The Colorado Rapids open up their fifteenth season tonight against Chivas USA looking to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Over the past three campaigns the Rapids have seen their playoff hopes dashed at the final match by their regional rivals. Even more painful Real Salt Lake went on to win MLS Cup last season. The strength of the team is the partnership of Conor Casey and Omar Cummings. Together they totaled 24 goals and 13 assists. Casey is still in the mix to make the World cup squad in June and normally that would mean that he would absent from the club but thankfully the MLS has added a two week break to the schedule during the group stage.

For the fowards to shine his season it is reliant on the midfield to provide them with quality service. The face of the franchise remains in Pablo Mastroeni where he will continue to sit in front of the back four. The other starter to be held over is Colin Clark, but there are still questions if he has fully recovered from injury that cut short last season. Additions to the midfield include Jamie Smith and Jeff Larentowicz from New England.

Defense is another question mark that remains. Kosuke Kimura at right back and Julien Baudet in central defense are the two holdovers from last season, with Danny Earls at left back and Drew Moor to partner Baudet in the center are new additions. Between the sticks Matt Pickens remains the number 1.

Gary Smith enters his second full season as manager and now has had time to shape the team to his liking after taking over from Fernando Clavijo late in the 2008 season.

The big news off the pitch is that we are even starting the new season. The CBA was set to expire and it looked like the players were ready to go on strike but a new agreement was made less then a week before the first kick. The other big news that I am excited about is the there is a new television partner. Channel 2 KWGN is broadcasting 25 games this year locally, over-the-air and all in HD. I will reserve judgement because there has been no announcement of who the commentators are and that can really change my excitement level for this.

My overall feeling that the team did not receive a major overhaul and only just missed the playoffs last year. If they are able to continue their success at home and take a few more points on the road, this might be the year they can return to playoffs.

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MORA, Mo. — This is not so much a hometown as a home road cut into the corn and bean fields two hours southeast of Kansas City. It is an isolated place — unincorporated, population 25 — yet it has produced one of the country’s richest men, the owner of an aspiring global sports empire. Stan Kroenke has built a portfolio that makes him one of the most powerful people in sports. He owns the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League and the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, as well as a 40 percent stake in the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. He is circumspect and seldom speaks with reporters, who have nicknamed him Silent Stanley. He is regularly called the anti-Donald Trump, the anti-Jerry Jones, the anti-Mark Cuban. His next move, however, will firmly establish him — if not his hometown — as a major attraction on the sports world’s map. [Read More From An Owner, Stan Kroenke, Fills His Trophy Case With Teams - NYTimes.com]

And now DU is building a $6.7 million stadium for its soccer teams, hoping its fans will think so, too.

“The program here has been Division I since 2000,” assistant men’s soccer coach Adam Buseck said. “We’re trying to overcome the stigma of the Olympic sports at college, whether its tennis or track and field, whereas soccer can be an event and can attract crowds and attract sponsorships.”

To start, the Pioneers hope the men’s and women’s teams can draw about 1,000 fans per game after the unnamed stadium, funded mostly with private donations, opens on Aug. 15.

Last season, the third-year men’s program drew an average of 600 fans to its home games, all of them played during the day at Pioneer Field, just west of Magness Arena, site of the new stadium. (Perhaps you noticed the construction if you attended any DU hockey games this year.) Pioneer Field had no lights, and there was no admission fee.

With next season’s games being played at the new 1,900-seat stadium, the Pioneers are selling season tickets for all men’s and women’s home games for $48, a total of about 16 games. Although a final price for single-game tickets hasn’t been determined, it likely will be less than $10.

With the new stadium, can DU increase its attendance while charging a gate fee, ultimately reaching the full capacity of 1,900?

“Charging for tickets will be a little bit of a challenge for sure,” Buseck said. “DU students will be free. We’ve been promoting the stadium, so I think our main fans will be aware of it. For the men’s season tickets alone, we feel like it’s a good deal. We feel we’ll be able to generate 1,000 per game. We definitely want to grow into it. Our goal is to fill the stadium for our games and to put a winning product on the field, a visually pleasing style of soccer.”

Pioneers season tickets will go on sale Friday, the same day the DU men will take on Regis University in an exhibition at Englewood High School. The match, a fundraiser for both schools, begins at 7 p.m. It includes a silent auction with a variety of Major League Soccer items, including two autographed jerseys donated by former DU and Colorado Rapids player Nat Borchers.

