MLS Thursday Night: Colorado Rapids v Real Salt Lake

By: Bob | May 10th, 2007

If you look around this evening and see a dearth of cool kids on the street you will know why. They are all at home watching the latest edition of our new favorite national pastime. Ok, so this one doesn’t have the sex appeal of some of the MLS Thursday Night games we have seen this season, but that will just make you even hardcore when you choose to watch it.

Tonight’s contest features a Colorado Rapids side that is tied for first place in the Western Conference. You read that correctly. The Rapids are in first place with 7 points from five games. Conclusion: the Western Conference is a jumbled mess so far this season. Nevertheless, Rapids fans should savor this moment because they support a club that has never finished better than third in the Western Conference and whose glory has been losing the 1997 MLS Cup Final and the 1999 US Open Cup Final. They should embrace their conference’s current mediocrity (or shall we call it parity?).

That mediocrity does not extend to Real Salt Lake, who are at the bottom of the table looking up. The team from Utah is winless in its first five games. They do have some hope, however, now that all-time MLS leading goal scorer Jason Kreis is at the helm. They didn’t look completely clueless this past weekend when they tied Red Bull New York in the final minutes so better days may or may not be ahead. Who knows with this franchise?

Here are some things to keep an eye on while you enjoy your beverage of choice and try to remain optimistic about MLS Thursday Night soccer during tonight’s action.

1. Rocky Mountain Cup – The fans of both sides award a trophy each year to the team with the most points in games played between the two teams. In the first two years Colorado won the trophy with ease. They are ahead already this season after defeating RSL 2-0 in Utah on April 30. Fan cups are cool.

2. Crouch stuffing – Perhaps the ultimate reason to watch this match tonight is that these two teams don’t care for one another. Or to be more accurate, Colorado’s Pablo Mastroeni doesn’t seem to care much for Real Salt Lake. He has already done some gloating this season. Will the Real Salt Lake players decide tonight is a good time to stuff something other than a shirt in his crouch? Hey, a brawl is always fun as long as you aren’t the one getting pummeled.

3. Low wage heroes – Freddy Adu may be grossly overpaid by MLS salaries standards, but at $49,350 Hercules Gomez is a bargain for Colorado and as a starter Willis Forko makes a mere $30,000 a year for Real Salt Lake. Root the blue collar guys on to glory.

Keep the dream alive by watching tonight. Enjoy the fun and, as always, feel free to use this space as a place to discuss the great MLS Thursday Night experiment or life in general.