the Colorado Rapids' recent unbeaten streak. Brian Ching showed his class as he scored twice in the opening seven minutes, the Rapids both times giving him far too much room. A poor clearance from goalkeeper, Preston Burpo, in the opening minutes found its way to onrushing Houston forwards and the defense could not keep up with Ching. Click to continue reading...

Image Credit: Mike Murphy, ASN

Yuck. The worst combination of poor Rapids play and poor officiating that I can remember. Just a disaster of a game on all fronts. Instead of a blow-by-blow review of that junk, I'll just hit the highlights.

Houston Goal #1: Journeyman keeper Preston Burpo apparently thought he was playing for yet another MLS team and played a perfect pass to Dynamo Brian Ching, who took the assist gladly for a 1-0 lead inside 2 minutes. 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...

The Rapids host the Dynamo in their next-to-last home game of the season tomorrow night at the Dick. Kickoff is at 7pm, tailgating starts at 5.


Here's the injury report:

OUT: GK Justin Hughes (R shoulder); DOUBTFUL: FW Tom McManus (L knee)

DISCIPLINE: Suspended after 1 more yellow card - Pablo Mastroeni, Colin Clark, Nick LaBrocca

My lineup prediction:

Burpo
Kimura - Gibbs - Petke - Harvey
Cooke - Pablo - Ballouchy - Clark
Casey - Cummings

Smith has been pretty consistent about his lineups and its been working, so I see no reason to expect saignificant changes. Click to continue reading...

The credit for this topic goes to Dan, who suggested I take a look at what kind of salary room the Rapids are likely to have next year

While not dismissing our playoff chances I wanted to take a look at the rapids salary situation next year. Colorado looks like it will have some real room to play with, given the likelihood of players leaving or being moved. Click to continue reading...

A whole lot of firsts for the Rapids on Saturday night. The first time this season they've come from behind to win. The first time in their history they've scored 5 goals on the road. The first time this season the Rapids gave up 4 goals. It was a wild and crazy affair at the Meadowlands Saturday night. Click to continue reading...

Everyone got their breath back? The final whistle blew almost 24 hours ago and I can't seem to shake this game out of my mind. The image of Mehdi Ballouchy's fantastic cross onto Conor Casey's outstretched boot in the final minutes of the game remains largely fixed. It was not that the defenses were so poor on both sides. Click to continue reading...

The Rapids are in New York (Well, actually New Jersey) tomorrow to face the Red Bull New York Red Bulls. Colorado is barely holding on to the final playoff spot with only 5 games to go , leaving them little room for error.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: GK Justin Hughes (R shoulder); QUESTIONABLE: FW Tom McManus (L knee)

DISCIPLINE: Suspended after 1 more yellow card - Pablo Mastroeni, Colin Clark
Suspended after 2 more yellow cards - Nick LaBrocca

My lineup prediction:

Burpo
Kimura - Gibbs - Petke - Harvey
LaBrocca - Pablo - Ballouchy - Clark
Casey - Cummings

Today's Denver Post is reporting that due to fighting the flu and a less than 100% hamstring Cookie won't start but will be available on the bench. Click to continue reading...

The Colorado Rapids, unbeaten in the past three games, are now headed to New York for a tough game on the turf against the Red Bulls. Much has been made of the consistency of the team in those recent games. Unfortunately, injuries mean there will have to be some changes in tomorrow night's line-up. Click to continue reading...

Best press conference ever

With 5 games to play the Rapids are in the final playoff spot based on a goal differential tiebreaker with FSL. A precarious situation to say the least. What kind of chances do they have to make the playoffs?

First, a quick review of the MLS Playoff structure. Click to continue reading...

The Rapids are midway between the end of the Clavijo-era and the end of the season. Its time to take another look at the long-term coaching possibilities. There haven't been any rumors of new names likely to land the job, so we're dealing with the same gang of four as we had last time.

1. 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...

Much like the early years of the War for Independence Colorado, led by an Englishman, was held to a draw against the Revolution from New England.

The Revs started out in a 3-5-1-1 or 3-6-1 with every intention of playing for the draw and were largely successful early, breaking up attacks as they came through the crowded midfield. Click to continue reading...

King George III, In a letter to Lord North, 1774

Tomorrow the Rapids, led by an Englishman, attempt to do what George and North could not, quell the Revolution. Its a critical game for the Rapids playoff hopes, a loss here puts them in a hole with a tough upcoming schedule. Kickoff is at 7pm at The Dick and the supporters groups will be tailgating in Lot AA beforehand. Click to continue reading...

We're 80% of the way through the season, so time for another update to my last review. We're entering the homestretch with the playoffs still within reach.

I've gone back and looked at the first 24 games for the last 3 seasons. I chose 2005 as a starting point because it was the first year of the Clavijo era and because the only player remaining with the team from prior to that is Pablo Mastroeni. 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...