The silent auction features more than a dozen Major League Soccer jerseys, including a Pablo Mastroeni jersey, two kits signed by the Rapids team and a Rapids third jersey.

For the rest of the story and to see pictures of some of the items in the silent auction, go to Colorado Soccer Now.

Pablo Mastroeni lined a pass forward, straight through the Columbus defense, and found Casey, who beat a sliding defender and popped his shot past goalkeeper William Hesmer and into the net.

The play was a brief outburst of offense from the Rapids, who were on their heels from the beginning. The Crew finished with 14 shots and had eight corner kicks. The first half was particularly lopsided: Columbus had seven shots to the Rapids’ three and recorded six corner kicks.

At the center of the Columbus attack was league MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who put the Crew on the board in the 41st minute. A long pass by Gino Padula found Emmanuel Ekpo in the Rapids’ penalty box and drew goalkeeper Preston Burpo to the post. Ekpo centered to Schelotto, who was waiting at the penalty spot and easily banged the ball into the wide-open goal. 

Although Schelotto was in a finishing position on this play, he spent most of the match creating a potent Columbus attack. His goal came only moments after he set up Adam Moffat for a shot that rolled just wide of the post, and he created multiple chances while taking the team’s corner kicks and free kicks.

Columbus substitute Steven Lenhart had two golden chances to score in stoppage time. In the 94th minute, Lenhart fired a screaming drive just above goal. He set up his own shot by winning a 50-50 ball in the air and placing it right at his feet.

And about a minute later, on the tail end of a long looping ball from the right midfield, he just missed with a header, again hitting it slightly high. Referee Edvin Jurisevic blew the final whistle seconds later.

The Crew also hit the crossbar twice in the match, once by Schelotto on a dazzling free kick in the 27th minute and the other a header by rookie defender Eric Brunner on a free kick by Schelotto.

To read more, go to ColoradoSoccerNow.com.

The Rapids will face the winner of a play-in game between Real Salt Lake and the Seattle Sounders, scheduled for April 28 in Tukwila, Wash. The date and location of the Rapids’ U.S. Open Cup match has not been announced.

The Rapids and Galaxy were facing each other for the second time in four days.

On Saturday at the Home Depot Center, Burpo played the full 90 minutes without making a save in a 3-2 Major League Soccer victory against the Galaxy. On Tuesday at the same venue, he came up big, shutting out the hosts through 90 minutes of regulation plus overtime.

The game marked the second consecutive year the Rapids eliminated the Galaxy from the U.S. Open Cup in a play-in game.

Colorado returns to regular-season MLS action on Saturday, traveling to face Columbus at 5:30 p.m. MT at Crew Stadium.

Read the rest of this story at ColoradoSoccerNow.com.

Casey’s third score was set up when Colin Clark stole the ball from defender Sean Franklin, who had pushed forward into the Rapids’ half of the field although his team was playing with only 10 men at the time.

Franklin had tried to change direction in front of Clark but let the ball get too far out in front of him. Clark stuck his right foot out to collect the ball , turned up field and pushed the ball into space in front of Casey, creating a two-on-one with Omar Cummings. 

Casey kept the ball, maneuvered around Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders and tapped the ball easily into the net at the left post.

Los Angeles played a man down for more than 30 minutes after referee Michael Kennedy ejected Dema Kovalenko for what was described as a serious foul against Colorado midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy.

Kovalenko came in high wth one foot forward on a challenge to Ballouchy, but he didn’t tuck his trailing leg in an obvious fashion. Kennedy was the closest man on the field, and he wasted little time in producing the red card. 

Casey’s other goals came in the first and 49th minutes, both on assists from Cummings.

Shortly after halftime, Ballouchy squirted a ball forward to Cummings on the right wing. Cummings ran onto it and passed toward the middle of the field, where Casey was prowling unmarked. He popped it past Saunders with his left foot and tied the game at 2-2.

It was nearly identical to the opening goal, a right-wing cross from Cummings 17 seconds after the opening whistle.

The Rapids are now 5-19-2 against the Galaxy in Southern California. The victory was Colorado’s first on the road against L.A. since May 2006.

Both of Los Angeles’ goals were set up by Landon Donovan, who was returning to the Galaxy after playing for the U.S. national team in World Cup qualifiers on Wednesday and the previous Saturday.

