The Rush, based in the Denver area, will join the Colorado Force, based in Northern Colorado, as the two W-League teams representing Colorado. The Real Colorado Cougars no longer are competing in the league.

That leaves the Western Conference with six clubs: the W-League champion Pali Blues, the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Seattle Sounders, the Force, the Rush and another new entry: Santa Clarita.

It actually makes for nice scheduling as far as road trips go: two teams in Southern California, two teams in the Denver area and two teams in the Pacific Northwest.

The Force will get the Northwest swing out of the way early, playing its first match May 28 against Seattle at the Starfire Sports Complex (Rapids coach Gary Smith’s favorite venue). The Force faces Vancouver two days later in a matinee in Washington. The team’s home opener is June 4 against Seattle at the Loveland Sports Park.

The Rush starts off against Seattle and Vancouver at home on June 6 and 8, respectively, at Valor Christian High School Stadium in Highlands Ranch (the school’s campus is beautiful).

To see the full schedule, check out our Schedules/Results page, updated for 2010.

To see all the Rapids, W-League and college results from Colorado in 2009, go here.

The W-League released its 2010 schedule this week, with Hampton Roads and Charlotte, two of the league’s oldest teams, opening the season on May 14. The regular season wraps up on July 18.

The defending two-time league champion Pali Blues will have a long wait to begin their title defense with their first match coming Saturday, June 5 at home against the Santa Clarita Blue Heat.

The 2010 W-League postseason will follow the same format for the conference playoffs. The league’s regular season champion will receive and automatic berth to the league semifinal round with all three conferences hosting playoffs to determine the other three semifinalists. The next highest seed in the regular season champion’s respective division will then qualify for the regional playoffs.

The top two teams each in the Atlantic and Northeast Divisions will advance to the Eastern Conference tournament and the top two clubs in the Western Conference will play for the right to play in the league semifinals.

The W-League playoffs will conclude with a Final Four formatted championship.

Women’s Professional Soccer held a dispersal draft of the Los Angeles players, and Johnson, a Fort Collins product, was taken by Philly in the second round, 15th overall.

Saint Louis Athletica traded several players to the Atlanta Beat to get the first pick in the dispersal draft. The Athletica chose WPS All-Star Shannon Boxx, the Sol’s captain. Philadelphia had the second selection and selected goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc. FC Gold Pride, the San Francisco-area team, selected 2009 player of the year Marta with the third pick.

WPS Dispersal Draft
Round 1
1. Shannon Boxx, M – Saint Louis Athletica
2. Karina LeBlanc, GK – Philadelphia Independence
3. Marta, F – FC Gold Pride (Bay Area)
4. Casey Nogueira, F – Chicago Red Stars
5. Stephanie Cox, D – Boston Breakers
6. Nikki Washington, M – Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY)
7. Brittany Bock, D – Washington Freedom
8. Aya Miyama, M – Saint Louis Athletica

Round 2
9. Manya Makoski, M – Atlanta Beat
10. Faith Ikidi, D/F – Washington Freedom
11. Kiersten Dallstream, F – Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY)
12. Michelle Enyeart, F – Boston Breakers
13. Kiki Bosio, F – FC Gold Pride (Bay Area)
14. Tina DiMartino, M – Saint Louis Athletica
15. Estelle Johnson, D – Philadelphia Independence
16. Pavlina Scasna, F – Atlanta Beat

Round 3
17. Pass – Atlanta Beat
18. Pass – Philadelphia Independence
19. Lindsay Browne, F – FC Gold Pride (Bay Area)
20. Pass – Chicago Red Stars
21. Pass – Boston Breakers
22. Pass – Sky Blue FC (NJ/NY)
23. Pass – Washington Freedom
24. Catherine Sorenson, M – Saint Louis Athletica

The league released its 2010 schedule on Wednesday, and the Rapids won’t meet defending champion (gag, cough) Real Salt Lake until the final two months of the season. The Rapids travel to Utah for their first meeting, on September 25. After that match, there will be only four fixtures remaining (one of which is against RSL).

There’s no way to tell which team would benefit from such scheduling. If one or the other has fallen out of contention by that point, would the other be able to climb in the standings because of these two games? Or would the also-ran be able to successfully play the role of spoiler?

