The Colorado Rapids—the state’s only professional playoff team in 2010—ended its regular season last week and qualified for its first postseason berth since 2006. On Thursday night, the Rapids will host the first-ever playoff game to be held at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. They welcome the higher-seeded Columbus Crew to town for the first of two games before one team advances to the single-match conference championship.

A Bleacher Report blogger puts Colorado three spots ahead of Columbus in the site’s most recent power rankings. The Rapids got lucky in their seeding against the Crew, points out The Denver Post. Columbus will travel to Denver just four days after Sunday’s game against Philadelphia, where the Crew lost its starting goalkeeper to a broken right shoulder.

It’s been a long road for the Rapids, as the team has documented in a video for its website. And a bevy of Denver-area professional athletes have come out to support the Rapids in their quest for the team’s first MLS Cup, writes 9News, with players like the Denver Broncos’ Tim Tebow, the Denver Nuggets’ Chauncey Billups, and the Colorado Avalanche’s Paul Stastny filming their support.