Colorado Rapids vs. New York Red Bulls – Three Keys To The Game

Well, we don't have him now and an incredibly important game against one of the Eastern conferences best today provides the first challenge without Conor. Here's three ways that the Rapids can get three vital points out of this home match.

Front Load the Offense – This team is going to need to score goals without Conor Casey, and none of the other strikers playing right now are exactly banging them in. Against a powerful Red Bulls team, it's time to go on an all out offensive to get as many goals as possible.

for

would probably be effective. Perhaps a 4-3-3 with Folan-Akpan-Cummings up top? Orders for

to get farther forward and unleash that powerful shot of his sooner rather than later in games? Something's gotta give and even though the team scored three against Seattle, I'm not sure this team can be trusted to do that all on their own;

had two points in that game, for crying out loud!

Focus – The MLS Cup is a complete longshot for this team without Casey. CCL is also going to be a heck of a lot more of a feat to accomplish without the big guy up front. But let's remember – this is a team that didn't win the MLS Cup last year on the backs of any one player in particular. This team did fine without Casey for stretches of last year – remember that head injury he picked up and those long bouts of no goals throughout the season as well? – because they won on the backs of a solid team framework… and above that a ton of focus.

That's what it's going to take to get to the playoffs. Erase the first half of the season from their minds and focus on getting 20 points in the second half. That will be a playoff berth for the Rapids and as they showed last season, anything can happen in the playoffs. That focus has to start today.