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KC arrives as Mercury rises
It’s only appropriate that on the hottest day in two years the Colorado Rapids would return to action and ColoradoSoccerNow would return from vacation.
After seven days of sweltering in the wilds of eastern Oklahoma, even triple digits in Denver feels nice. Now the challenge will be seeing what sort of soccer is played on the the High Plains this evening at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
The Rapids have been in a funk since the World Cup break. The team has put together a couple of ties and last weekend’s 1-0 loss at Toronto FC. The Wizards have been an afterthought for the past two-plus seasons, but the Kansas City team is starting to come together and looked good in beating Columbus 1-0 this week.
This is the second meeting for the two teams this season, with KC owning the edge after a 1-0 win. Colorado is 6-4-4 (22 points) and clinging to third in the Western Conference. The Wizards at 4-8-3 (15 points) are sitting in fifth in the Eastern Conference.
Season Series: This will be the third season series the Rapids will close out this year – all against Eastern Conference opponents. So far the Rapids have tied the series against Chicago (2-2, home; 2-2, road) and split the series versus Toronto (W 3-1, home; L 0-1, road). Colorado will also finish the series with Seattle prior to the All-Star break.
Tight Series: The Rapids all-time record against Kansas City is 17-20-9, which includes a dominating home record of 14-4-5. Kansas City’s last win in Colorado was a 1-0 victory on June 9, 2004 at INVESCO Field at Mile High. Colorado is 2-0-1 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park vs. KC, but the teams have split their last 11 games – each with a 4-4-3 record since the 2005 season.
Previously: In the first regular season meeting this year, Kei Kamara headed in a freekick in the 48th minute to give Kansas City the 1-0 home win. It was the first goal the Rapids surrendered this season. The Rapids finished the game with 10 men after Julien Baudet was ejected for a hard challenge in the 72nd minute.
Closer: With 35 career goals, Conor Casey is two goals away from tying John Spencer for second place on the club’s all-time goals scored list, and four goals away from the top position, held by team Technical Director Paul Bravo.
Who’s Next?: The Rapids next game is a road game at Seattle on July 25, which will be televised live nationally on Fox Soccer Channel (9 p.m. Mountain). The Rapids return home to face FC Dallas at 2 p.m. on July 31.
Relocated: The originally scheduled game at Philadelphia on July 14 was rescheduled for September 29.
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