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Rapids looking to build momentum against Revs

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The Colorado Rapids are looking forward to Saturday night’s game against the New England Revolution (9 pm ET, watch LIVE online ) as they seek to secure their third straight home win.

The midweek 4-1 mauling of the New York Red Bulls follows a previous home victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps. At this crucial stage of the season, the Rapids are hoping to put together a series of convincing home wins just as they did towards the end of last season when they went on a home scoring tear that took them all the way to MLS Cup.

“Especially when we are winning at home, you can get that momentum and you start going with it,” said striker Omar Cummings, who had three assists against New York. “You get the confidence going through the team and then I think we can beat anybody.”

It’s been a rollercoaster week for the defending MLS Cup champions. Last Saturday, they lost a disappointing 4-3 result against Seattle, a game which also saw leading goal scorer Conor Casey sidelined for the rest of the season as he tore an Achilles tendon. The midweek victory over the Red Bulls restored some much needed confidence to take into the New England game. The Revs come into the game with an encouraging midweek victory themselves, as they took a 1-0 result over D.C. United on the road.

Speaking before the Red Bulls game, midfielder Jeff Larentowicz, a former New England player, described the two home games this week as “huge.”

“It’s going to be very important,” he told MLSsoccer.com. “If we get six points from these two games, the Seattle game is washed away and we can regain some confidence. Obviously, we need the points, but just to settle the camp. New England is a team that is having a tough year and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any easier for them, playing as many games as they are. Coming straight here from DC will be difficult for them.”

It’s hard to imagine the Rapids’ line-up will be much different from the team that overwhelmed New York with a hat trick from makeshift striker Sanna Nyassi. Nyassi will line-up against his twin brother, Sainey, against the Revs.

Midfielder Jamie Smith, who has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury, is a game-time decision while left backs Anthony Wallace and Danny Earls are still not seen as fit enough to be considered. Gary Smith, Colorado’s head coach, has also emphasized that Macoumba Kandji is at least a week away from being in his plans as he battles back from his long-term ACL injury.

Takabisha captivates the World with steepest roller coaster drop ...

For weeks now Fuji Q Highlands’ new roller coaster, Takabisha , has made international headlines. The steel Gerstlauer roller coaster has pushed the steepness envelope by setting a World record setting 121-degree drop. As I documented in my article, Five ways roller coasters have changed since you were a kid , roller coasters with beyond 90-degree drops are nothing new. Hersheypark’s Fahrenheit boasts a 97-degree drop and Steel Hawg at Indiana Beach made history when it opened in 2008 with an 111-degree drop. Steel Hawg was dethroned by the UK’s Mumbo Jumbo at Flamingoland which edged it out with a 112-degree drop.

There have also been a number of other roller coasters with these super steep drops, but the trend had seemed to go pretty much unnoticed to the media. Roller coaster fans like myself find them interesting, but the steepness record holder never got the kind of attention that the World’s fastest roller coaster ( Formula Rossa ) or the World’s tallest roller coaster ( Kingda Ka ) has received.

This is why I am so surprised by the enormous media attention that Takabisha, a roller coaster in Japan, has received here in the U.S. Many of my non-roller coaster loving friends and family have mentioned the ride to me, I’ve been contacted by the media to speak about it, it’s been featured on morning radio shows, on a late night talk show, and it’s been covered by national and international media outlets.

Of course this attention is a very good thing for Fuji-Q Highland. I would imagine that this international coverage is why a theme park would spend a reported $37 million to build a record breaking roller coaster. I have to wonder if there’s an amusement park, if not several, that are ordering a Takabisha clone or a similar roller coaster from Gerstlauer. A roller coaster that could surpass Takabisha with a 122-degree drop wouldn’t have to be as large or as costly while still providing some real buzz and interest on a large scale.

Like the race to build the tallest roller coasters in the 1990′s, could the battle for the steepest roller coaster be the new roller coaster arms race? Don’t be shocked if a theme park announces plans to build a new roller coaster with a record setting drop in 2012 or 2013. Takabisha has captivated the World and any theme park would love that kind of notoriety.

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