The Rapids will take on this years latest expansion team today, the Philadelphia Union. As happens with most expansion teams, the Union are having a stinker of a first year. With only 16 points and four wins from their 18 games played, only DC United have had a worse season than the expansion Union.
With the worst goal differential in the league (-20) along with allowing a league worst 1.86 Goals against per game, the Union have had goaltending and defensive problems all year. Their offense has basically been carried single-handedly by Sabastien Le Toux, who has a staggering nine goals and eight assists all on his own.
Conor Casey will probably play today for the first time in three weeks after rejoining the team for practices last week. He had been sidelined by a fairly severe concussion suffered in the final minute of play against Seattle. Colin Clark will obviously be sitting out with his second torn ACL in as many seasons. Wells Thompson or Jamie Smith will most likely be taking his place on the field, depending on whether or not coach Smith goes with the 4-4-2 formation from last week or goes back to his usual 4-5-1.
A helpful bit of scheduling for the Rapids gave the Union a game on Wednesday, so they will be playing on short rest after a hard-fought draw with Salt Lake only three days ago. The Rapids have had the full week to rest up, so should hopefully look more alive than Philly on the pitch.
This is the first meeting of these two teams, not just of the season but all time. The Rapids have notoriously stunk it up in their history when meeting new teams for the first time - an all time 4-11-1 record against teams the first time playing them - so they should hope to buck that trend as well.