Full Champions League Schedule Released

The full schedule for the CONCACAF Champions League was released today. The Rapids schedule is (all game times are 8pm MDT except for the final game):

August 17th - Isidro Metapan - DSG Park

August 23rd - @Real Espana - San Pedro Sula, Honduras

September 13th - Santos Laguna - DSG Park

September 21st - Real Espana - DSG Park

September 28th - @Isidro Metapan -Metapan, El Salvador

October 19th - @Santos Laguna - Torreon, Mexico - 6pm MDT

A tough draw with the final two games on the road. We really want to be at at least 9 points before those games.

Colorado is now at the point of the season where they need to make some decisions about which games to focus on and which games to rest some of the best players. There's no way the starting XI can play all 15 games in the next 2.5 months. Here's the combined schedule, in three sections (CCL games in italics).

Sat. Aug. 13th @San Jose

Wed. Aug 17th Isidro Metapan

Sat. Aug 20th Chivas USA

Tue. Aug 23rd @Real Espana

Sat. Aug 27th @Chicago

I think the Rapids need to go for the home wins against Isidro Metapan and Chivas USA. The tough part is the quick turnaround after the Chivas game to get to Honduras. Hopefully the Rapidswill do well enough against Chivas to pull some key players early int he second half. Colorado should put the best lineup possible out against Real Espana without sacrificing the Chivas game. For the road games in San Jose and Chicago the plan should be a mix of reserves and starters.

Fri. Sept. 9th @LA

Tue. Sept. 13th Santos Laguna

Sat. Sept. 17th @Toronto

Wed. Sept. 21st Real Espana

Sat. Sept. 24th San Jose

Wed. Sept. 28th @Isidro Metapan

Sat. Oct. 1st Dallas

Ouch, that's 7 games in 23 days. At least there's only two long road trips in this period. The Rapids should prioritize the 4 home games and not worry at all about the trip to LA. Santos Laguna is going to be hard to beat anywhere, but we really need 3 points from that one. The Rapids should be able to win any of the last 4 games in this run, but winning them all in such a short period is unlikely at best. If the Rapids have at least 9 points going into El Salvador then a draw is all they probably need to worry about to advance and the can focus on the San Jose and Dallas matches on either side of the Isidro Metapan game. If they have less than 9 points they'll need to go for the win, and (as much as this pains me) they need to accept a loss or draw to Dallas at home in the following game.

Fri. Oct. 14th FSL

Wed. Oct. 19th @Santos Laguna

Sat. Oct. 22nd @Vancouver

Hopefully by this last week of the season we'll be in a position where we've clinched a playoff spot and one of the top 2 spots in the CCL group stage. Which of those we've failed to do (if any) will play a large part in determining the priorities for this week. Obviously if we haven't clinched a top 2 spot in the CCL the Santos Laguna game will be huge. Lets hope we don't need a win because I don't see us getting one in Mexico. If we still need to clinch a playoff spot the game in Vancouver is probably a better chance than the home game against FSL, given our track record.

With these priorities I see 46-49 points as a likely finish in the league, which should be more than enough to make the playoffs. I think the CCL has less room for error, but I can see us getting 9-11 points even with this schedule, which would put us right on the edge of qualifying for the knockout rounds.

Mullan Golazo, Cyanide Take Down Crew

The Rapids continued their dominance over the East with another win over the current Eastern leaders. The Rapids are 5-10-1 against the East, with the only loss being in Columbus and 3 of the 5 wins being over teams who were leading the East at the time of the game. That seems appropriate for the defending Eastern Conference Champions. ;)

The first half was really quiet. Seriously, I didn't watch a single replay in the first half from my recording, I jumped straight to the second. The second started with Mendoza getting behind Marshall at the top of the box and going to ground. Marshall may have clipped him, hard to tell for sure from the replay, but it wasn't hard enough to draw a PK call.

In the 55th minute Thompson played a square ball to an unmarked Mullan who took two touches, looked up and realized nobody was closing him down, and slammed it into the top corner to give Colorado the 1-0 lead. Amazingly this was his first goal as a Rapid, something I had to look up for myself because I couldn't believe it. Easiest assist Thompson's ever gotten as well.

The closest the Crew got to scoring was in the 74th minute as Mendoza once again got behind the back line, but Pickens was up to the challenge. The rebound was scooped up by Marshall and played out and Columbus never got another look at goal.

