Ahead of the two legs against Sporting Kansas City starting tonight at 5:30 PM, Justin from our fantastic SKC blog The Daily Wiz and I exchanged a few questions about SKC and our Colorado Rapids. First up are my questions with him, then I'll list my answers to his questions.

UZ: Sporting Kansas City obviously have an incredibly deep striker group. With all of them seemingly at equal standings - three of them are tied with 9 goals a piece - which player do you think is the most dangerous in the group?

Justin: If I had to choose, I’d have to go with Kei Kamara. Usually we’ve seen Kamara, Omar Bravo, and either Teal Bunbury, or CJ Sapong up top for Sporting KC. 

Bunbury has shown flashes of greatness at different points throughout the season, but he’s not consistently able to deliver those kinds of performances. It seems his form will change from match to match, or at times, from half to half. Sapong has had a great rookie season, but to this point, he’s been better with his back to the goal, and finding his teammates to create chances, as opposed to taking the defense one on one as a pure striker.

Omar Bravo has been very good this season, and has no doubt lived up to his Designated Player status in his first season in MLS, but he has been prone to disappear at times. Kamara, in my opinion, has been the most consistent threat for Sporting KC this season. He’s continually been dangerous on the right side for Kansas City , causing problems for opposing defenses.

More after the jump!

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With the Colorado Rapids playing Chivas USA for the second time this season tomorrow, I got together with Alicia from our Chivas blog The Goat Parade for another one of our world famous patent pending Three Questions sessions. Her answers to my questions about the baby goats can be found below, if you want to see my answers to her questions about the Rapids you can check 'em out at The Goat Parade right here.

BW: Picking up Robin Fraser as head coach in the offseason was a fantastic move in my eyes for Chivas, a team that had been lacking much of an identity since the salad days of 2007. How has the team improved since Robin came aboard? Has there been much of a notable change at all?

tGP: Fraser has been the single most important addition to Chivas this season. He had no experience as a head coach, but his time serving under Jason Kreis in Real Salt Lake as an assistant coach obviously provided good training. I suppose one of the advantages for Fraser was that the roster was almost completely overturned, so he was able to implement a system more easily, and it has worked remarkably well.

Fraser started the season vowing to have a defense-first approach, which wasn't exactly surprising considering his experience as a defender in his playing days. I think the early emphasis on defense has served the team well all season, except for a tough stretch in June when they lost several leads because of defensive errors. But the lack of a reliable goalscorer on the team meant that Fraser had to really make more of an effort to find an offensive game, and with the emergence of Nick LaBrocca this season, Chivas have been scoring goals somewhat in spite of their personnel. Fraser has also demonstrated his ability to make formation changes depending on the opponent and has made in-game adjustments when necessary. All of this is to say that Fraser has built a true team that works as a unit on and off the field and his players fully support him and the system. It looks like Fraser has a promising career as a coach ahead of him, and Chivas are very lucky to have him.

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Certainly this is a bit last minute, but Scott Kessler from our Philadelphia Union site The Brotherly Game and I did indeed manage to find the time to exchange three questions with each other before the game tonight.

Check out their site soon to see my answers to his questions about the Rapids, below you can find his insights on tonight's opponents, the Union.

1. The Supporters Shield might be out of the question with the Galaxy on such a tear, but in the weak Eastern conference, how many points do you think that the Union are going to need in order to clinch that top spot in the conference?

Right now the Union have 31 points on 19 games played, which is 1.63 points per game. That's good enough for fifth in MLS, which is exactly where the Union are sitting if you look at the league as a single table. However, the Union average .16 points more than Columbus and over .30 more points per game than New York. At their current points rate, the Union will end up with about 55 points after 34 games. I think that the Eastern Conference will be easy enough for the Union to close up shop at around 47 points, with those last eight points putting them into position to compete for the Supporters Shield (they won't have a great chance of getting it, of course).

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As a usual thing before games, the SBnation MLS community of blogs like to put together some inter-blog questions about each others teams. This week(end) we have Steve Stoehr from our New England Revolution blog The Bent Musket answering a few questions about his Revolution, who are just coming off a big 1-0 win at DC United. First question is below, the rest are after the jump!

You'll be able to find my answers to his questions about the Rapids at The Bent Musket soon.

