MLS Colorado Rapids

Rapids weekly notes

Published on August 22, 2006 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Colorado Rapids News Release


10-Day Road Trip: The Rapids are in the midst of a 10 day road trip that has the Rapids waving at Denver twice from 30,000 feet. On Friday, August 18th, the team flew to Washington D.C. for the MLS match. On Sunday, the team traveled across the country to Los Angeles where they will train for two days before taking on the Galaxy in the U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals Wednesday night. The next day, the team will head to Chicago for their first game at TOYOTA PARK and will finally return to Denver on Aug. 27. Both the DC United and the Chicago trips include an MLS Reserve tournament game, which add up to five games in 10 days for Fernando Clavijo's side.

Rapids in the Open Cup: The Rapids won their seventh Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup game earlier this month to improve their all-time record in the competition to 7-9-0. The 1-0 victory over Real Salt Lake snapped a three-game losing streak in the Open Cup. This is the fifth time the Rapids have won their opening game, giving them a 5-5 record in US Open Cup openers.

First Open Cup Meeting: Wednesday's matchup marks the first time the Rapids and Galaxy have met in the nation's oldest sporting tournament. Colorado is 4-3 against MLS teams in the tournament, having beating Kansas City twice, Tampa Bay and Salt Lake once, and losing to Dallas twice and Chicago once each.

Peterson Joins Short List: Jacob Peterson's goal in the fourth round Open Cup defeat of Real Salt Lake made him just the seventh Rapids player to score a goal in the U.S. Open Cup. He joined Chris Henderson (4), John Spencer (4), Jorge Dely Valdes (3), Matt McKeon (1), Paul Bravo (1) and Alain Nkong (1) as the only Rapids players to have ever hit the back of the net in an Open Cup match.

MLS Domination: For the second year the U.S. Open Cup will feature an all-MLS quarterfinal round. The 2000 Open Cup tournament was the other time this has happened. MLS teams are 9-3-3 in the tournament. Chivas USA is the only MLS team to be knocked out by upset, as they fell 4-2 on penalty kicks against Dallas FC Roma.

Semifinal Matchups Announced: On Aug. 16 US Soccer announced the semifinal matchups for the U.S. Open Cup. The winners of the Red Bulls/D.C. United and Revolution/Fire games will meet, and the winner of the Rapids game will face the Dynamo or FC Dallas. The semifinals are scheduled to be played on Sept. 6. If the Rapids and Houston both win, the match will be played in Denver at Metro State's Auraria campus. If it's the Rapids vs. FC Dallas, the match will be played at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX.

Rapids vs. Chicago Head-to-Head: Colorado has a 9-12-3 all-time record against Chicago in the regular season. The Rapids are 3-10-0 when playing in Chicago and 6-2-3 in the Mile High City. Last year the two teams split their season series with both teams winning on their home pitch. Both Colorado and Chicago were runners-up in their respective conferences.

Niko Scores, Rapids Win: Nicolas Hernandez became the Rapids' leading scorer with his sixth goal on the season against the Galaxy August 12. The goal was his fifth game-winning goal of the season, which is good enough for a tie with Jaime Moreno for the league lead. Niko has scored in five Rapids games this season and all have been Colorado victories. Here's the five: May 6 vs. DC, June 9 vs. RSL, July 4 vs. NE (2 goals), July 26 vs. HOU and Aug. 12 vs. LA.

Martins Assists, Rapids Win: Thiago Martins has produced three assists this season worth a total of nine points for the Rapids. All of the Brazilian's assists have been game-winners which ties him for the Rapids and MLS leads in that category with Terry Cooke and three others, respectively. Martins game-winning assists have come on July 8 vs. KC (Mathis goal), July 26 vs. HOU (Hernandez goal) and Aug. 12 vs. LA (Hernandez goal).

Rapids Undefeated When Scoring First: The Rapids are tops in MLS when scoring the first goal. Colorado moved to 7-0-2 (88.9% winning percentage) when they get on the board first following Kyle Beckerman's goal at RFK Stadium on August 19.

