Help Recruiting A New Fan

OK I need some help from my readers (or reader as the case may be, I'm not sure how many of you are out there). I've got a friend at my new company who's a soccer fan, but hasn't been out to see the Rapids. He's a fan of European soccer, seen Roma play in Rome, and follows the U.S. Nats. I'm trying to convince him to come out to the Everton game, and to some of the remaining games on the league schedule. He wants to hear from other fans about how the Rapids games are a great time.

Now I know that this isn't the best week for this request given the team's performance last week, but besides watching that mess on the field going to the game is a good time. Between the tailgate, camaraderie in 108 and 100, and a chance to get out and enjoy the good weather there are certainly much worse ways to spend an afternoon or evening.

So please drop Chad an email at cgardner@paysimple.com and encourage him to join us this weekend!

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Or pass straight, or dribble straight, etc. You get the point. Up a man for 50 minutes and not only did the Rapids not score, they gave up a goal while outshooting Columbus 23-5 (7-3 on target) and beating the Crew 17-0 on corner kicks.

The game started well with Casey having 3 great chances in front of net, only to miss with one of them and have Hesmer make the save on the other two. He was hauled down in front of net as well, but there was no call. At one point the Rapids pressured the Crew into an illegal backpass but Cookie decided to try to get cute with the resulting indirect free kick in the box and tried to take it quickly, hopefully deflecting it off the GK and into the goal, but missed the GK and put it right into the goal. This is illegal on an indirect free kick and correctly resulted in a Crew goal kick.

The Rapids backline gave up a goal in the first half, Ugo Ihemelu let Lenhart run free towards the goal, Erpen didn't see him in time to cover, and Miglioranzi slipped the ball in, putting Lenhart 1v1 with Bouna. Bouna hesitated a bit coming out (probably remembering what happened last week) and Lenhart slipped it by him for a 1-0 lead. In the 40th minute Lenhart applied a vicious elbow to Erpen's nose, earning himself an early visit to the showers and giving the Rapids a way back into the game. They wouldn't use it.

The second half was all Rapids. Constant possession in the attacking third, and wasted chance after wasted chance. We took short corners, we played free kicks backwards, and when we did go forward we couldn't put the ball on net. Conor Casey had two chances on frame and Omar had one, but that's it. Meanwhile the Crew had two chances. On the first Hesmer punted the ball down the middle of the field and Evans beat Ihemelu to the header. The ball went to Garey and in a remarkable show of restraint by Pablo he decided not to try to take the ball from Garey from behind, since he had Erpen covering. Bad decision it turned out as Erpen whiffed on the ball giving Bouna approximately half a second to react to the ensuing shot, which he was unable to do. Later in the half the Crew got another 1v1 vs. Bouna but Bouna came up big with the save and then got to the rebound first.

Keys to the Game review:

• We're starting our longest home stand of the season with 3 home games (4 if you count the Everton game). We need to come into this group of games with the mentality of needing 9 points, no less than 7 as the minimum.
  Well we're looking at 6 points max from this home stand now.
• Where is Bouna's confidence? He had the type of game in Dallas that can really shake a young keeper. Can he put it behind him and move on?
  Well given his hesitation on the first goal, there's still some work to be done. He was only called on two other teams in the match and came up with the save on the one he should be expected to make.
• How tired is Pablo after playing 90 minutes in the All-Star Game? Can he put in a full effort for us?
  Full credit to Pablo, he played the full 90 last night, and was the only Rapids player to be called offside!
• Not focusing so much on our first half performance this week, but we need an early goal. Columbus has only one once in Colorado, and never in the last 8 years. We need to get on top early.
  *sigh* Next!
• Will they Dynamic Duo of Erpen and Ihemelu cut out the Keystone Kops routine and give us a solid game?
  In a word, no. See my description of the Columbus goals above for more detail.