Cyanide would finish the scoring in the 79th minute. Nyassi stole the ball and turnned towards goal. as he reached the top of the box he played a through ball right into Cummings' stride, and Omar first-timed it inside the far post for the assurance goal. This was the 5th goal that one of them has scored with an assist from the other one in the last 4 games. After that the Rapids ran the clock out and took a much needed shutout and home win.

My key to the game was the defenses. Colorado locked everybody down and Pickens only had to make one big save. Meanwhile as expected Cyanide pealed apart the Crew defense for a goal and Mullan's golazo was a nice way to get the scoring started.

Stat of the Game: Wallace's 2 minutes is the shortest appearance by a player that had to be subbed out in Rapids history. The prior record holder was Jason Moore who started a game and left in the 4th minute. The prior record for a substitute was 7 minutes by Seth Trembly.

Other Observations:

• Probably the most complete game we've seen from all 11 positions in years. Everyone was playing well and making things work.
• The Nyassi-Cummings combo comes through again. Since Nyassi took over as a starter for the injured Casey, the combo has setup or scored 7 of the Rapids 10 goals.
• Class VI was in a perfect position to watch Mullan's golazo sail off his foot and into the upper 90. Another great looking Rapids goal.
• Drew Moor will tie the MLS ironman record if he played the full game in San Jose.
• Always a good game when your goalkeeper lets in no goals and only has to make one save.
• Class VI sang Ginger Ninja Happy Birthday. Drew Moor seemed to appreciate it. ;)
• No good deed goes unpunished as Nyassi and Cummings are heading to Gambia and China respectively to play for their National teams on Wednesday. That leaves their availability for Saturday's game in San Jose questionable.

Player of the Game: Brian Mullan. Hard to pick a player for this one because everyone played a solid game, so I wimped out and went with the easy choice.

Annual YMCA Game

Call them the bananas, call them the Village People, call them traffic cones, or call them the Crew. Whatever you call them, they're in town to play the Rapids tomorrow night. Columbus is the top team in the East but are level on points with the Rapids. The last two times Colorado has played a team from the East they were on top of the table and the Rapids beat them. Let's hope that streak continues. Game time tomorrow is at 7:30, with the tailgate starting at 5:30. The match will be nationally televised on FOX Soccer Channel.

Injury Report:

OUT: FW Conor Casey (L Achilles tear)

PROBABLE: FW Omar Cummings (R ankle sprain); FW Macoumba Kandji (L knee ACL tear); GK Matt Pickens (R groin strain); MF Jamie Smith (R hamstring strain)

Disciplinary Report:

SUSPENDED AFTER 2 MORE CAUTIONS: FW Caleb Folan; MF Ross LaBauex; MF Jeff Larentowicz; DF Tyrone Marshall; MF Pablo Mastroeni; DF Drew Moor; MF Sanna Nyassi; MF Wells Thompson; DF Anthony Wallace

We may see MLS Cup hero Macoumba Kandji back this week! Let's make sure we give him a huge welcome back if he does get int the game. The Crew are much more beat up than us, which is a nice change. My guess at the starting lineup looks pretty familiar:

Pickens

Kimura - Wynne - Marshall - Moor

Mullan - Pablo- Larentowicz - Smith/Thompson

Nyassi - Cummings

Clearly our best XI right now. Why do anything else?

Key To Look For: The defenses. The Rapids have one of the worst defenses int he league, while Columbus has one of the best. However that's reversed when considering the offenses. If the Rapids can crack the Crew defense while shoring up their back line they should get a victory.

Prediction: 1-0 win, goal by Cummings. Columbus defense is good, but the speed to Cyanide will break it once. I think the Rapids defense is starting to get itself back under control and the home field advantage (both in fans and altitude) will be enough to keep a week Columbus offense off the board.

CONCACAF Champions League Group Completed

Tonight the Rapids final opponents in the CONCACAF Champions League were settled. Along with Colorado, Real Espana qualified directly into the group stage as the Honduran 2010 Apertura champion. We will be joined by Isidro Metapan, the El Salvadoran 2010 Apertura champion after they defeated the Puerto Rico Islanders due to away goals 3-3 in the qualification round, and Santos Laguna, the Mexican 2010 Apertura 2010 runner-up after they defeated Olimpia 4-3 in the qualification round.

