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By Gabe Diamond - Just two and a half weeks ago, the San Jose Earthquakes left Colorado's Dick's Sporting Goods Park with a hard fought 0-0 draw against the Rapids. On Wednesday May 7, the teams get a rematch at Buck Shaw Stadium. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. PT on CSN Bay Area, 1590 KLIV and 1370 KZSF.
The Earthquakes (1-3-3) are coming off a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps this past Saturday. The Quakes battled back in the second half after falling behind 3-0 to Vancouver in the first 20 minutes of the match. Forward Chris Wondolowski scored both goals for San Jose, bringing his season goal total to five goals in seven games. Wondolowski will look to continue his hot start against the Rapids, whom he has scored on eight times in the previous 13 matches between the clubs.
Colorado (4-2-2) comes into this match up looking to build off the momentum of a 1-0 home victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy. Despite getting out-possessed and out-chanced, the Rapids held firm defensively to earn the club's fourth shutout of the season and third in the last four games. Rapids leading scorer Vicente Sánchez notched the lone tally, but was substituted at the half due to a knee injury. Sánchez will miss the clash Wednesday night after an MRI indicated a sprained left knee.
Similar to the last meeting between the clubs, the Rapids will most likely rely on solid defense to keep them in the game on the road. In the teams' first meeting of the season back on April 19th, a physical encounter ended in a 0-0 draw that saw only one shot on goal between both teams. The best chance for the Quakes came in the first minute, when an Alan Gordon header rattled the crossbar. The Rapids countered with a Deshorn Brown shot in the 25th minute that forced the only save of the game from Jon Busch. The Earthquakes will likely look to create a few more chances to come away from this game with more than a point.
Despite the Rapids' positive start to the season, the Quakes still hold the better run of form in the matches between the two teams. San Jose is an unbeaten 5-0-3 in the last eight games versus Colorado, with the last loss coming back in August of 2011. The Quakes have outscored the Rapids 15-6 during the streak.