Critical Matchup: Nick LaBrocca vs. Guillermo Barros Schelotto - GBS was largely a non-factor in this game, so LaBrocca should get a thumbs up for that..

Fact of the Match: This was Columbus' first win in Denver since 1999.

Random Observations:

Refs wearing day-glo orange tops really stand out when they screw up. Lots of really questionable calls on both sides.

Cooke and Clark had fairly good nights given that nobody scored. That is when the central midfielders remembered they were out there. Clark almost went ballistic in the second half when he was wide open and nobody (mainly Ballouchy) wouldn't give him the ball.

Ballouchy, back to the bench. Every shot and almost every pass was off line.

Christian Gomez looked better in the All-Star Game than he's looked in the last couple of games combined.

I dread to think about what Everton is going to do to this team next week.

2 weeks off before our next league game. Looks like a good time to make a coaching change.

Standings: The Rapids are now are 6th in the West, still 3 points out of first. Colorado is 13th overall in the league. They have the 4th best offense and they are tied with Columbus for the 10th best defense.

Man of the Match: Omar Cummings - He played 90 minutes in Dallas on Saturday night, flew back to Denver, played 20 minutes on Sunday night, and created one of the few quality chances of the second half.

Guarda Traded

A match recap of the debacle last night will be up later tonight, but I wanted to get a quick post up about the Guarda trade. We got the rights to Guarda in the weighted lottery last week, and immediately signed him to a contract, finding room for him on the roster by putting Justin Hughes on season-ending IR. Today, to nobodies surprise, we traded Guarda to Dallas where he rejoins his college coach from SMU. In return we get Dallas' natural 2nd and 3rd round 2009 Superdraft picks, plus a partial allocation. not a bad return on a player that fell into our laps.

I wonder if they stay at the YMCA while on the road?

The Village People, otherwise known as the Columbus Crew, are in town on Sunday. Special late Sunday kickoff of 7:30pm at The Dick due to the All-Star Game.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: GK Justin Hughes (L groin), FW Tom McManus (L knee); QUESTIONABLE: MF Colin Clark (R hamstring)

INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: Omar Cummings, Jamaica - Jamaica is playing El Salvador in Dallas on Saturday night and Cummings plans to be back for the game, but his availability will be dependant on how much he plays Saturday night.

DISCIPLINE: Suspended after 2 more yellow cards - Colin Clark, Pablo Mastroeni

(Interesting to note that it took 18 games this season for anyone to get close to yellow card suspension Allen pointed out in the comments that Pablo was on warning last game as well)

My lineup prediction:

Bouna Time!
Ihemelu - Pablo - Erpen
LaBrocca
C.Gomez - Ballouchy
Cooke ------------- Clark
H.Gomez - Casey

This lineup, with McManus and Gomez taking the second striker spot, has gotten 5 points in the last three games and I still don't see Clavijo making any changes. If Clark is too injured to go I expect we'll see LaBrocca pushed wide into his spot and DiRaimondo playing d-mid. We're thin at striker with Cummings on Nats duty and McManus injured, expect to see Peterson come off the bench if we need more firepower.

Critical Matchup: Nick LaBrocca vs. Guillermo Barros Schelotto

Schelotto is the league leader in assists with 10. Columbus has lost Ekpo and Rogers from their attack due to Olympic duty, so there will be extra pressure on Schelotto to produce chances. This is LaBrocca's toughest match-up to date, but if he can shut down GBS the Rapids will have a good chance to get a shutout.

Keys To Look For:

• We're starting our longest home stand of the season with 3 home games (4 if you count the Everton game). We need to come into this group of games with the mentality of needing 9 points, no less than 7 as the minimum.


• Where is Bouna's confidence? He had the type of game in Dallas that can really sake a young keeper. Can he put it behind him and move on?


• How tired is Pablo after playing 90 minutes in the All-Star Game? Can he put in a full effort for us?


• Not focusing so much on our first half performance this week, but we need an early goal. Columbus has only one once in Colorado, and never in the last 8 years. We need to get on top early.


