The Colorado Rapids are surging while the Columbus Crew are stumbling as the teams get set to meet in Ohio on Saturday.
Both have renewed hope about the remainder of the season after the closing of the transfer window Wednesday.
The Rapids (10-11-1, 31 points) will have to wait to see dividends on their moves.
Late signees in winger Morgan Whittaker from English side Middlesbrough, striker Sayed Abu Farkhi of Israeli Premier League club Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ghanaian winger Ibrahim Sadiq from AZ Alkmaar of the Dutch Eredivisie are awaiting international clearances.
“I’m excited for when all three of them are eligible to play. We are going to be a very strong team,” Rapids coach Matt Wells said.
The Crew (5-12-5, 20 points) would be fortunate if Santi Rodriguez is cleared in time for the match. The former New York City FC midfielder was acquired from Brazil’s Botafogo on Wednesday.
Rodriguez trained with the Crew on Thursday and has a green card, which might advance his availability.
The Crew also added midfielder Anass Zaroury on loan from Panathinaikos of the Greek Super League, but he won’t be available Saturday.
There has been a massive turnover for the Crew, who saw 10 players enter and eight depart over the past six weeks. Getting the newcomers acclimated has been difficult because of a packed schedule. For the first time in a month, the Crew did not have a midweek match.
Amid the schedule chaos, Columbus is on an 0-4-1 run in MLS play and sits in last place in the Eastern Conference.
“Whenever you have players coming in and the coach doesn’t even have time to work with them and you just have games, games, games, it’s hard to build something,” Crew defender Mohamed Farsi said.
Colorado has won five of its past seven league matches but must overcome the trade of leading scorer Rafael Navarro (10 goals) to St. Louis City on Wednesday. He had 44 goals and 16 assists in 114 total appearances for the Rapids.
“An unbelievable player but an even better person,” Wells said. “I’m sad to see him leave but that’s football.”
–Field Level Media
