Weekend Roundup 4/18 - 4/19

Colorado Rapids - With 1 point over the last two weeks the Rapids have fallen back to the pack. They are 3rd in the West and 5th overall, 6 points behind Chivas USA. They have played more road games than any other team, and only New England joins Colorado with only 1 home game so far. The Rapids are tied with Toronto, Seattle, and San Jose for 4th in goals scored and tied with Chicago and KC for 9th in goals allowed.

Queen of the South - QoS has put on a small run in the last two weeks, beating the top two teams in the division in successive weeks on the road. With these results the Doonhamers have almost guaranteed their safety in the first division for 2009/10, having a 7 point cushion with 3 games remaining. A win next week or Airdrie and Clyde both failing to win will see them safe. They are mathematically out of the promotion race but with the results of the last two weeks and the way the first quarter of the season went, us fans are left wondering what might have been if it weren't for the massive injuries before the holidays. Their best possible finish is 2nd.

Blackburn Rovers - Blackburn have come crashing down over the last two weeks. First they travelled to Liverpool and Sam Allardyce made the strategic decision to conserve the squad for more winnable games. Rovers looked like they were playing their reserves and lost 4-0. Last weekend they were at Stoke City to see if the gamble paid off. It didn't. After a forgetful game Stoke City scored late to take the 3 points and leave Blackburn teetering on the edge of the relegation zone. They have a 3 point cushion with 5 games to play. The good news is that they have 3 home games against teams in the bottom half of the table to go with 2 road games against top half teams. Win the home games and they should be safe. Stumble on familiar territory and they'll probably need an upset away from home. The best finish they can hope for is 7th.

CD Tenerife - CDT has had a good run in the last two weeks against a pair of promotion contenders. First they hosted Levante and played them of the park, winning 5-1. Then they travelled to Sociedad and Nino got a second half brace to take a 2-1 victory home. Promotion rivals Xerez and Hercules have kept pace though and the standings haven't changed. CDT is in 2nd, one point behind the leaders Xerez and with a 3 point cushion in the promotion race. With 9 games to play there's a 5 team race for the three promotion spots with 5 points separating Xerez and Real Zargoza in 5th (Rayo Vallecano is the 5th team in the race). There's a 6 point gap between 5th and 6th. Based on this weekend's results Tenerife is safe from relegation with their worst possible finish being 18th. CDT has road games against Hercules and Zargosa, and hosts Xerez with 3 games left to play.

Kildare County - The Thoroughbreds are on what appears to be a historically bad run of form. Over the last 5 weeks they have lost all 5 games by a combined total of 26-0. I have never seen a team play that badly over that long of a stretch. It doesn't matter if the team is at home or on the road, they can't score and they can't stop the opposition. Amazingly even with only 1 point in their first 7 games they are only 1 point from safety. Of course getting to safety would require County to score some goals.