• Will they Dynamic Duo of Erpen and Ihemelu cut out the Keystone Kops routine and give us a solid game?

Prediction: 1-0 win. Columbus has a bad record in Colorado, and is missing two pieces of their offence. I think we manage a shutout and Casey continues to appear on the score sheet, either with the goal or an assist.

Player Comings and Goings Part 2

More roster shuffle this week, both here in Colorado and across the pond in Blackburn.

Last night the Rapids won the "weighted lottery" that MLS held for the rights to Bruno Guarda, an attacking midfielder that has decided not to return to SMU for his senior season and instead go straight into MLS.

(MLS handles these type of players, who become available in midseason, in a similar way to the NBA Draft where every team gets a certain number of balls based on their record over the last season's worth of games. Its unclear how they handled the expansion Earthquakes, but the Rapids had the 3rd or 4th best chance at the player)

Guarda is a Brazilian who went to school at SMU and was expected to be a first round draft pick when he did come out. The fact that he's an international does lower the interest a bit, but he's an interesting young player that could push Ballouchy for playing time. The Rapids signed him to a contract today and made room for him by putting reserve GK Justin Hughes on the season-ending injury list.

The other twist to this signing is the fact that Guarda's former coach at SMU, Schellas Hyndman, just took the head coaching job at FC Dallas and has expressed interest in bringing Guarda to Texas. Dallas has just traded for two international spots, presumably to use one of them on Guarda. You would expect a trade to happen before the Rapids actually signed him and made a roster move to fit him into the squad, but perhaps the Rapids are trying to drive up his value by getting him under contract before making the deal.

Across the Atlantic Blackburn Rovers are also making moves in preparation for the upcoming EPL season. Today they announced that Big Bad Brad Friedel had been sold to Aston Villa for $4 million. Brad has been a rock in the back for Blackburn for the last few seasons, and his shoes will be hard to fill. He was also the reason I first started following Blackburn, but my interest int he team has grown beyond Friedel, so I won't be changing allegiances to Aston Villa (Though my Rapids gear would fit their color scheme). Brad Friedel will join Brad Guzan as the American 1-2 duo in the nets for Villa.

Everybody, kiss your sister

That's right, it was the all-draw weekend in MLS, and the Rapids and Dallas did their part, ending in a 2-2 draw.

It was the Rapids who went up early with only their third 1st half goal of the season. Ballouchy found Gomez sneaking behind the Dallas defense and sent a great ball into him that just go over the defender's heads. Herculez sent it past an onrushing Sala for a Rapids lead 5 minutes into the match.

After that it became Adventures in Goalkeeping starring Bouna Time! Bouna came out badly twice, and got burned for it both times. On the first Bouna was outside the box, missed the play on the ball, and it was crossed in for Oduro, who was surrounded by Pablo and Erpen. Instead of forcing Oduro to make the shot in traffic Erpen pushed him to the ground, drawing the PK and allowing Dallas to tie the game at 1. On the second Bouna tried to challenge Kenny Cooper for a ball in the box, but Cooper got their first and put the ball in the front of the empty net for Dallas to put away and take a 2-1 lead.

Casey struck back right away though. Cooke sent a ball down to the endline that Christian perfectly one-times across the face of goal. Casey rose up and got a head on it and the Rapids were back even at 2. They seemed satisfied with that late in the game and got out of Dallas with a point and a 3 game undefeated streak.

