Vayamos Rapids! A ganar por México y nosotros celebraremos!
On May 5, 1862, Mexican troops under the command of Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin fought back the marauding French army at Puebla, a town about 60 miles south of Mexico City. To this day, the victory is celebrated in Mexico and the United States as Cinco de Mayo.
That celebration spills over into sporting territory Saturday, when Major League Soccer’s defending champion, the Houston Dynamo, visit Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for a 7:30 p.m. game against the streaking Colorado Rapids.
But the game is just the centerpiece of this soccer-centric Cinco de Mayo. The fun at Dick’s starts at 5:30 p.m. and lasts well after the game. Music, food, dancing – you know, a party.
And for area sports fans, the Rapids are suddenly the only game left in town. The Nuggets ended their season this week, perhaps prematurely. The struggling Rockies are in the middle of a road trip, with three games apiece in Cincinnati and St. Louis. And the Colorado Crush travel to Chicago for a Monday night game against the Rush, one of the best teams in the Arena Football League.
Fortunately, the Rapids-Dynamo game will be worth attending. Colorado, atop the Western Conference standings with seven points, ahead of FC Dallas by virtue of winning percentage, leads Houston by three points. And the season is young.
Herculez Gomez, who once played for Puebla of the Mexican second division, leads the Rapids with five shots on goal, and he’s tied with Roberto Brown with two goals.
Saturday also will be the first day MLS All-Star Game tickets go on sale. The party perks just keep rolling in.
WEAK IN REVIEW
The first round of the NFL draft took more than six hours, setting a record for length, excessiveness and boredom. And that was before the second and third rounds on the first day! If the NFL cut five minutes from the 15 minutes allotted to each team for each first-round pick, the draft could potentially be trimmed by 2 hours, 40 minutes. Thus saving us the discomfort of having to care.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
If the International Ski Federation knew what was good for the sport, it would appoint Vail/Beaver Creek as hosts of the 2013 Alpine World Ski Championships. The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association announced this week the resorts are the U.S. nomination to host the biennial championships. We’d put Colorado’s mountains and snow up against any in the world.
THE COUCH
ON: Finally, boxing has a marquee bout to trump this Saturday, with Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting for the WBC junior middleweight title. And, of course, anyone even mildly interested has to dish out upwards of $65 to watch it on pay-per-view. Double your monthly cable bill for one fight? A fight that could potentially end in 91 seconds, like Mike Tyson’s did with Michael Spinks in 1988? Ridiculous. You’re better off camping out all day Saturday at some bar – that way you can watch the Kentucky Derby on KUSA-9 (NBC) at 2:30 p.m., then stick around for the fight.
OFF: The Rockies’ Home Run for the Homeless 5K road race and walk in Denver on Sunday is for a good cause. And the race, for all ages and abilities, will be a good deed for anyone racing. But really, the race’s hook is that after it runs through downtown, the course ends with a lap around the warning track at Coors Field. It all starts at 8:15 a.m. Check www.coloradorockies.com and click on fan forum for more information.
AROUND THE STATE
The second half of the 12th Fruita Fat Tire Festival, presented by the New Belgium Brewery, kicks off today. The two-weekend cycling celebration on the Western Slope that started with The Dirty Dozen last weekend and culminates with the 18 Hours of Fruita endurance race today through Saturday is the unofficial start to Colorado’s mountain biking season. The course is a 6-mile loop, run for 18 hours as a relay with six- to eight-person teams. Clearly not for the faint of heart. And while it’s too late to register, the town, nay the entire state, will be watching closely, waiting for the kickoff to end and the season to begin.
