Colorado had a hard fought draw against New York way back in July, but it was a fairly different team than the one that they'll be facing at 2 PM Mountain Time today at Red Bull Arena. Since that game in July, New York has added a couple of designated players to their line-up, shooting them from the status of "pretty good club" to "MLS cup contender" in only a couple of weeks. Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez have made themselves heard and put New York into a supporters shield race with Columbus, LA and Real Salt Lake.
Colorado has won their last two games 3-0 - albeit against some of the weakest teams in the league in the Houston Dynamo and Chivas USA - with a combination of a resurgence of the fantastic defense we saw earlier in the season and the Rapids' striker duo of Casey and Cummings lighting on fire at the same time. New York will be a much harder test, but if there really is such a thing as momentum in sports the Rapids have a bit of fire on their tails going to the Big Apple.
Conor Casey has five goals in his four games played against New York in his career, he had an assist in the game against New York earlier in the season. He only needs two goals to be the all time leader in goals scored for the Rapids. Omar Cummings is looking for a career high nine goals, he tied his 2009 career high total of eight with his two goal effort against Chivas.
Go Rapids, as usual!