Cooke Chasing Rapids Assist Record: With his next assist, Terry Cooke will tie Adrian Paz for fourth place on the Rapids' all-time season high assist chart. He will pass Ross Paule's 2001 and Mark Chung's 2002 totals of 10 assists notched in a season and be just five behind Carlos Valderrama's record of 16. Through 19 games Cooke is ahead of Valderrama's pace with 10 compared to El Pibe's eight at the same point of the season in 2002. Here's a look at the Rapids' ten highest single season assist totals.

Carlos Valderrama '02 16 Mark Chung '02 10

Adrian Paz '98 13 Ross Paule '01 10

Chris Henderson '97 13 Anders Limpar '00 9

Adrian Paz '97 11 Ross Paule '99 9

Terry Cooke '06 10 Chris Henderson '98 9

Terry Cooke, Leading MLS: Englishman Terry Cooke's two assists on July 20 put him back atop the MLS leaders table with 10 total assists. Cooke, the former Manchester United midfielder, is also currently tied for the Rapids' record for the most assists in one game, along with Colombian international Carlos Valderrama and former Rapids stalwart Ross Paule, with three.

Rapids Reserves Update: Stephen Keel scored off a Melvin Tarley pass in the 43rd minute to give the Rapids Reserves their sixth win of the season on Sunday in the nation's capital. With 18 points, the Rapids are now tied for first place in the Reserve Division tournament with the Kansas City Wizards Reserves, who have played one more game than Colorado.

Thiago Martins leads the Rapids Reserve team in scoring with four goals for Colorado; he also scored one while he was with the Red Bull Reserves. The Rapids Reserve side is captioned by Luchi Gonzalez, who hasn't missed a minute of the action this season.

Melvin Tarley Joins Rapids: Colorado announced this week that the club has signed former Real Salt Lake player Melvin Tarley for the rest of the season. Tarley scored six goals against the three MLS teams the Minnesota Thunder upset in the 2005 U.S. Open Cup, including four against the Rapids. In exchange for his rights, Colorado gave Real a fourth round draft pick in the 2007 MLS Supplemental draft. Tarley, who holds a green card status, will not count as a Senior International on the team's roster.

Local Talent Gets Playing Time: Continuing with their constant efforts to identify and develop local talent, the Colorado Rapids have already had two local players on the pitch representing the club this year. Fort Collins native Colin Clark, who played at all levels in the state of Colorado, made his MLS debut with the Rapids on Saturday, April 29 in the 1-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo. Another local talent, Daniel Wasson, who grew up in Colorado Springs, made his debut in the 2-1 win over D.C. United and scored his first career goal on Saturday, May 27 in the 2-2 tie against Real Salt Lake. The Rapids have the third most local players in their roster of all the six Western Conference teams, and the fourth most in Major League Soccer. The Galaxy and Chivas USA lead the pack, followed by the Red Bulls. Here is the count of local players with their respective club: Chivas USA (10 players born in CA); Los Angeles Galaxy (9 players born in CA); Red Bulls (6 players born in NY/NJ); Colorado Rapids (5 players born in CO); DC United (4 players born in DC metro area); Chicago (2 players born in IL), New England (2 players born in NH and RI), Dallas (2 players born in TX), RSL (2 players born in UT); Houston (1 player born in TX), Kansas City (1 player born in MO) and Columbus (1 player born in OH).

Rapids All-Time vs. Opponents at INVESCO: The Rapids will be opening their new stadium in Commerce City in April 2007, and as they close their final season at INVESCO Field, the numbers tell the story of a home field advantage that will only increase at the new facility. DC, Columbus, New England and Kansas City have already played their final games at the stadium and the records will be updated as opponents play their final games at the mile high venue this season. Rapids Final All-Time Records vs. opponents at INVESCO Field:

vs. DC United (4-0-2) vs. Chivas USA (1-0-3)

vs. Columbus (4-0-2) vs. Houston (1-1-0)

vs. New England (5-1-1) vs. Salt Lake (3-1-0)

vs. Kansas City (6-1-1) vs. Los Angeles (6-1-3)

Check out the Colorado Rapids Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from August 22, 2006


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