The Rapids held their annual Burgundy and Blue game last night. In a change from the prior years the Rapids brought in another team, Metro State, instead of having an intra-squad scrimmage. They also opened the game to anyone who wanted to view it, instead of just season ticket holders and Commerce City residents.The only starter from the Chivas game to play was Kimura, who got 30 minutes in on his tender ankle. I'm guessing the trainers thought it would be better for Kimura to exercise it through playing instead of resting it until Saturday. The other interesting thing in the formation was Terry Cooke playing attacking mid instead of on the right side. Cooke controlled the game well, distributing passes and taking long shots. One of his attempts panned out to give the Rapids a 1-0 lead at halftime. The team would go on to win 6-0 with goals from Cooke, Schunk (2), Richardson (2), and Peterson. I thought Richardson showed well, but had a tendency to play with the ball a bit too much. Burpo had a poor game with some questionable ball control.
The best part of the night was that the Rapids opened some suites and the press lounge to season ticket holders. Having not been a season ticket holder or having been around during the construction this was my first time to see the upper levels of the West Side of the stadium. The team opened up the large party suite on the third floor and 5 of the smaller suites on the second floor. The Rapids also catered the event, though they saved the good food for some of the corporate clients they had on the 2nd floor before the game, giving the supporters chips, popcorn, pretzels, and soda. A number of players made an appearance in the suites, I saw Conor Casey, Cory Gibbs, Nick LaBrocca, and I literally bumped into Omar Cummings in the hallway. I also saw Technical Director Paul Bravo in the GM box.
This was my first chance at seeing suites at a professional sports complex so I don't have a basis for comparison. The suites all have exterior seating that have great views of the field. I thought the suites themselves were fairly unimpressive, but I'm guessing that they aren't targeted at die-hard fans. I thought the press area was nice and had the best view in the stadium. I'd love a chance to live blog a game from there sometime, just to get a new perspective on the game.
I noticed a couple of new things at the stadium as well. Aliki Pizza (Who is sponsoring the family night packages this year) has a noticeable presence and it appears the food window in the NE corner has been turned into a pizza window. Also Smiling Moose Deli has taken over the northern food conference on the East side. My favorite stop, the mini-doughnuts stand, was not there last night but I'm hoping that they just felt the Burgundy & Blue game wasn't worth the effort and they'll be back in place on Saturday night.
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1 comment:
I've been thinking, for a while now, that they should try Cooke in the middle. Smith keeps saying that Terry doesn't have the pace anymore to play the wing. He definitely has the quality & vision to play the center. Especially when compared to Ballouchy, who I didn't think brought much to last weeks game. He may develop into a good player, but looks to be a season or two away yet.
Unfortunately, I think we will see the same line up this weekend that we saw against chivas. Which, outside of Ballouchy, would be OK.
With the Rapids boasting improving relations between the club and the supporters groups, I would hope you could talk them into a press pass for at least one game.
I can't wait for Saturday! Even though it's going to be cold, if we play the way we did the first half last week, I doubt I'll notice the temp too much.
Come on you Rapids!!!!
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