The Colorado Rapids are on a roll this season. At third place, they outrank Seattle by five, which is a pretty big turnaround from last year when Seattle was in a more successful spot while Colorado trailed behind. Will this weekend’s match help Seattle move a bit forward?

Seattle Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid says that Colorado is pretty self-assured right now. They’re a team obviously that’s very confident right now. They’ve won all their home games, so they’re a team that’s very confident. They’re at a different end of the table than they’ve found themselves over the last couple of years.” But confidence is not everything and Schmid knows that. That is why he points out that they have some specific strengths to watch out for as well. “Jermaine Jones adds a competitive, winning presence into their midfield. Gashi… scored a great goal against Kansas City so they’ve got different personnel for sure and it’s made them a different team and a better team.”

Seattle has had to make some major adjustments this season after losing 12 members of the team, including 7 team vets. Then, of course, was the unexpected loss of Obafemi Martins right before the season started. The team seems to be on steadier ground lately as they learn to play as a cohesive unit, slowly winning more matches as they move forward, but will the trend continue? Schmid himself just said that the team was playing better during the matches they lost than they are now that they are winning, so let’s hope we see both better playing and more winning in the matches to come.

Schmid points toward Morris, Roldan and Oalex when asked about where the strength of the team might soon grow when it comes to the younger players. We have seen all three play strongly but not consistently, so perhaps they will fulfill his prophecy this season. “Morris finally got his goal, he’ll keep working. All of those guys have had good moments. Roldan’s done well but he’s still 20 years old so you’ve got to allow young players, you’ve got to give them some time and give them some encouragement,” he said.

Saturday’s match is going to be in Commerce City, Colorado at 6:00 PM PST. Tickets are on sale now but if you can’t travel all the way to Colorado, you can tune in to catch the match at Q13 FOX, Univision-Seattle, KIRO Radio 97.3 FM or El Rey 1360AM.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia