ANOTHER HOME UNBEATEN STREAK ON THE LINE, THOUGH
The Crew may be starting over on a regular-season home unbeaten streak overall, but the Black & Gold do hold another home unbeaten streak that will be tested this weekend against Colorado ... the Crew is unbeaten (5-0-2) in its last seven home matches against the Rapids dating back to a 1-0 Crew win on June 11, 2005 ... the match that began the Crew’s home unbeaten streak against the Rapids featured many Crew-Rapids ties ... for the Rapids, Pablo Mastroeni (still active) made the start and Jeff Cunningham suited up at forward for the Rapids, while current Colorado forward Edson Buddle made an appearance for the Crew ... in that match, the Crew’s Cornell Glen buried a penalty kick before later joining the Rapids in 2006.
GAVEN AND MARSHALL NAVIGATE THE RAPIDS
Eddie Gaven and Chad Marshall may be without a goal through nine games in 2013, but the two Crew veterans have seen plenty of success in their regular-season careers against Colorado ... Gaven has scored three goals and recorded one assist in 14 starts while Marshall has two goals and two assists in 14 starts against the Rapids.
THREE-MATCH HOMESTAND WRAPS-UP
After playing five of its first seven matches of 2013 on the road, the Crew completes a three-match homestand on Saturday against Colorado -- the Crew’s longest regular- season homestand of the year ... the last time the Black & Gold played three consecu- tive regular-season matches at home was back in July of 2010 ... during that span, the Crew went 2-1-0 which featured two shutouts and one attacking shutout ... in the current homestand, the Crew has shut-out D.C. 3-0 on April 27 and was held scoreless against New York 1-0 on May 4.
GAVEN SUFFERING PLENTY OF FOULS...
Eddie Gaven suffered five fouls last Saturday against New York -- a match in which the Black & Gold were fouled 18 times ... Gaven is the second-most fouled player in MLS this year and has been fouled 24 times in seven matches, trailing only FC Dallas’ David Ferreira who has been fouled 33 times in nine games played ... Gaven has been fouled five times in a match three times this season including last Saturday’s contest -- adding to identical amounts from the March 2 match at Chivas USA and the April 20 clash at Chicago.
... AND GAVEN’S ABOUT TO BECOME THE MOST-FOULED CREW PLAYER
With 404 fouls suffered in a Crew uniform in 206 games played for the Black & Gold, Eddie Gaven is just four fouls suffered away from becoming the most-fouled Crew player in club history ... Gaven enters Saturday three fouls behind Brian McBride (407 fouls suffered, 161 games played) ... the Crew midfielder is the only active member on the club’s all-time list for fouls suffered and after suffering an average of 3.4 fouls per- game thus far in 2013, he may capture the lead on Saturday.
A PAIR OF STARTS FOR TCHANI
Tony Tchani has made consecutive starts in the central midfield for the Black & Gold, the first time Tchani has seen back-to-back starts in 2013 ... Tchani’s 90 minutes in both matches thus far on the homestand is the first time since June 16, 2012 (at New England) and June 23, 2012 (at Chicago) in which Tchani made consecutive starts and played a full 90 for Robert Warzycha.