Keys to the Game review:

• While the draw in San Jose was disappointing we have a chance this week to put a 3 game undefeated streak together. Can we play like we realize the importance of that?
  We did, and if it weren't for a couple of costly miscues by Bouna and Erpen we probably would have won the game.
• The first half performance will be particularly important this week. With the heat we can expect to tire more easily. Do we show up before halftime
  We did, and kept the pressure on even after going up a goal. The team looks significantly better when they do that.
• Has Cummings solved his issue of needing 3-4 chances for every goal?
  By the time Cummings got into the game he was almost a non-factor. Herculez definitely staked a clam to be the other starter while McManus is injured.
• Will the defense show some patience and avoid the temptation to play long ball?
  There was still a bit too much over the top for my liking, but it was a step up from the San Jose game.
• Andre Rocha has 6 assists for Dallas. How well does LaBrocca close him down?
  Rocha was quiet for most of the game. LaBrocca kept him bottled up well.
• Will Cooke and Clark be playing like wing backs or wingers? The further back they play the less likely we'll be to score.
  They were both more involved in the offense. Clark was dangerous on the left and Cooke controlled the ball well, plus he registered an assist.

Critical Matchup: Pablo Mastroeni vs. Kenny Cooper - Kenny Cooper racked up a PK goal and an assist, largely due to Bouna's poor decisions. Still Pablo was nowhere to be found on the assist Cooper got.

Fact of the Match: This is the first game this season the Rapids have not won when scoring the first goal.

Random Observations:

I know I've hammered him a good deal int his post, but this was easily Bouna's worst game as a Rapid. Hopefully he learns from it.

I'm tired of watching Erpen and Ihemelu's Keystone Kops routine. I'd like to see one game against a decent offense where they don't make a stupid mistake

What was up with that field? It seemed to be half sand!

We got two goals through good play out of the midfield. Less long ball, more goals.

Very inconsistent officiating in this game. I'm not one to blame officiating for results, as good teams don't put themselves in position to get screwed by the refs, but I think the officiating may have cost us two points in this one.

As ugly as the last two games have been, we are on a 3 game undefeated streak for the first time since September 2nd of 2007.

Standings: With everyone in the league drawing the Rapids only gained ground against the 4 SuperLiga teams. They are 4th in the West, still 3 points out of first with a game in hand. Colorado is tied with KC and NY for 9th overall in the league. They are tied with Columbus for the 3rd best offense and they ave the 9th best defense.

Man of the Match: Herculez Gomez - He looked good out there given how much time he's spent on the bench. Nice goal to get an early lead as well.

"Well, if it isn't LaBrocca. And his sidekick, Pablo"

The Rapids head down to Pizza Hut Park to face FC Dallas tomorrow. Its a 6pm MDT kickoff on Altitude. As always the fans will be gathering at the British Bulldog downtown.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: GK Justin Hughes (L groin), FW Tom McManus (L knee); PROBABLE: DF Mike Petke (R foot)

My lineup prediction:

Bouna Time!
Ihemelu - Pablo - Erpen
LaBrocca
C.Gomez - Ballouchy
Cooke ------------- Clark
Cummings - Casey

This lineup, minus Cummings, has gotten 4 points in the last two games and I don't see Clavijo making any changes. McManus' foot injury will give Cummings another chance to claim the starting spot, let's see what he does with it.

Critical Matchup: Pablo Mastroeni vs. Kenny Cooper

Cooper has more goals than any other two Dallas players combined. If we can shut him down their next highest scorer is Oduro with 4 goals. I think our defense and Bouna can get a shutout if Cooper stays off the board. The obvious way to take Cooper out of the game is for Pablo to stick to him any time he gets near the 18.

Keys To Look For:

• While the draw in San Jose was disappointing we have a chance this week to put a 3 game undefeated streak together. Can we play like we realize the importance of that?


• The first half performance will be particularly important this week. With the heat we can expect to tire more easily. Do we show up before halftime?


• Has Cummings solved his issue of needing 3-4 chances for every goal?


• Will the defense show some patience and avoid the temptation to play long ball?


• Andre Rocha has 6 assists for Dallas. How well does LaBrocca close him down?


• Will Cooke and Clark be playing like wing backs or wingers? The further back they play the less likely we'll be to score.

Prediction: 0-0 draw. These are two teams playing pretty bad soccer, and I don't see ether one of them doing anything to get a win in the hot Dallas summer.

Player Comings and Goings(?)

The Rapids announced the signing of Greg Dalby today, their first round pick from the 2007 draft. Before the draft Dalby made it known that he was probably going to try to go to Europe, and he spent last year bouncing around on trials with Celtic, FC Nuremberg, Siena, and a contract deal with Preston North End that fell apart at the last minute. He finally signed for Charleroi in the Belgium First Division during the midsseason transfer window. After not being able to get on at another team this offseason he came back to MLS.

Dalby joins a crowded central midfield with LaBrocca, DiRaimondo, Ballouchy, and Christian Gomez all in line in front of him. He'll have his work cut out for him if he wants to see any time with the first team.

You'll notice the absence of Pablo Mastroeni in that list. In recent interviews Pablo has stated his desire to finally try his luck in Europe, and recently he has said he'd prefer to go over their in the current transfer window that closes on August 15th rather than wait until the end of the MLS season to try to join a European team in the middle of their season. He has been linked recently with Caligari in Serie A, Livorno in Serie B, and Aston Villa in the EPL.

Pablo is not an easy player to replace. LaBrocca and DiRaimondo have stepped up to take over the defensive midfield position, givng Clavijo the freedom to play Pablo on the back line, a place that sorely needed some veteran leadership. If Pablo leaves it will be up to Erpen and Ihemelu to control the backline, at least until Petke gets healthy. While the Ihemelu/Erpen/Petke combo might be enough to get us through this season, an obvious offseason need will be a central defender. We'll also lose the veteran leadership Pablo brings tot he team, and in a team that's quite young, it will be up to the likes of Cooke and Christian Gomez to step up and fill that void.

I wish Pablo all the best if this is his dream. I notice that it comes at a time when he's been moved back to central defense. In past years when he's played on the back line we've heard other mutterings about him wanting to leave, but this is the first time he's been openly talking about them. Just a coincidence, has he finally gotten fed up with Clavijo (being the only remaining Rapid from the Hankinson era), or has he just realized at a month short of his 32nd birthday that its now or never?

Zzzzzzzzz....

Huh, what? Sorry, the Rapids play was so uninspired I fell asleep. The Rapids continued their pattern of following a solid win by laying an egg in the next game.

Once again we failed to do anything in the first half, being content to knock the ball over midfield with the hope that Casey or McManus could run onto it. This time around McManus decided that he had to get an early start on almost every ball, being flagged for offside at least 3-4 times in the first half. Casey managed to get onto one ball, but couldn't put the shot on net when faced with an onrushing Cannon in a 1v1 situation.

The second half was more of the first, but in the 62nd minute the Rapids defense decided to have a shared mental breakdown. Erpen was called for a stupid foul going up for a header with Johnson. to be fair to Erpen, the foul was pretty ticky-tack and both sides had been getting away with it all day, but there was still no reason to foul at that point. On the ensuing free kick Ihemelu decided that covering his man was overrated, which allowed Johnson to have a free header on goal. He put it right over Bouna's head, and somehow Bouna whiffed on the save. The only defender who didn't screw up in this sequence was Pablo, no wonder he wants to leave.

For once this season the Rapids didn't roll over and play dead until it was too late, continuing to look for the tying goal by going over the top of midfield. Of course, when the goal did come it was from the foot of Terry Cooke, one of the few times he got the ball in midfield and got a chance to put in a cross. Conor Casey got away with a shove to get some space and redirected it with a nic header, getting the Rapids level. At this pint the ref lost control of the game, giving out cards left and right, and Claivjo decided that a draw was good enough, burning off the end of stoppage time by pulling Casey for Burciaga.

