Five things every Fire fan should know heading into Sunday night’s clash with the Colorado Rapids, live on Galavision from 6pm CT…
1)150 GETS YOU… IF (and I suspect he will) Gonzalo Segares steps on the field at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park Sunday night, he’ll become the 10th player in Fire history to tally 150 regular season appearances for the Fire. Interesting note… Sega has only come on as a substitute three times in his Fire career. Though not an official stat, his “appearance to start” ratio is impressive, only equaled in the club’s all-time Top 10 by goalkeeper Zach Thornton who started 212 of the 215 regular season matches he appeared in for the Fire.
2)ONE TILL A CENTURY... Along with Sega’s milestone, Patrick Nyarko (again if he steps on the field) will tally his 99th career appearance Sunday, moving past DaMarcus Beasley into 14th on the club’s all-time regular season appearance list.
3)THREE IN THREE… After scoring in a goal in each of the side’s first two matches, Fire striker Dominic Oduro will look to become the third player in club history to hit the back of the net in each of the team’s first three matches of the MLS campaign. The other two?
ANSWER: Ante Razov (1999; pictured right), Diego Chaves (2011).
4)GOALS VS. COLORADO...OK so maybe I cursed him in last week's "5 Things" but Fire midfielder Marco Pappa didn't score in a fourth straight home opener last week vs. Philadelphia. He did however have a pretty awesome game winning assist... This week I'll point out that Pappa has a pretty impressive strike rate against the Rapids. The Guatemalan international has tallied four goals in his past six appearances against Colorado, hitting the back of the net at least once vs. the side in each of the past three seasons.
5)TOUGH PLACE TO PLAY… With a 3-8-6 all-time regular season record away to the Rapids, Colorado hasn’t always been the most welcoming place for the Fire to visit. However, the Fire have done a much better job in balancing that record recently, going 1-0-2 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park the past three seasons. The current three-match unbeaten run at Colorado is the club’ s best and the Fire will hope to extend it to four with (hopefully) a win tonight.
