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MLS Playoffs: Rapids vs. Sporting KC (Match Night Commentary)

Colorado Rapids Logo Sporting Kansas City Logo

The defending MLS Cup champion Colorado Rapids take on Sporting Kansas City today in Eastern Conference semifinal action, and while the Rapids are reigning champs, Sporting KC comes in as the favorites in a series that kicks off tonight (7:30pm, Fox Soccer Channel).

The Rapids find themselves in the Eastern Conference bracket for the second straight year, but face a very tough opponent in the semifinals as Sporting KC has been one of the strongest teams in the league in the second half of the season.

Colorado come off a 1-0 Wild Card round victory against Columbus, but Sporting KC will present a much tougher challenge, with Teal Bunbury, Kei Kamara and C.J. Sapong capable of punishing any defense.

SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's match, so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):

 

Comments

  1. Actually this I fully agree with! LOL

    Stupid to insist other teams’ followers should have rooted for RSL. Unless you want to take the next logical step and insist we all now root for Monterrey in the next club WC, or perhaps for Mexico in other competitions, as the CONCACAF representatives.

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  2. The ONLY injury you could cry foul on was Moor’s, and that was just a shoulder challenge – nothing dirty or cheap. All the other injuries were the result of tired and frail bodies at the end of a long and grueling season. Calling one of the most skilled and entertaining teams in the league ‘hacks’ is pretty weak, especially when it comes from a Colorado fan

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  3. I smell a homer.

    Please. Folan tweaked it and Kimura got tangled. I’m sorry, but you don’t have much right to complain about a team being thuggish when you have the thug himnself, Conor Casey on your roster.

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  4. I’ll give you folan, kimura and moor and even spot you conor Casey. Colorado still loses to a more athletic, more physically imposing KC team. Better luck next year CO.

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  5. All 3 cases I referred to were a result of KC fouls. So hardly clean.

    But that people suddenly wouldn’t pay attention to such and recognize a team as playing like hacks in this game or that, when they aren’t the Rapids, is of course half the point. The double standard is then clearly in place with the flipside: people routinely labelling the Rapids as hacks even when the actual facts and stats indicate otherwise. Which is exactly what we also see.

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  6. Sorry, but Folan clearly landed wrong, can only blame the ground and momentum on that one. The tackle on Kimura was clean, his legs got tangled up with the defender. Didn’t see what happened to Moor. KC plays physical but I don’t see anything that constitutes them being hacks.

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  7. Did you miss 2 Rapids players in the first half and 1 in the second half, all leaving the game due to injury after hack tackles by KC? Those were rather major events in the game. And HT stats showed KC with twice a many fouls as the Rapids. This would be consistent with the 2 teams’ on-field performances and stats throughout the regular season. There are some pesky facts for you.

    The lack of recognition of such combined with the ubiquitous complaints about the Rapids being thugs or hacks is the double standard in question. (Didn’t say anything about the reffing in that regard.) Anybody who reads forums like this one knows of those comments, and can grasp that then telling Rapids supporters that they have a persecution complex would be like saying the same thing to a black person in the South in the 50s.

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  8. Glaring double standard? Didn’t seem like it from a neutral standpoint. Further you keep talking about facts, but seem quite reluctant to actually give any. I saw some suspect reffing in the game, but it did not seem to be concentrated over one team or another. Further Colorado got outplayed in the second half and was deservedly down by 2.

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  9. And here I thought you were an SBI reader.

    Or perhaps it’s thay you don’t properly understand the concept of “____ complex”.

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  10. Quit it with the persecution complex. Does anyone like Roger Espinoza?

    Just because SKC can be thugs doesn’t mean the Rapids can’t be as well ask Steve Zakuani).

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