MacMath Loses Mind, Rapids Lose Point

Much of what I wanted to say about the game was covered in Sunday's post but here's the official wrap-up.  The Rapids played FSLl fairly equally, got some really bad luck from MacMath's decision making, some good luck from a missed offside, and lost 1-0.  Its hard to say its an unfair result but you'd like to see the score earned, not be created due to lucky non-calls and poor decision making.

General Impressions:

• Let's get to the ugliness first.  I have no idea what Zac MacMath's thought process was on the goal.  He's got Plata coming in with both Sjoberg and Burch closing him down.  From that he decides he needs to race out beyond the box to make a play.  There's nothing good in that.  As we saw he took away the ability for his defenders to use him as an outlet and by being outside the box he couldn't even make a desperate save without risking a red card for intentional handling.
• Yes, Sjoberg's volley was ill-advised.  But he goes into that thinking he's got a GK back there for the desperate move.  It also seems that just before he hits it he senses that MacMath is coming out and I don't know if that caused him to try to change how he hit it causing the poor volley.
• Movsisyan's goal was onside, or was as much off as Solignac's last week.   It should have counted.
• The game changed with about 30 minutes to go when FSL subbed in Morales.  No surprise given that he's the all-time leader in assists in Rocky Mountain Cup history.  Prior to that point the Rapids defense was handling the FSL attack and were making some dangerous chances in the attack.  After Morales came in the balance shifted to FSL.
• That would have been a good time to make a sub or tactical adjustments but...Pablo.
• The first half the Rapids actually had some good play and were a bit unlucky not to score.  Gashi had a good shot on an empty net cleared off the line by a great header by Maund.  We also had a couple of breakaways hat against a different goalie (not Rimando) we probably would have finished.
• So to win the Rocky Mountain Cup now we need two wins or a win and a draw.  Since we kept it to 1 goal the total goals tiebreaker won't work against us this season.  Worst case we get a draw and a 1 goal win leaving the teams tied in points and goals which meanss the current holders, which would be us, keep the the Cup. 

Man of the Match: Michael Azira.  This is more an award for his body of work this season than for any one thing he did well this game.  He's been the biggest good surprise so far this year and has really put a question mark in people's minds about who should be benched when Jones becomes available next Saturday.  When the seasons tarted I think everyone assumed it would be him but now you could make the case that he should sit in next to Jones/Powers and send Cronin to the bench.