Monday, September 18, 2017

Rapids Continue Non-Losing Ways

My Friday prediction:
1-1 draw, goal by Badji.  The altitude and missing players will weaken NYCFC just enough for us to snag a point but it won't be pretty.
And that's exactly what happened.  NYCFC went up early after Watts fell and Ford and Azira didn't close in on McNamara which let him get a long-distance strike off.  Howard got a hand to it but could only push it into the bottom of the crossbar where it bounced in.  After that it was pretty bleh soccer, though surprisingly at half the Rapids had to shots on target to NYCFC's 1 (I'm not sure when the last time the Rapids had more shots on goal at half than the opponent).  The second half was more of the same until very late when Badji got behind the defense on a long run and slotted it him home for his team-leading 8th goal of the season.  Credit to Dom, in past years he would have screwed the chance up and its another example of his improvement this season.

The game really changed for the Rapids around the 65th minute when Gashi and Aigner were both subbed in.  Aigner has yet to start and Gashi has not been starting much lately.  I realize that the focus in these last 6 games will be on evaluating players for next season but we shouldn't completely throw away results (especially since the fans are still paying for the tickets) so seeing our best players start more often than not should be the expectation.

The rapids now need 6 points in the last 6 games to avoid their worst ever pts/game total.

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