Official press release from the Colorado Rapids:
The Colorado Rapids today announced the signing of midfielder Kwame Sarkodie. Per league and team policy, details of the contract were not disclosed.
Sarkodie has played with the Rapids Reserves in their past two matches both in the midfield and as a defender. Click to continue reading...

Sorry for the sparse posting around here lately. Work has been busy and I'm not getting much sleep. Things are settling down though, so we'll have the Weekend Update tomorrow, my last mid-season Report Card on Thursday, and the NE game preview on Friday.

The Rapids started out on Sunday pushing the attack but had problems getting anything on frame. 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...

The Colorado Rapids will attempt to something they have yet to do this season tomorrow, win back-to-back games. Unfortunately they have the best road team in the league, the Chicago Fire, coming to the Dick. This will be the first appearance by Mr. White (aka Cuauhtemoc Blanco) in Denver as a member of the Fire. Click to continue reading...

There's a nice write-up about Bouna Coundoul in the Denver Post (link below) and how he is caught between a rock and a hard place both at home and with the Senegal national team. He's saying all the right things about being happy as a deputy to Preston Burpo but it is clear how frustrated he is at being on the bench both for the Colorado Rapids and Senegal. Click to continue reading...

To those who spout cliches that football is a funny old game or that there are no easy games in international soccer, have a look at some of the results in the early stages of European qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. Obviously, the easiest game was England away to FIFA fifth-ranked team Croatia. Click to continue reading...

I don't usually pay too much attention to what the other teams are doing. It only really matters to me how we are playing as to whether we will make the playoffs or not. However, it is getting to that point of the season when it will matter what our closest rivals are doing as the playoff fight refuses to get any looser. Click to continue reading...

Literally in this case, as Terry Cooke served in a perfect corner kick to the head of Mike Petke for the only goal of the game.

The Rapids started in a 4-4-2 and managed to keep possession more than they have in recent games. Still Dallas was the more dominate team, but like Colorado recently, they couldn't turn their control into goals. 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...

The Rapids are in Dallas tomorrow night for the ESPN2 game. Kickoff is at 6:30pm and the supporters clubs, along with this author, will be at the British Bulldog to watch the game. This is a must win game for the Rapids, not only for their playoff hopes but also to prove that the team still has some pride. Click to continue reading...

Kansas City in this case. The Colorado Rapids today traded Herculez Gomez to the Kansas City Wizards. I am personally gutted because Herc was always approachable and a damn fine footballer to boot. More details to follow. Click to continue reading...

The Denver Post is reporting that Herculez Gomez has been traded to Kansas City for 4th round Superdraft and 1st round Supplemental draft picks in 2009 plus cash. Given how little playing time he's gotten this season I'm not really surprised. We have such a hard time scoring though that I don't see how we can afford to lose another forward. Click to continue reading...

Crikey! Didn't we just play a game? The Colorado Rapids have a very quick turnaround this week and will be off tomorrow for the game on Thursday night against Dallas. Unfortunately, that gives me no time to get up to training due to work commitments to suss out camp mood and get an idea of the line-up. Click to continue reading...

No game review this week. If the players aren't going to bother showing up for the game, I'm not going to be bothered to analyse it. Suffice it to say that every time I've thought we hit rock bottom this season, we've done worse. With the results this weekend the Colorado Rapids are not only last place in the conference, but they are last place in the league. Click to continue reading...

Confession. I only saw the last 20 minutes or so of this game due to other commitments and a need to change shoes. It's a long story. Suffice it to say I have very little intelligent to say about the game. I arrived when it was already 2-0 to Real Salt Lake, saw a bit of honest running from the likes of Omar Cummings and very little actual shots on goal. Click to continue reading...

Bill Shankley could have been talking about tomorrow's game when he said those words. The Rapids travel over the Continental Divide on their annual trip to SLC. Not only are the Rapids playoff chances at stake, but the Rocky Mountain Cup could be decided tomorrow night. The Rapids currently have a 3 point lead in the competition with only 2 games to play, so a win tomorrow means the Cup comes home to Denver. Click to continue reading...

So, I did manage to get up to training today but I am probably not able to add too many insights into who will start tomorrow for the Colorado Rapids against RSL. That was because I got involved in a good conversation with club captain, Pablo Mastroeni. By the time we finished talking, the boys were off in the bus to take them to the airport for tomorrow night's game. Click to continue reading...

Keepin' It Real has made another attempt to trash talk before tomorrow's game. I'll give them credit for improving from their first attempt, but still pretty weak. The statement that "Statistically speaking, they should have won something/anything just by sheer dumb luck of the draw" might have meant more if a quarter of the league hadn't failed to win something in that time. Click to continue reading...