Colorado has announced the first part of the schedule for the CCL. Tickets for the first match go on sale on Friday, season ticket holders will presumably be contacted tomorrow about buying their seats.

• August 17th - Rapids vs. Isidro Metapan - DSG Park - 8pm MDT
• August 23rd - Rapids @ Real Espana - San Pedro Sula, Honduras - 8pm MDT
• September 13th-15th - Presumably Santos Laguna
• September 20th-22nd
• September 27th-29th
• October 18th-20th

Colorado Gets Very Definition Of Ugly Win

The Rapids used two of the prettiest goals you'll see all season to get an ugly win in Philly. The heat and humidity gave the home team an advantage and they took full advantage, controlling play and out-shooting Colorado.

Despite that, it was the Rapids who went up first, from an unlikely source. A simple tackle played the ball out of bounds where Mullan grabbed it to restart play. After looking for an outlet Pablo made a run towards the box and nobody marked him. Mullan saw the opening and hit him with a perfect throw-in. Mastroeni chested it down, cut inside the Philly defender with his right foot, and curved the ball around Mondragon for a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute. As far as pure skill and ball control, probably the best looking goal of Pablo's career.

Colorado wasn't done yet. In the 45th minute Thompson broke up an attack in the Rapids defensive end. He hit Cummings at midfield and Omar headed towards goal. Near the top of the box the Union defense closed him down but Cummings was able to slip a ball through just as Nyassi broke the offside trap. Sanna hit a first time shot to the far post and Colorado had a 2-0 lead at halftime.

The second half was mainly Colorado trying to absorb the heat and the Philly attack to claim 3 points. Their job got easier in the 64th minute. Thompson slid in on Sheanon Williams and knocked him tot he ground. Williams went down calling for a card, but also embellishing the contact. On replay Thompson probably deserved a yellow for the foul, but the AR waved off the foul call. Williams jumped up and yelled at the AR, and the CR came over to break it up. Williams turned and swore at the CR, drawing a yellow card. In reaction to the card Williams swore at the CR again, generating a red card. Honestly the red card was probably unfair, but given that Sheanon Williams was the same guy who spent the Philly game in Colorado getting booed by the whole stadium, then tweeted the next day we were a bunch of HATERS, I can't feel too bad about it. ;)

Even down a man the Union seemed to be the better team, peppering the Rapids goal and forcing Matt Pickens to come up big on multiple occasions. Finally the Union broke through when Torres beat Drew Moor and Marvell Wynne in the box, leaving him a wide open shot on goal. Pickens couldn't do much and Philly got it to 1 goal in stoppage time. With the final kick of the game a cross found Torres at the 6-yard box, but his header went right at Pickens and he parried it away to preserve the win. Matt collapsed after the final whistle, having been fighting the effect of heat exhaustion since late in the first half.

My key to the game was if Smith would tinker with the lineup or give us the best chance to win. with the exception of Jamie Smith, unavailable due to injury, he put the best eleven out there and we won.

Other Observations:

• I don't think you can over-emphasize the effect of the heat and humidity on the Rapids. By the last quarter of the game they were playing more slow and sluggish than I think I've ever seen them.
• Folan came into the game up 2, not up 3 like I said last week. ;) Unfortunately for him he pulled his groin late in the game.
• Cummings and Nyassi appear to be the new Cummings and Casey. Cummings has 4 assists on 4 Nyassi goals in the last 3 games, and Nyassi set up 2 of the other 4 goals the Rapids have scored with unofficial assists.
• If Cummings and Casey were C+C Goal Factory, what are Cummings and Nyassi? Suggestions so far are NC-17 or Cyanide (CN is the chemical formula for cyanide).
• Great game form Pablo yet again. Anyone who says he's past it isn't paying attention.
• Palguta game in for Marshall, who was obviously gassed and nursing a hurt groin. He gave up a stupid free kick on an intentional handball. That's why he's not starting except in the case of injury.
• On top of the injuries to Folan and Marshall Pablo also pulled his calf. We could be walking wounded next week.
• Next week we'll hopefully have Mac Kandji back though, so that's a boost.

Player of the Game: Matt Pickens. 5 saves and everyone of them was a big time save I think. Two huge ones in the last 8 minutes and stoppage time, including the final kick of the game. All this while fighting the effects of the heat.