COMMERCE CITY — Oscar Pareja’s decision to leave the Rapids for FC Dallas two months after signing a contract extension with Colorado has everything it takes to intensify the rivalry between the teams except one thing — rancor.

There will be lots of emotion when the teams face each other Saturday in Texas for the first time since Pareja resigned last offseason, but there will be no resentment. Both clubs are happy with the way things turned out.

Dallas has a beloved coach in Pareja, who played eight seasons there and served as assistant coach for seven seasons, but the situation is similar in Colorado. Pablo Mastroeni is just as iconic for the Rapids, having fought and bled for the franchise as a player from 2002-13.

And it’s not like the Rapids have struggled under Mastroeni, who never coached before taking over the team this winter. Colorado (6-4-4) is third in the Western Conference standings with 22 points. FC Dallas (5-3-7) stands fifth in the conference with 18 points.

“Both sides are happy,” said Rapids captain Drew Moor, who played five seasons in Dallas while Pareja was an assistant coach there before coming to Colorado in 2009. “We loved Oscar when he was here. Oscar always seemed like he was going to end up in Dallas, whether it was this year, next year, 10 years from now. I couldn’t be more happy for him, being where he is. I could not be more happy with who has filled in for him here.

“I’m happy, Oscar’s happy and Pablo’s happy. It all kind of makes sense.”

Except for Pareja’s change of mind, that is.

Last October he signed a contract extension with Colorado for 2015, around the same time Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman resigned after five years at the helm. The high point of Hyndman’s tenure was leading FCD to the MLS Cup final, where it was beaten in overtime by a Rapids team captained by Mastroeni.

In December, Pareja told the Rapids he was interested in the FCD vacancy.

“We had already extended him before the end of the season,” said Rapids president Tim Hinchey. “Then about six, eight weeks (later) he came back and said, ‘Actually I’d really like to talk to Dallas.’ I was a little surprised, obviously, and disappointed. He put us in a difficult position. Now we’re like, ‘Had I known that eight weeks ago, we would have had a longer window to really prepare ourselves for the offseason, for a search.”

Pareja remains vague on why he changed his mind.

THE TERRACE: FC Dallas: A better bitter rival for 2014 than Real Salt Lake

“The game sometimes moves us from one place to another,” Pareja said. “Only God knows what is the purpose. I trust him, and I know he had a plan, and things happened that way. I don’t want to dig into it and bring things back. They (the Rapids) were excellent with me.”

With training camps fast approaching, the Rapids had to find a new coach while negotiating compensation terms with FCD, which wound up sending Colorado a first-round draft pick. Meanwhile Mastroeni, who had retired as a player, offered to serve as interim Rapids coach and asked to be considered for the job permanently.

“We had an opportunity to watch Pablo get more excited and better every day,” Hinchey said. “As a fan, of course I want Pablo. We talk about home-growing our players, why not home-growing our own coach? Why not have a guy that’s given the better part of his adult life to our club, knows the community, has the heart of a lion, has played at the highest levels of our game? It’d be the perfect scenario, right?

“We wish Oscar nothing but the best. It was more messy than it needed to be. I just wish we had gotten it (done) earlier. But we’re all better off. No harm, no foul.”

Pareja says he is “very thankful” to the Rapids for giving him his first head coaching job.

“The way they treated me there,” he said, “was fantastic.”

Now the players he coached the past two seasons in Colorado will try to beat him.

“There’s a lot of emotions coming into the game,” Pareja said. “We as coaches are sitting there, trying to see how the players can execute ideas, but the game belongs to them. I would like the players to get all the attention, rather than me and what happened before.”

John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer

Home sweet home

Oscar Pareja with FC Dallas: Played 1998-2005, 170 appearances, 13 goals; assistant coach 2005-2011.

Pablo Mastroeni with Colorado: Played with the Rapids 2002-2013, 225 appearances, five goals; first season as head coach.