On June 24, FC Dallas nearly left Dick's Sporting Goods Park with a 1-0 win against the Colorado Rapids. However, Rapids striker Omar Cummings had other ideas, scoring a late goal and forcing FCD to leave the Rockies with a 1-1 draw and one point instead of the full three.
On Saturday night, the clubs meet for the second time in 17 days and FCD is looking for a much different result this time around.
Colorado comes off a 2-1 loss to Chicago last weekend, their first defeat of the year at home, while FCD dispatched New York by the same score thanks to pair of goals by Jeff Cunningham, who earned MLS Player of the Week honors for his performance.
This week's award marked the 10th time in his career that Cunningham has been so honored. The last time came in Week One of the 2007 season when he scored twice for Real Salt Lake in a 2-2 draw with FCD in the season opener. Cunningham also has now earned the award for four different teams -- Columbus, Real Salt Lake, Colorado and FCD.
"It's a great honor," Cunningham said. "It came at a low point for me. The season has had its ups and downs. It's a confidence booster for me and hopefully, I can continue to improve my play and have an impact on the team more."
FCD head coach Schellas Hyndman admits his club struggled early but has righted the ship of late.
"We're in the bottom part (of the standings) because that is where we belong," he said. "For our first 15 games, we didn't win enough so we belong there. We didn't get it done and we had games that we let slip through our fingers. Now we are getting things done. I think we have a lot of opportunities to get points at home and on the road. What we'd like to see is the other teams in the West get draws where they only get one point and we come away with three points. It's a combination of us playing well and the other teams not playing so well."
The last time these two clubs met, FCD was playing just three days after defeating defending MLS Cup champion Columbus 2-1 at Pizza Hut Park. Colorado controlled possession for much of the game and FCD was only ahead after David Ferreira scored his second career goal against the run of play. FCD clearly looked tired and experienced considerable effects from the altitude.
Cunningham knows that will not be the case this weekend.
"It's good that it's such a quick turnaround because all the emotions are still there from the previous game and the mistakes as well," he said. "We're able to make changes, improve on them and still have those emotions to play in the next match. I think we're going to be well-rested. We expect a better performance."
Hyndman will employ largely the same first 11 that defeated the Red Bulls on Saturday except for two exceptions. Rookie George John is likely to return at center back alongside captain Pablo Ricchetti while Kyle Davies is a probable replacement for Anthony Wallace at left back.
"I'm comfortable there," Davies said. "It's a new role for me but I've trained there and played a few games there. So I'm comfortable with it. I'm just going to try and do the same things I do in the middle -- defend well, which is my priority. I will look to play simple, connect my passes and help keep a shutout."
The current U.S. under-20 national team captain agrees with Cunningham that facing the Rapids again while their first meeting remains fresh in their minds is a big advantage.
"It's still in our minds, the playing surface, the altitude and all that," Davies said. "We know how we're going to adapt to it and know how our bodies are going to feel up there. We think it's to our advantage. We've gotten a break this time. I really think that training in the heat here helps when you go up to that altitude. Anywhere you play, when you play on the road, it's tough."
While this will be FCD's second game without top scorer Kenny Cooper, who is with the U.S. national team at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, Colorado has two of its top attackers playing in that event -- Colin Clark (USA) and Cummings (Jamaica).
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
