Major League Soccer returns with a fresh set of fixtures as Colorado Rapids and Dallas go head to head at the Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Saturday night.
Both sides head into the weekend off the back of contrasting results, with the home sides crashing out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup at the hand of Los Angeles FC.
Match preview
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Colorado Rapids' 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup campaign came to an end on Wednesday when they suffered a 1-0 second-leg defeat against Los Angeles FC at the BMO Stadium.
Having got the job done in the reverse leg one week earlier, when they secured a 2-1 victory on home turf, they failed to make it through to the second round as Marky Delgado struck in the 49th minute to hand Los Angeles a 1-0 win and send them through on away goals.
Sandwiched between the two Champions Cup matches, Colorado Rapids kicked off their 2025 MLS campaign on February 23, when they held on for a goalless draw against St Louis City at the CityPark Stadium.
With the stalemate against St Louis, Chris Armas's men are without a win in each of their last seven MLS matches — claiming one draw and losing six — a run which saw them suffer a first-round exit from the playoff last season courtesy of a 9-1 aggregate loss against LA Galaxy.
However, Colorado Rapids will be backing themselves to get up and running in the league this weekend as they take on an opposing side against whom they are unbeaten in their last five clashes, claiming four wins and one draw since a 3-1 defeat in April 2022.
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Dallas, on the other hand, picked up a dream start to the new league campaign as they fought back from behind to secure a 2-1 victory over Houston Dynamo at the Shell Energy Stadium last Sunday.
Moroccan midfielder Amine Bassi struck in the 18th minute to put Houston Dynamo in front and hand them a first-half lead but the visitors upped the ante in the second half as Petar Musa and Anderson Julio hit the target to turn the tie on its head.
This came off the back of an unconvincing pre-season campaign, where Eric Quill's men picked up two wins and lost two of their five warm-up matches while scoring 12 goals and conceding 11 across the five games.
Dallas come into the new campaign seeking to secure a playoff spot for the first time in six years, following a disappointing 2024, when they finished 19th in the Supporter's Shield standings and 11th in the Western Conference table.
While the Toros will look to continue from where they left off against Houston, they journey to the Dick's Sporting Goods Park, where they have lost each of their last seven visits since playing out three consecutive stalemates between April 2015 and October 2017.
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Team News
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Colorado Rapids remain without several players down the spine of the team as Andreas Maxso, Connor Ronan and 21-year-old Jackson Travis continue their spells on the sidelines.
American defender Sam Vines has been out of action since coming off injured against LA Galaxy in the playoff on November 2 and the 25-year-old will play no part in this weekend's clash.
The duo of midfielder Theodore Ku-DiPietro and 20-year-old forward Darren Yapi have been ruled out through shoulder injuries and are also out of contention for the home side.
As for Dallas, 25-year-old midfielder Show has been sidelined since November and the Angola international will play no part in Sunday's matchup.
He is joined on the Toros' injury table by the duo of 25-year-old midfielder Paxton Pomykal and Brazilian defender Geovane Jesus, who have been ruled out through knee injuries.
Musa opened his account for the season with his strike against Houston last time out to continue from where he left off last season, when he racked up 16 goals and three assists in 30 league matches, and we expect the Croatian striker to spearhead the Dallas attack once again.
Colorado Rapids possible starting lineup:
Steffen; Cannon, Awaziem, Murphy, Rosenberry; Cabral, Bassett, Larraz, Atencio; Mihailovic, Navarro
Dallas possible starting lineup:
Paes; Moore, Ibeagha, Urhoghide, Farfan; Lletget, Ramiro; Kamungo, Acosta, Julio; Musa
We say: Colorado Rapids 2-1 Dallas
Still reeling from their Champions Cup exit, Colorado Rapids will head into Sunday's clash looking to bounce back and get off the mark in the league. Armas's men have been dominant at home against Dallas and we are backing them to make it eight wins from the last eight meetings between the sides at the Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joshua Ojele