Keys to the Game review:

• We have a chance for our first back to back wins this season, will the team out determined to grasp that opportunity, or will we sit back like we have after previous wins this season?
  Return to form by the Rapids, deciding that a draw was acceptable after almost losing.
• Hey, I don't have to complain about the first half performance this week. Can we keep up playing from the opening whistle?
  No, more of the same waste in the first half.
• What kind of shape is Christian Gomez in?
  Hopefully he's still recovering and hat's why he was subbed out for a defensive midfielder right after the Rapids went down by a goal, because the other option of that being strategy is to stupid to consider.
• Will Cummings or Casey, or maybe even Herculez, make a statement that they should be starting along side McManus?
  No, none of the strikers looked particularly good today.
• We're on the road, a place we don't play well. Can we shake off the jet lag and put a complete game together?Nope, another failure on the road.

Critical Matchup: Casey & McManus vs. San Jose defense - As expected, the Rapids offense was weak, but didn't manage to squeak through with one goal.

Fact of the Match: This is the first time this season that the Rapids have come from behind to get points.

Random Observations:

Erpen had a horrible game. Besides the stupid foul that led to the goal almost every pass was a long one over the top of the midfield that connected with a Rapids player maybe 10% of the time.

Colin Clark and Terry Cooke were playing more like wingbacks than outside midfielders. Even when Clavijo starts 6 offensive players he handcuffs them by forcing them to play as defenders.

Gomez who? He was completely invisible. I'd love to know what those people who say he makes the team better even when he doesn't show up on the scoresheet are seeing.

Week goalkeeping by Bouna on the goal, he has to do better.

The Rapids dropped 5 points to the expansion team this season. Had we gotten the job done and won both games as we should have, we'd be on top of the West with a 2 point lead and a game in hand.

McManus seemed frustrated out there, mainly at his teammates. Unfortunately he didn't play any better than them, so he has to look in the mirror before he can complain about the rest of the team.

At this pint I expect the Rapids to continue the up and down nature of the season and either just make or just miss the playoffs. The only way this changes is with a coaching change, but I don't see that coming.

Standings: Colorado moves up to 4th in the West with the draw, tied with Houston, and tied with KC and NY for 9th overall. They are only 3 points behind FSL on top of the West with a game in hand. They are tied with New England for the 3rd best offense and tied with Chivas for the 7th best defense.

Man of the Match: Terry Cooke - When he was able to get the ball in the offensive half, he managed to get some good crosses in.

Rock the Casbah

The Rapids head West to face the Clash/Earthquakes/Earthquakes 3.0. Early start on Saturday, a 2pm MDT kickoff on Altitude. As always the fans will be gathering at the British Bulldog downtown.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: GK Justin Hughes (L groin); DOUBTFUL: DF Mike Petke (R foot); PROBABLE: MF Christian Gomez (R leg)

My lineup prediction:

Bouna Time!
Ihemelu - Pablo - Erpen
LaBrocca
C.Gomez - Ballouchy
Cooke ------------- Clark
McManus - Casey

Barring injury or National Team callup Clavijo has not made any lineup changes after a win this season, and I expect that to continue. A nice change for the Rapids with a very short injury list this week. There should be plenty of options on the bench should we need them.

Critical Matchup: Casey & McManus vs. San Jose defense

Yeah, this is a repeat from last week, but once again we're facing a really bad offense and a middle of the road defense. I think that our back line and Bouna have figured things out so pitching a shutout is a distinct possibility. The key will be getting on the board, something we have problems doing on the road.

Keys To Look For:

• We have a chance for our first back to back wins this season, will the team out determined to grasp that opportunity, or will we sit back like we have after previous wins this season?


• Hey, I don't have to complain about the first half performance this week. Can we keep up playing from the opening whistle?


• What kind of shape is Christian Gomez in?


• Will Cummings or Casey, or maybe even Herculez, make a statement that they should be starting along side McManus?


• We're on the road, a place we don't play well. Can we shake off the jet lag and put a complete game together?

Prediction: 1-0 win. San Jose is still looking for a striker and Bouna leads the league in shutouts. We'll be looking for revenge for the loss at home and I think we'll be able to squeak by with a win.

MLS Cup, U.S. Open Cup, Supporters Shield - Where do we stand? Part 2

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I'm still trying to figure out the daily routine now that I'm working down in LoDo. Since we're at the halfway point I thought I'd reexamine where we are in the race for the big 3 MLS trophies. My first analysis is here.

USOC: Out after loss to KC
MLS Cup: To be decided at the end of the season, currently we are out of a playoff spot by total points, but ranked by points per game we are in the final playoff spot.
Supporters Shield: Goes to the best regular season record

Right now that's New England, with 33 points from 17 games. We're at 19 points from 15 games. Lets do some figuring to see some best case/worst case scenarios.

Best case:

• Nobody played better than .500 ball the rest of the way, or 1.5 pts/game. That would put New England on top.
• That gives them 18-19 points the rest of the way.
• Added to their current 33, that's 51-52 points.
  

• Lets say the Rapids play really well and only get 1 draw the rest of the season.
• That means they would have to go 11-3-1 to top 52 points.
  

Middle case:

• New England settles in around 1.7 points/game for the rest of the season and sets the bar.
• New England would end up with 22 more points.
• Added to their current 33 they would end with 55 points.

• The Rapids do draw a couple of games, say 2 games.
• That means they would have to go 12-1-2 to top 55 points.
  

Worst case:

• Everyone but the Rapids keeps their current pts/game average.
• New England would be the winners with 30 x 1.9 = 58 points
  

• The Rapids do eventually draw some games, say 4 games.
• That means they would be unable to top 58 points. In fact they would have to go 13-1-1 to beat 58 points.
  

What's all this mean? Barring a complete collapse by the rest of the league the Rapids are essentially out of the running for the Supporters Shield. Our only chance this year to finally win one of the big 3 trophies is MLS Cup.

August 30th, 1776 - The Battle of New York ends

It took the British 59 days to defeat the defensive forces of New York City. It took the Rapids British contingent 24 minutes to defeat the defensive forces of the New York Red Bulls. Along with the game winning goal the British Rapids tallied two assists in recreating the British dominance over New York in 1776.

The Rapids finally decided to show up in a first half and it paid off with two goals. First Clark found McManus unmarked in the box, then Casey and Cooke combined to find Ballouchy crashing the near post. In between Bouna was called on to make his only significant save of the night on a van den Bergh shot from the top of the box that Coundoul easily corralled.

The team made one change at half, bringing in Cummings for the ineffective (secondary assist aside) Casey. They kept up the attacking pressure and it paid off as Clark created his own chance and put away a Goal of the Week contender and McManus set up Cummings for the final score. In the end the Rapids walked away with only their third 4-goal win in team history, and second one this season.

Keys to the Game review:

• We have a strong back line, but they haven't play4ed together much. How is their organization and communication?
  Somewhat surprisingly we went to a 3-man back line, but it worked well. The Red Bulls got one shot of any significance all game, and Bouna was up to the challenge. I'd say the communication between Erpen and Pablo improved significantly.
• First half performance yadda yadda yadda
  Finally! The Rapids decided that the first half was worth playing last night, and they were rewarded for their efforts. Our first multi-goal first half of the season, in fact we scored as many goals in the first half of this game as we have in every other game combined this season.
• No Gomez means that Clark and Cooke will be responsible for getting the ball into the box, can they improve their service from last week?Well Gomez did play, but Clark and Cooke did step it up as well. Cooke looked much more like the old-Cooke, it must have been rust last week that made him look so bad. Clark really took a step forward this week, making better decisions as to when to cross vs. when to take on players.
• Will some striker please step up and do something?
  McManus got his 4th goal of the season, as did Cummings, tying them for the team lead. However Tam put his first chance away while Cummings needed 3 good looks at goal to get on the score sheet. I think McManus has claimed one starting position, but the second is still up in the air.
• Rapids crowd advantage. Let's be honest, usually we don't have a great home field advantage due to the crowd, we get it from the altitude. 4th of July is the one game each year where we can expect a packed house though, and in the past its helped us. Will that continue?
  Well once again the Rapids gave the crowd a good show on the 4th of July. Any coincidence that our best two games this season have been in front of the two sellouts?

Critical Matchup: Casey & McManus vs. RBNY defense - What defense? That was a pretty pitiful performance by the RBNY back line, which allowed every attacking player except Christian Gomez to record a goal or an assist, and McManus, Ballouchy, and Clark got one of each.

Fact of the Match: The Rapids are 11-1-1 on Independence Day, with their only dropped points being to Columbus in 2003 and 2007.

Random Observations:

I was stunned when the opening lineup showed 6 attacking players (McManus, Casey, Clark, Cooke, Ballouchy, C.Gomez). I'm not sure when, if ever, the last time a Claijo lineup had that many attacking players in it.

Casey got another assist this week, but for the second straight week that was the only bright spot in a run of mediocre play.

Cummings had loads of chances, and couldn't finish them. He could have easily had a hat trick but he only netted one. Between the issues of Cummings and Casey, it might be time to give Herculez another chance.

Cooke is back!

Not sure what inspired Tam McManus' tightrope walking goal celebration, but I'll given him points for uniqueness.

While everyone is looking at the attack, understandably so with a 4-0 scoreline, credit should be given to the defense as well. They completely shut down RBNY last night.

Standings: Colorado moves up to 5th in the West with the win, and 11th overall. They are only 2 points behind the LA teams on top of the West. They are tied with Chicago for the 5th best offense and tied with Chivas for the 6th best defense.

Man of the Match: Colin Clark - Close call between him and McManus, but Clark really stood out on a couple of plays, and his goal was pretty good looking.

July 3rd, 1776 - The Battle of New York begins

On this date 232 years ago British troops landed on Staten Island in what would be the first step towards New York being lost by the Americans. Tomorrow Colorado will try to repeat the British victory over New York when they take on the Red Bulls at The Dick at 7:30pm.

Here's the injury report:

OUT: Justin Hughes (L groin); DOUBTFUL: MF Christian Gomez (R leg), PROBABLE: MF Jacob Peterson (L knee); DF Mike Petke (R foot), MF Nico Colaluca (L groin), DF Jose Burciaga Jr. (L groin), MF Pablo Mastroeni (back)

My lineup prediction:

Bouna Time!
Ihemelu - Pablo - Erpen - Harvey
Cooke - DiRaimondo - LaBrocca - Clark
McManus - Casey

Gomez appears to be downgraded this week, so I assume we'll see the same 11 that faced Columbus last week. Its probably our best 11 without Gomez, and while I'm not thrilled with Pablo on the back line, LaBrocca and DiRaimondo seem to be working well together (about the only part of the team that is) so I don't think breaking that duo up is a good move.

Critical Matchup: Casey & McManus vs. RBNY defense

New York has the second best defense in the league, but one of the worst offenses. Colorado is middle of the road in both categories. This game could turn into a defensive battle so our strikers are going to have to find an opening if we're going to win. With no Gomez available they'll probably have to do it on their own.

Keys To Look For:

• We have a strong back line, but they haven't played together much. How is their organization and communication?


• First half performance yadda yadda yadda


• No Gomez means that Clark and Cooke will be responsible for getting the ball into the box, can they improve their service from last week?


• Will some striker please step up and do something?


• Rapids crowd advantage. Let's be honest, usually we don't have a great home field advantage due to the crowd, we get it from the altitude. 4th of July is the one game each year where we can expect a packed house though, and in the past its helped us. Will that continue?

Prediction: 1-0 win. They have no offense, we have our ability to pull something out of nothing on the 4th of July. We win, barely.

(BTW, on July 4th 10 years ago I lost my "independence" and married the woman I love. Its been the best 10 years of my life. Thanks for everything Hope!)