Newyddion Cyfeillgar

That's Welsh for Friendly News and we got a big piece of news today.  On July 24th Swansea City of the EPL will be facing the Rapids in a friendly at the Dick.  Game time is 7pm and tickets go on sale to season ticket holders on Tuesday.  The general public will be able to buy tickets starting on Sat. May 26th.  Tickets will start as low as $22 or a two-pack with the Wed. Sept. 5th Portland game for $40.  Swansea is 12th in their first ever season in the EPL going into Sunday's final games and they'll finish somewhere between 10th and 14th.  Swansea is the only Welsh team to ever play in the EPL.

July 24th is the night before the All-Star Game so any Rapids picked to play against Chelsea in that game will not be with the team.  The Saturday before we're in Sandy to face FSL with the Rocky Mountain Cup on the line.  The Saturday after Seattle is at the Dick.  So my guess is that we'll see a mostly reserve lineup with a couple of younger starting XI members (Rivero for example) sprinkled in for a half.  The older starting XI players (Casey, Mullan, etc.) will be lucky to get 15 minutes as subs.

Even knowing that though I'm excited for this match.  This is the first friendly since 2009 and the first non-Mexican team friendly since 2008 when we played Everton.  I know that some other MLS teams are getting friendlies against clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham but I'd actually rather see a smaller club like Swansea.  For one the game is likely to be more competitive, the tickets are cheaper, and I actually like the smaller teams more than the big money front-runners.