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Sporting hopes to keep rolling against Rapids

Jul 5, 2011 - 9:15 PM Kansas City, KS (Sports Network) - The Colorado Rapids will head to Livestrong Sporting Park on Wednesday with a bit of frustration to unload on Sporting Kansas City.

Colorado had lost its previous two matches ahead of a 0-0 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Sunday in a game that saw the Rapids dominate play for long stretches but come away with just one point.

Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall had a lot to do with the result as he made a number of good stops to keep the Rapids off the scoreboard, but Colorado coach Gary Smith was still disappointed that his team was unable to claim the maximum points.

"The frustrations are in not scoring," said Smith. "Clean sheet, good play, good pressure, nice stats. But none of them are going to give us three points."

The effort was definitely much better from the Rapids, and defender Drew Moor said that there are a lot of positives to take from the match despite the fact it wasn't a win.

"I think with the way results have been going for us lately, we want to take a lot of positives out of this game, because we played well," said Moor. "I thought we controlled the tempo, especially in the latter parts of the first half and in the second half, we created the better chances. I'm still disappointed that we're not putting the goals up. You can't win games if you don't score goals, but we definitely have the firepower and the individuals to do that, and that'll come."

The return to action of striker Conor Casey will help Colorado in front of goal as he returns to action after serving a one-game suspension.

Sporting enters the contest at the other end of the spectrum having won four of its last five games.

The latest result was a 2-1 win at the Portland Timbers which extended Kansas City's unbeaten streak to eight games, and defender Matt Besler feels that the recent run of good form is really down to something simple.

"I think it's just confidence," Besler said. "During the 10-game stretch that we had on the road, we thought we were playing well but things just weren't going our way, so it's tough when you don't get results, to keep your head up and to say, 'Keep going, it's going to be okay.' For some reason, right now things are clicking and we're very confident."

One player who is showing a great deal of confidence is rookie striker C.J. Sapong, who has scored two goals in the last four games to help lead the Sporting attack.

With fellow strikers Teal Bunbury, Kei Kamara and Omar Bravo to compete with for playing time, Sapong is just making the most of each chance he gets.

"At the end of the day, the guy that will get games is the guy who's playing well, and C.J. continues to be that guy," Sporting coach Peter Vermes said. "No matter who the forward is, he has to be able to hold it up and help us gain real estate. C.J. is almost like a slinky. He can easily get around people and does it effortlessly."