In the 48th minute, Franklin surged forward and was cutting laterally across the top of the Rapids’ penalty area. He poked the ball forward to Donovan, who slotted the ball sideways to Alan Gordon. With the Rapids reacting to Donovan, all Gordon had to do was knock the ball into the virtually empty net, giving the hosts a 2-1 lead.

Trailing 1-0 in the 37th minute, rookie center back Omar Gonzales headed in a Donovan corner kick.

To read more about the Rapids’ 3-2 victory, go to ColoradoSoccerNow.com.

The victory helped the Americans retain their hold on first place in the CONCACAF qualifying region.

Donovan hooked up with Altidore in the 13th minute, and the pair combined for two more goals in the second half.

Altidore, 19, also scored in a 2-2 tie on Saturday at El Salvador, giving him four goals in five days for the national team. He has scored five goals in six games in qualifying.

Read more about this game at Colorado Soccer Now.

Terry Cooke scored the Rapids’ first goal on a free kick immediately after entering the game in the second half, then he set up the winning goal in Colorado’s 2-1 victory over Kansas City on Saturday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

“The second half was lit up really by Terry,” Coach Gary Smith said. “He had an absolutely wonderful free kick, and his pass to Colin was absolutely wonderful. Terry is an extremely valuable member of this group, and he did win it for us tonight. There are no two ways about it. He won it for us.”

Cooke opened the scoring in the 64th minute after a foul was called just outside the left edge of the Kansas City penalty area. Smith subbed Cooke into the game in favor of Jacob Peterson. Meanwhile, Colin Clark and Mehdi Ballouchy waited for Cooke at the spot of the foul.

“I ran in, and Mehdi said, ‘Do you want it?’ And I said no, and he said it again,” Cooke said. “He said, ‘You take it. You know you want it.’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ ”

Clark and Ballouchy faked taking the free kick, adding some misdirection to the play, and left Cooke to do the deed. He struck the ball cleanly and drove it into the top corner of the goal, just inside the near post.

About 10 minutes later, shortly after Kansas City had tied the game, Cooke set up the go-ahead goal by starting a breakout in the Rapids’ end of the field. 

A Kansas City corner kick wound up in Cooke’s lap, and instead of hastily clearing the ball, Cooke took a moment and spotted Clark streaking on the left wing. Cooke sent a beautifully weighted cross-field pass that hit Clark in stride. Clark, in turn, pushed forward a ball that allowed Omar Cummings to break free into the Wizards’ penalty area. Cummings slotted the ball past Kansas City goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, again, inside the right post.

Not only was the earlier free kick Cooke’s first touch of the game, it was his first touch of the Major League Soccer season. The midfielder did not play in last week’s opener against Chivas USA, a 2-1 loss, but he did play Tuesday in the Burgundy & Blue friendly against Metropolitan State College. Cooke scored a goal against Metro State, was a playmaking threat throughout the game and was named man of the match.

And on Saturday, he made his case for spending more time with the first team.

“I want to play week in and week out,” he said after the game. “I don’t have to prove myself to anyone that I can play. People in this league know what I can do. Not many people can do, in this league, what I can do. And all I can do about it is work hard, keep my game sharp and have a good attitude.”

Smith said choosing between Peterson and Cooke is one dilemma of settling on the team’s starting lineup.

That’s not likely to get any easier. On Saturday, Smith had an extra position for Cooke and Peterson to fill because captain Pablo Mastroeni was in El Salvador with the U.S. men’s national team.

Read the entire post at our partner site, ColoradoSoccerNow.

Twice.

Paulo Nagamura scored two goals in a five-minute span in the second half Saturday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., as Chivas USA defeated the Colorado Rapids 2-1 in the season opener for both clubs.

Nagamura’s first goal came against the run of the first 54 minutes of play.

Omar Cummings had given Colorado the lead late in the 30th minute, and the Rapids, playing solidly, appeared in control during the first half.

But in the 55th minute, on a quick transition from the Rapids’ end, Nagamura found himself at the top of the Rapids’ box. His long shot skipped along the turf, and Colorado’s Matt Pickens, diving low to his right, could not find the handle.

It was abrupt and deflating. The Rapids, who had appeared comfortable with a 1-0 lead, suddenly lost their focus at 1-1.

And within five minutes, Nagamura struck again.

Kosuke Kimura headed a ball right to the foot of Nagamura, who buried this one in the back of a net for a 2-1 lead.

To read more analysis of the game, head to our partner site ColoradoSoccerNow.com.