Rapids Looking for Win and Pretty Football

Thank God, the Rapids players and coaches must be thinking this week as they prepare for the first of nine matches out of 12 at home tomorrow against Christian Gomez and DC United. After a lengthy stay on the road in the opening games of the season, the Rapids look to set the tone tomorrow night for the home games going forward. They also play Dallas at home on Wednesday but Gary Smith isn't thinking that far ahead."I am taking every game as it comes," he said today at training. "We hope the team will stay in good health," adding that line-ups will probably stay similar for both games. Conor Casey may be back in time for next week's game but will clearly not feature tomorrow as he remains in South Africa with the US team. I would expect Omar Cummings and Jacob Peterson to start upfront with new signing Pat Noonan also expected to play some role, albeit unlikely to be a full game. Terry Cooke's role tomorrow will be limited at best as he struggles with a hamstring injury and the defense will likely be predictable with Kosuke Kimura perhaps coming in off the bench in either his new right midfield role or at fullback. Tomorrow and Wednesday's game are key in setting the tone. Two good wins and some good attacking football would be just the ticket. "We would clearly love to get what we want out of it, which is the three points, but I hope we also have a bright and purposeful performance," Smith said. "I am looking for a Seattleesque performance." If the Rapids can play the same attacking soccer they showed against the Sounders last month, that would be ideal, minus the last 15 minutes of course when the team was disappointed to not seal the win.