BW: It's been a while since these two teams have seen each other, what's different if anything about the New England lineup now compared to our last meeting?

tBM: Well, it's a lineup lacking in confidence for the most part. Wednesday notwithstanding, this team has been beaten and bloodied by everybody in the league, constantly turning in poor performances and even when they play well, the bounces don't go their way and they still tend to lose. Also, anyone who thinks the off-pitch turmoil at the club isn't affecting the players is blind. Guys like Shalrie Joseph, Kevin Alston, Matt Reis and plenty others have great relationships with the supporters' groups and they know exactly what's being said and done in and around the Fort lately. Plus, the treatment of Marko Perovic appears to be in line with the way the Revs approach contracts with all players, which can't be good for morale for any of these guys who are looking for new deals soon. Personnel-wise not much has changed, but these guys might as well be different people compared to where they were at earlier this season.

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Colorado faces the New York Red Bulls tomorrow and after the bad news on Conor Casey, let's take our mind off of the injury reports with a couple of questions traded with our NYRB blog, Once A Metro. My questions to them are below and you can check out my answers to their Rapids-centric questions here at OaM.

1. I know next to nothing about the newest Red Bull, goalkeeper Frank Rost. Tell us a little about the new guy manning the posts for NY.

He's 6'4" but agile unlike former New York keeper Greg Sutton.  He's a proven shot stopper having started hundreds of matches for Bundesliga clubs like Hamburg, Schalke, and Werder Bremen, and brings consistency and poise onto the field unlike now backup keeper Bouna Coundoul.  Rost also played internationally for Germany a handful of times.  He was signed as the Red Bulls' third and final designated player, and conflicting comments made by New York suggest that Rost could be with the team just for this season or they could extend his designated player contract next year.      

Rost is still a bit of an unknown to Red Bull fans having barely trained with the team before getting the nod in his first start against Chivas USA on Saturday night.  Since Chivas couldn't put a single shot on goal, Rost did not have a chance to show off his shot stopping ability (and in an ideal world, he won't have to do that often).  What we did see (and hear after the match) was he already has helped to improve communication, organization, and confidence in the Red Bulls defense. Coincidentally or not, left back Roy Miller enjoyed his best game this season, getting forward and joining the attack regularly.  And Rost made sure right back Jan Gunnar Solli knew to play an easy pass back to him next time after he made an awkward, errant clearance.    

Center back Tim Ream summed up his position on the new player wearing sky blue in the back well after the match:  "He's a veteran goalkeeper, he talks a lot, and he communicates well."  If the Red Bulls wanted to make a run at the MLS Cup this season, they had to stop giving away silly goals, particularly off of set pieces.  Rost should be an incredible upgrade in that department. 

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Hey, it's time for another three questions session as we do before (almost) every game around here. This time I got together with our excellent Sounders blog Sounder At Heart. My questions and their answers are below, you should be able to find my answers to their stuff later at Sounder At Heart.

1. How has the Sounders offense changed with Steve Zakuani out as the season has progressed along?

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As we do every week, I got with Geoff Gibson from SBnation's excellent Portland Timbers blog Stumptown Footy and we answered some questions about each others teams. Geoff's answers to my questions about the Timbers are below, you'll be able to find my answers about the Rapids on SF.

1. What different line-up changes or new faces will we be seeing in the Timbers line-up compared to the season opener?

Quite a few changes actually:
First, we have the starting keeper back, Troy Perkins, who has been playing really well for the team, aside from that unfortunate DC United game. In the game against Chivas USA he was really the only player I was impressed by on the field and actually made MLS team of the week for it.
Second, Kalif Alhassan is starting regularly where as on March 19th he wasn't. This is a very agile, squirmy player who, somehow, manages to slip in and out of players at will. He's still young, but I definitely think in a few years he could be one of the best wingers in MLS if he doesn't get sold to Europe.
Third, Diego Chara is a new player since April. He brings a creative element to the midfield that wasn't there at the beginning of the season. He's still coming into the squad though, so he has room to get better acquainted with the play style and the city as a whole.
Fourth, Darlington Nagbe has recovered from injuries and is expected to be back out there tonight. He was pulled from the line up back in March when he had to undergo hernia surgery. As the #2 pick he's expected to do quite well for himself in MLS.

Other changes have been made. By and large it's a different team that who Colorado played on March 19th.

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Usually before games, the SBnation MLS editors tend to get together via e-mail and take a couple of questions from each other. Last season though, SBnation's Phildelphia Union blog The Brotherly Game and our own Burgundy Wave pioneered a new method of getting to know each others teams, getting together on AIM or Google or something and having a little talking session. Flows a bit better, anyway. Below is part two of my discussion with Scott Kessler of tBG.

Make sure to go here first and read the first half of the conversation before going below!

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