Colorado Comes Up Short On Short Week

Short recap with the quick turnaround to Dallas on Sunday.  The Rapids played better than New England but made a couple of mental lapses on defense and that was enough to give the Revs a win.  Both Marshall and Freeman got the start (Marshall in place of the injured Wynne) while the rest of the starting XI was the standard we've seen the last couple of games.  20 minutes in after some good attacks Colorado got a corner kick.  Rivero whipped the ball in and Castrillon got free to head it home and give the Rapids an early lead.  Unfortunately it wouldn't stand up.

6 minutes later after initially clearing a corner kick the Revs crossed a ball into the far post.  It was headed high up across goal and Sene, left all alone a the top of the 6, volleyed it past Pickens to level the score.  In the 39th minute Cardenas did some good work to get some free space in front of Zapata and chipped the ball over him.  Pickens read the ball very badly and was caught flat-footed as the ball was going over his head.  He managed to get a hand on it but couldn't keep it out.  Honestly I'm not 100% sure this shouldn't be an own goal as the ball might have just gone over or hit the crossbar if Pickens didn't palm it down into the net.  It was close enough to give Cardenas the benefit of the doubt but a poor play from Matt.

The Rapids pushed for the tying goal the whole second half.  They had more than twice as many looks at goal than the Revs and 3-4 good shots on target but Matt Reis was up to the challenge.  Despite the better possession Colorado lost 2-1.

My key to look for was coherence in the team.  The one area that didn't have it, the defense, is where we got burned.  We were forced to make a change with Wynne's injury but the added change of Freeman for Kimura left a defense that was still trying to figure out how to work together and New England found the gaps.

Other Observations:

• Another good game from the rookie.  Cascio missed on great chance to put Castrillion in on goal but otherwise was one of the most dangerous players in the game.
• Leaving the best Revs attacker unmarked at the 6 was sloppy defense.  It looks like Rivero or Larentowicz lost track of him.
• Omar played well for the first 15 minutes then it was like he wasn't even on the field the rest of the game.
• I didn't see anything out of Freeman that makes him an automatic start over Kimura on Sunday.
• Marshall is no more than a late-game defensive sub at this point in his career.  We need somebody else to start in Wynne's place when he's unavailable.
• Mullan continued his hard play though it wasn't quite as noticeable this game as the last two.

Player Of The Game: Jaime Castrillion.  It was a toss up between him as Cascio, but Cascio's missing of the golden opportunity to set up Castrillon was the difference.  Castrillion looked a bit like El Pibe in his lack of running and defense but his attacking play was strong.