The only thing that’s certain is the history between these clubs is growing more bitter by the year. And the two late dates have the potential to be important in the standings and the playoff race, and that’s no doubt how MLS would like it. 2010 marks the fourth consecutive year that the teams have finished against each other.

The Rapids play a 30-game schedule, two games each (one home, one away) against 15 other clubs. The opener, as we already knew, is March 26 against Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The home opener is April 3 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park against Chicago.

We also knew the league would take a two week break, June 11-24, for the World Cup.

Here’s what we learned:

The Rapids got a Fourth of July match again, this one against the Red Bulls. The Fourth falls on a Sunday, so there’s no reason this one shouldn’t sell out (unless casual fans aren’t able to forget the fireworks fiasco of ‘09).

The expansion Philadelphia Union (with former Rapids defender Jordan Harvey) will make its first visit to Colorado on July 21.

Oddly, the Rapids will face the Red Bulls on September 11 in New York. That could be a surreal setting on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Colorado has no more than two consecutive road games and no more than two straight at home.

MLS runner-up Los Angeles will visit on May 5. Will David Beckham make his second appearance in uniform at Dick’s?

To see the full schedule, check out our Schedules/Results page, updated for 2010.

To see all the Rapids, W-League and college results from Colorado in 2009, go here.

Single-game 2010 Rapids tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. February 16 at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park box office, at 303-53-HORSE or at ColoradoRapids.com. Rapids full-season ticket holders will have an opportunity for a special advance sale of single-game tickets, beginning at 10 a.m. February 8.

Other highlights of the MLS schedule:

- Seventy-five percent of all MLS games will be played on Saturdays; 85 percent of MLS games will be played on weekends.

- A two-week break in the MLS season aligns with the group phase of the FIFA World Cup. The last match before this break is D.C. United at Seattle Sounders FC at 10 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

- Red Bull Arena will host its first League match March 27, when the Red Bulls face Chicago.

- The first MLS game to be played on natural grass at BMO Field in Toronto will be April 15.

- On Sunday, June 27, Philadelphia Union will open the ninth stadium built specifically for an MLS club. The grand opening of the venue in Chester, Pa., will be a match against Seattle.

- The 2010 MLS All-Star Game will be at Reliant Stadium in Houston in late July or early August.

We, at ColoradoSoccerNow.com, loves us some WeWantRapidman. When I worked at the Rocky Mountain News, I called Nick Thomas the most dogged Rapids reporter in town, and that label still holds true.

Keep up the good work, mate!

OMAR PASSES THE ROCK: Rapids striker Omar Cummings collected an assist on Luton Shelton’s 28th career goal for the Reggae Boyz as Jamaica beat Canada 1-0 in an exhibition game on Sunday in Kingston. Dwayne De Rosario, one of my faves, wore the captain’s armband for the visitors.

FORMER PIONEER GETS TRYOUT: Former University of Denver player Leon Abravanel is participating in preseason training with the Rapids. The Tahoe Daily Tribune, a newspaper I almost worked for years ago, reports that over the next eight weeks Abravanel hopes to secure a contract. Read the whole story here.

“STRONG SILENT TYPE”: Britain’s Telegraph has a profile on Rapids owner Stan Kroenke and his likely influences on Arsenal. The story is here.

WOO-HOO! Major League Soccer is now following ColoradoSoccerNow.com on twitter. We already had D-Ro following us, so this is just gravy!

ANOTHER OF MY FAVES: Steve Ralston has signed with AC St. Louis in the new second-division league that starts in April, according to Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ralston, played at Oakville High and Forest Park Community College in St. Louis. He will be captain of the team and will also serve as assistant coach. The 35-year-old’s contract with the Revolution had run out.

COMING SOON: MLS is scheduled to release the complete 2010 schedule at noon (Mountain time) Wednesday. My guess is the final Rapids game of the regular season will be against Real Salt Lake.

The match will be the team’s first Charity Shield fundraiser, patterned after similar games in England, where they are a longstanding tradition. Each season, the champions of the Premier League face the winners of the FA Cup, with all proceeds going to charity.

