Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before...

Playing the worst team in MLS Colorado continued their lack-luster play, and they got burned by it. What should have been an easy won resulted in the Rapids 5th draw in a row and 6th draw in 7 games.

This game was much like last week's home game against Toronto. Lots of possession by the Rapids in the defensive third but no ability to capitalize on it. Casey took advantage of a half-hearted backpass to round the keeper and score from almost an impossible angle. KC's Smith took advantage of a Wells Thompson flailing mistake and a Kimura slip to knock a golazo past Pickens into the upper corner to level the score late.

My key to the game was just winning. Nope.

Other Observations:
  • Good to see Casey finally get on the scoreboard, and on such a tough goal. Despite the defender knocking it in, it would have gone in without the assistance.
  • Wells Thompson, ugh. Generally bad and on the KC goal he performed a whirling dervish spin move and managed to completely miss the ball, leaving Kimura stranded. Bad luck for Koz to slip at that moment.
  • Koz generally had a bad night though. He was regularly beat and his passes weren't on target.
  • Larentowicz had a 1v1 with the keeper early int he second half that should have ended the game. Instead he sent it high over the bar. A team having as much difficulty scoring as we are can't afford to miss chances like that.
  • Ross LaBauex looked good for a young guy getting only his second career start. If he can I still like the looks of LaBauex. I thought he had a solid, if unspectacular, night.
  • Nyassi coming off at half is not what the team needed. He's apparently still going to play for Gambia so I assume ti wasn't injury related. Not a strong sub.
  • I hate to kick a guy while he's down, but Nane's 5 minutes prior to being injured were horrible. Bad touches and almost no movement.
  • It was good to see Folan able to play. I only wish he had been able to play better, he didn't show much of anything in his 20 minutes.
  • 7 straight games without a loss is nice, but this team is barely treading water. Part of it is the injury situation but part of it are players who just aren't getting the job done.
Player of the Game: Marvell Wynne. He broke up a number of dangerous attacks including one in the second half that I was sure was going to be a PK, but on review was a perfectly timed clean tackle. Unfortunately he re-aggravated his hamstring late in the game and is back on IR.

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