Colorado latest news - Page 5 - TalkSoccer

BethlehemFC · 16-06-2005, 12:25 PM

Wow a nine man Colorado side holds off LA 1-0. Mastroeni red carded in the 18th minute and Guy Melamed in the 60th. That's a lot of time to play two players down.

**Frank Cunha** · 16-06-2005, 08:26 PM

big win for Clavijo team

**Frank Cunha** · 05-07-2005, 03:37 AM

Colorado 2-KC-1 in front of 41,000 fans

http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/scoreboard...07042005_KCCOL

**Frank Cunha** · 29-09-2005, 09:00 PM

This is more than just a stadium. It will make this region one of the hubs for this great sport."
-- MLS Commissioner Don Garber on the Colorado Rapids’ 18,000-seat soccer stadium, for which the official groundbreaking was held on Wednesday. The Prairie Gateway development project in Commerce City will feature the stadium and 24 youth soccer fields, as well as more than 600,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

**Frank Cunha** · 29-09-2005, 09:01 PM

This is more than just a stadium. It will make this region one of the hubs for this great sport."
-- MLS Commissioner Don Garber on the Colorado Rapids’ 18,000-seat soccer stadium, for which the official groundbreaking was held on Wednesday. The Prairie Gateway development project in Commerce City will feature the stadium and 24 youth soccer fields, as well as more than 600,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

Deuce · 30-09-2005, 01:58 PM

Personally I think it looks great, and I love the overhang awning sort of thing they have looks gorgeous.

**Frank Cunha** · 06-10-2005, 07:49 PM

"It was a total nightmare out there, by everyone. We just didn't perform."
-- Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo on his team's 1-1 tie with Chivas USA in front of a crowd that grew to 28,946 at Denver's Invesco Field, where a Chivas Guadalajara-Cruz Azul exhibition filled the second bill of the doubleheader. (Denver Post)

gforce99 · 14-10-2005, 04:23 PM

Why the capacity that of the USL1 Rhinos?

**Frank Cunha** · 15-10-2005, 11:53 PM

I believe around 15,000

**Frank Cunha** · 31-10-2005, 08:46 PM

Colorado wins on penalty kicks and will face Los Angeles on the next round of the playoffs

**Frank Cunha** · 05-11-2005, 04:23 AM

Friday, Nov. 4, 2005

1. THE PARITY PARADOX

By Ridge Mahoney

The MLS playoffs, so goes conventional wisdom, reward the teams that finish strongly and maintain that momentum in the postseason.

Such wisdom isn't so wise. Champions have staggered through the final weeks only to gear up just in time, and teams riding long unbeaten streaks the past two seasons have been dumped in the first round.

The four-game mini-season known as the playoffs punishes teams that peak at the wrong time. That's the paradox of parity: this year, it showed up in October after laying dormant during a regular-season of soaring flight (New England, San Jose) and plummeting dives (Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake, Columbus). In the playoffs, the meek overcame the strong more than once.

Not simply a characteristic - some would say a glaring flaw - of the MLS playoffs, it's a trait of the sport itself, magnified by boiling down a long regular season and fortunes of teams and whims of fate to a pair of games, rife with funny bounces and inexplicable refereeing decisions.

Now, we're down to one-game showdowns, which are most ripe for the most perplexing upsets. An entire competition, the English FA Cup, has enthralled fans for decades doing just that.

In the West has unfolded a bizarre scenario once decried by U.S. coach Bruce Arena. During the 2003 playoffs he lamented that the team ranked ninth in a 10-team league, the Galaxy, could vie for the championship. Only by staging the grandest comeback in league history did San Jose oust Los Angeles, and the Quakes rode that momentum all the way to the title.

This year, a pair of .500 (13-13-6) teams - Colorado and Los Angeles - have been eliminated, respectively, FC Dallas (13-10-9) and San Jose (18-4-10) and one of them will reach MLS Cup. Without splitting the hairs of tiebreakers and whatnot, the Rapids, Galaxy and Wizards tied for 7th, 8th, and 9th place with 45 points, and Kansas City actually finished above .500 at 11-9-12, but finished so feebly the Metros nicked fourth place.

2. WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL:
L.A. looks for first Denver goal

No. 4 Los Angeles at No. 3 Colorado
Saturday, 9 pm ET/6 pm PT (Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Espanol, Direct Kick, HDNet; FSN-W2)

The Galaxy has yet to score at Invesco Field at Mile High, having lost, 1-0, and, 2-0, in the regular season.

