Cooke tells Soccer365.com he’s back to 100 percent after just taking some precautionary time off for his injury.  “It was a slight groin strain.  Nothing serious but you don’t want to be stupid.  Coming to the crucial part of the season, I spoke to the gaffer and it was more prevention than anything else.  Now I feel fine-I feel great.”

Colorado Head Coach Fernando Clavijo had to juggle his lineup slightly without Cooke and is glad to have another weapon on the field.  “Very nice to have him back.  He gives us a different look that we can attack from both sides.” 

Cooke did not make the last road trip to Columbus where the Rapids salvaged a point with a late equalizer on a hot Sunday afternoon.

“It’s great that we got a point.  The lads played well,” said the English midfielder.  “Tell you what, to take a point when you go on the road at Columbus, especially at 3 o’clock in the (hot) afternoon, it wasn’t easy for the lads.”

“We’ve got a good chance at making the playoffs, and I think we are a better team than Columbus.  Now we’ve got to look at the Galaxy.”

When asked what the difference is in Colorado’s recent run of success, Cooke points out that the whole team is stepping up their efforts.  “We’re taking points, but we’re creating chances and we’re taking our chances.”

“Early in the season we weren’t creating many but we weren’t taking any either.  I earn my trade (with) supply and delivery in the box and hopefully the forwards are putting it in the back of the net.  When we’re quiet defensively and everybody is doing their job on the pitch we have a much better team, especially at home.”

“We should be killing teams here.  With the big field, altitude, we should be murdering teams.  We did it last year and had a good record at home.  It seems this year, I don’t know, teams are more pumped up coming to a lovely stadium, great field, it helps other teams to play.  For the last 3 games at home we’ve actually stuck to what we’re good at and it shows.”

Another lineup change is likely to be Pablo Mastroeni taking time off in Los Angeles.  Mastroeni left the Columbus match at halftime and has only been lightly training since.  “We came in at halftime, we didn’t even know he was coming out,” admitted Clavijo.  “When we went back out to the field we only had 10 players.  I go inside and we find out he’s throwing up in the bathroom.”

Mastroeni will, however, make the trip to LA but how much he can play is still going to be up to Clavijo and the coaching staff.  “He’s exhausted mentally and physically.  We give him a break right now.  I don’t know if we’ll use him 20 minutes or not, but having him go with us to LA is always a plus.”

“We have to be cautious right now.  I don’t want to break him for playing one game and lose him for the next 6, which are important ones.  I think it’s my responsibility to make that decision.  He was shaking and scared us a little bit.  I think his health is more important than anything else so it makes no sense to rush him.”

By Brian Jennings