The Charity Shield is a change from the club’s preseason Burgundy & Blue Game. Last season, the Rapids hosted the men’s soccer team from Metropolitan State College in this exhibition at Dick’s.

Proceeds from this year’s Charity Shield will be donated to UNICEF to aid relief efforts in Haiti, which was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12.

The Rapids Charity Shield is the first of its kind in Major League Soccer.

Tickets will cost $10 for general admission, $15 for club seats and $20 for field-side seats. Tickets will be distributed exclusively through Flash Seats, the team’s new paperless method of ticket delivery. This event will mark the debut of the Flash Seats technology at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Rapids Season Ticket Holders will be provided one free ticket per seat on their account for the match, which they will be able to access through the Flash Seats system.

The game, originally scheduled for Sunday, March 28, will now be played on Friday, March 26 at 8:30 p.m. MT.

The following weekend, the Rapids return to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to host the Chicago Fire at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 3.

Larentowicz, 26, was drafted by the Revolution in the fourth round (45th overall) in the 2005 Major League Soccer supplemental draft and earned a starting role midway through the 2006 season. After registering four goals (all from outside the penalty area) in 2008 and three goals in 2007, he finished the 2009 season with one goal and two assists for New England. He started 28 games for the Revs last year. He helped Brown to two Ivy League championships. He trained with Sweden’s Malmo FF during the summer between his junior and senior years at Brown and with England’s Ipswich Town after the 2005 MLS season. Following the acquisition of Larentowicz’s rights, the Rapids agreed to terms on a new contract with him.

Thompson, 26, a wide midfielder who can use his left or right foot, was selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2007 MLS draft. He scored the winning goal in the final of the 2007 U.S. Open Cup, helping the Revs earn their first trophy. In 25 games last season (17 of them start) he registered one goal and two assists. While at Wake Forest in 2006, the Demon Deacons advanced to the NCAA College Cup for the first time in school history. He is the highest-drafted soccer player in Wake Forest history, and he is the fourth-highest-drafted student-athlete in school history, behind basketball’s Tim Duncan (No. 1 in the 1997 NBA draft) and Chris Paul (No. 4 in the 2005 NBA draft) and baseball’s Kyle Sleeth (No. 3 in the 2003 MLB draft).

Gibbs, pictured at right, joined Colorado in mid-August 2008 and was chosen as the team’s defender of the year that season. He appeared in 20 games (19 starts) in 2009. He scored his first career MLS goal, which was also an MLS goal of the week nominee, against Los Angeles in October 2008. He has 19 caps for the U.S. men’s national team. He was on the roster for Nats’ match against Guatemala in November 2008 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park but did not enter the game. Gibbs, who turned 30 this month, has played for St. Pauli, Charlton, Den Haag, Feyenoord and Dallas.

The Rapids acquired Burpo in a trade with the Earthquakes for Jovan Kirovski and Kelly Gray. Bupro spent nine years with the Seattle Sounders as one of the top goalkeepers in the USL First Division. In 2009, he started 11 games in goal and had a record of 1-4-6 with 23 saves and a 1.45 goals against average. He posted a shutout at Kansas City in September. He got his first significant time in goal for the Rapids in 2008 when Bouna Coundoul was away with the Senegalese National team, and finished the season with a 5-6-2 record and a 1.85 GAA. He’s also played for Chivas USA, the Boston Storm and New Hampshire Phantoms of the USISL, Harbor View of Jamaica’s first division and New Hampshire College (now Southern University of New Hampshire).

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Peterson,drafted by Colorado with the ninth pick in the second round of the 2006 MLS draft, recorded eight goals and five assists in 92 games for the Rapids. The four-year veteran from Indiana University played in 23 games last season, scoring two goals and adding two assists before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on Sept. 23 and missing the remainder of the season.

OK, that’s the official line from the team. The rest of this is me reading between the lines:

Peterson’s injury (when combined with injuries to Jamie Smith and Colin Clark) left the Rapids painfully thin at midfield, especially wide midfield, last season. The loss of these players directly contributed to the team’s late-season slump, which left the Rapids out of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

The Rapids reportedly attempted to acquire midfielders Jeff Larentowicz and Wells Thompson from New England, but the deal fell through because of issues involving Cory Gibbs’ contract and medical exam.