It also lost in last year's conference semis, 1-0, before capturing the series with a 2-0 win at home. Is another shutout on the cards?

Los Angeles torched the San Jose defense in their first playoff meeting, and won't need to match that performance to pierce a Rapids back line that conceded an unbelievable 37 shots in tying Dallas, 2-2, last weekend and probably won't have Nat Borchers again.

If the Galaxy generates even half that number of shots and a fair share fall to Landon Donvoan, Herculez Gomez and even Ned Grabavoy, all the gyrations and heroics of Joe Cannon won't be enough for the Rapids to win.

The Rapids will need goals, and if perennial poser Jovan Kirovski finally comes through in a big game and Terry Cooke provides the deep crosses as he did at Pizza Hut Park, Colorado will get chances. But still, those chances have to get past Kevin Hartman, who on his best day can be impossibly impregnable in his own right.

**Frank Cunha** · 30-11-2005, 12:28 AM

Glen to Colorado

http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_n..._mls&fext=.jsp

**Frank Cunha** · 01-12-2005, 08:42 PM

Colorado Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo, in search of a playmaker, is headed for Germany for talks with Moroccan midfielder Mustapha Hadji.

Hadji, 34, plays for Saarbruecken, which is rooted to the bottom of the German Second Division. He joined the German club following a lucrative stint with UAE club Emirates Ras Al-Khaima.

Prior to that, he played in Spain for Espanyol and Deportivo LaCoruna and spent five seasons in England with Aston Villa and Coventry City.

In 11 matches with Saarbruecken this season, Hadji has scored one goal, registered one assist, and received three yellow cards. He played 36 times for Morocco, including that nation's appearance at the 1998 World Cup, and scored 13 goals.

Hadji may be a longshot, but anything will be better than the Rapids' disastrous importation of French midfielder Gilles Grimandi, who bailed during the 2004 preseason and never played in MLS.

Clavijo has already added yet another forward, Cornell Glen, to his roster. Glen was acquired from Columbus in exchange for defender Ritchie Kotschau, who played 28 games last season but lost his left-back spot to Eric Denton.

Diego Serna, acquired late in the season, was waived, as was Wolde Harris and midfielder Alain Nkong, but still on the books are Jeff Cunningham, Jean-Phillippe Peguero, Jovan Kirovski, and Fabrice Noel.

Glen, a native of Trinidad & Tobago, is reportedly close to acquiring his green card, which along with the release of Cameroonian Nkong, frees up two senior international slots on the Rapids roster.

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**Frank Cunha** · 19-03-2006, 07:53 PM

Players on the way to Colorado
PLAYERS ON THE WAY. Several teams are awaiting the completion of paperwork to announce the signings of players.

Nicolas Hernandez, a 26-year-old Argentine striker, is headed to Colorado.

"We have a lot of forwards and people haven't seen Nicholas Hernandez yet," said Coach Fernando Clavijo of Hernandez, who was acquired as a discovery player. "He can play on either side, he can play up front. He's an outstanding young striker and I think he's going to give a lot of shock to the rest of the league."

His last team was Chilean club Cobreola; he has also played in Argentina for Huracan and San Martin de Mendoza as well as Cremonese in Italy.

The Rapids and keeper Joe Cannon have agreed to a new three-year deal but with the team in Spain, paperwork is still being relayed between the parties. Still, agent Ron Waxman has confirmed the deal is done

"I'm happy Colorado is rewarding Joe by making him the highest-paid goalkeeper in the league," said Waxman, who did not reveal figures. "He's earned it and he deserves it." Cannon would have been out of contract at the end of the season and in early February balked at being traded to Kansas City. His new deal will pay him about $580,000 during the three years, according to a team source.

Former Rapids attacker John Spencer is training with Houston and his acquisition should be announced soon. He tried to return to the league last year after leaving at the end of the 2004 season but the Rapids, strapped for cash with guaranteed salaries, couldn't fit Spencer under the salary cap.

He scored 37 goals and added 17 assists in 88 games for Colorado from 2001 to 2004. He will give the club some leadership and experience in the wake of veterans Mark Chung, Ian Russell and Danny Califf leaving during the offseason.

**Frank Cunha** · 22-03-2006, 11:02 PM

Rapids defeated a spanish III division team Sestao

http://www.soccer365.com/US_NEWS/MLS...5_117174.shtml