So it would seem to me that the Rapids’ front office and coaching staff is out there looking to add depth in the middle of the field. Moving Peterson, mostly used in the midfield by the Rapids, does not add depth at midfield. Quite the opposite.

So my take on this is that they have some folks in mind and need the cash to make it happen. Stay tuned. We will see additions to the midfield before the season starts at the end of March.

He is a former Chicago Sting and Montreal Manic defender and was MVP of the 1981 Soccer Bowl, the championship game of the North American Soccer League.

Clavijo has tracked down members of the team and many survived. He told Michael Lewis of MLSNet.com: “I’m trying to reach more people. The one that concerns me the most is Frantz. He was right in the middle of the devastation. I pray to God he is OK.”

Read the whole story here.

ColoradoSoccerNow.com caught up with Peetz after she had some time to celebrate being picked.

Did you have indications that you would be drafted? Did any specific teams express interest?

I did have some indication about getting drafted, but I knew I was not an obvious pick so I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

What hoops did you have to go through?
I did attend two tryouts to try and get my name out there. I received some feedback but most teams did not give me too much information. As soon as our college season ended, I jumped right into training because this is always something I have wanted to work for. It has been nerve-racking already with the draft, and I know I have a lot more work to put in from here on but I am really excited about it and ready to begin.

What does this mean for you? Has playing professionally been a goal for you?

I am so happy for Estelle and Nikki because I know how hard they have worked for this opportunity and they surely deserve it. Right now, I am just focusing on my training so that I can work to earn a spot in the Boston Breaker’s preseason which starts March 1. Playing professionally has always been a dream of mine, and I am now doing everything I can to make it happen.

Finally, what is your ultimate goal in soccer?

My ultimate goal is to first make the team and second bring the team to a championship. Also, I have aspirations to be a part of the national team one day but I am focusing on the Breakers right now!

REAL COLORADO COUGARS’ HEMMINGS TALKS: Reporter Sam Mustari of the Greeley Tribune has written a fine story about Greeley’s Taryn Hemmings being drafted. Hemmings was a star with Greeley West High School, the University of Denver and the Real Colorado Cougars. Here’s Sam’s story.

AUDLEY INTERVIEWED: DU’S captain Collin Audley recently sat down and spoke to Sean Grybos of the Web site Soccer City FC. The site asked l’il ole me for my scouting report on Audley, based on seeing him play a half a dozen times in 2009 (but don’t be put off by that; it’s a good long interview).

FOX HAS NEW SOCCER CHANNEL: Fox Soccer Plus, a new network intended to complement Fox Soccer Channel, is scheduled to launch March 1. The channel will draw its exclusive match content from top-flight leagues and competitions such as England’s Premier League, Champions League, England’s FA Cup and Italy’s Serie A. Fox Soccer Plus will be offered as a premium service. I’m trying to reach someone at my cable provider (Comcast) to find out what that means.

NEW MLS BALL: Adidas and Major League Soccer have unveiled the new MLS official match ball, which features the same technology as the adidas Jabulani, the official ball of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Adidas has been the provider of MLS match balls since 2006 and has maintained the blue, green and silver color scheme in the MLS logo. The ball is made up of only eight panels, which are thermally bonded and spherically molded, whatever that means. The company has attempted to make the ball perfectly round and accurate.

NEW WPS BALL: Not to be outdone, Women’s Professional Soccer showed off its new official match ball at its draft. The PWR-C 1.10 features a 20-panel construction developed with the aim of improving both shooting speed and flight distance. The ball is abrasion-resistant and water-repellent and, for the first time in Puma’s history, high-frequency-molded, instead of hand-stitched. The ball comes with a two-year shape guarantee and features a new take on the jasmine green color scheme from the league’s inaugural year. It will be used for the first time in a regular-season game when the Washington Freedom face Peetz’s Boston Breakers on April 10.

PAVING THE WAY FOR SPENCER? As expected, Portland Timbers coach Gavin Wilkinson is being kicked upstairs. Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian reported today that Wilkinson has been named the 2011 Major League Soccer team’s technical director. There has been speculation that the club is interested in former Rapids striker John Spencer as its first MLS head coach.