Rapids Get Trounced Out Of Open Cup

A fairly good second squad for the Rapids got beat 3-1 by a really good Orlando City team last night to end the 2013 U.S. Open Cup campaign as soon as it got started.  By fairly good I meant everybody but backup keeper Steward Ceus, who had another howler of a game that ended up with a 2nd half red card while the team was down 2-1.

The first OCSC goal in the 4th minute came off a bad deflection that left Ceus diving the wrong way, but Hill tied it back up after a nice defensive play in the attacking third left him 1 on 1 with the keeper.  At halftime the game was still tied, but that changed right after half.  Ceus badly misread a cross and watched it sail by while he flapped at it.  An Orlando attacker had some space and headed it home past the out of position Ceus.  Shortly after that Ceus charged out for an on-coming ball but misread it and collided with the onrushing Orlando striker outside the box.  Just before the collision the Orlando striker managed to touch it past Ceus towards the open net but O'Neill came flying back to clear it off the line, picking up a bit of a knock in the process.  After about 30 seconds of play the center referee noticed the flag of the assistant and after consultation issued Ceus a red card for the collision.  Clint Irwin subbed in to replace him (Harbottle coming off) but the goal and man deficit was too much to overcome.  Finally Orlando scored a 3rd through a nice set of passing that beat our defense.

A disappointing loss but we probably weren't going far in the competition this year anyway.  It did give us some insight on our roster however.  Ceus is clearly not a MLS goalkeeper anymore.  Along with the mistakes noted above he allowed a couple of bad rebounds and was nearly beaten by being out of position at the top of the box again.  Combined with the mistakes earlier in the year he shouldn't be playing at this level.  Also looking at who made the 18, when you take out the unavailable, injured, or older resting players the only player who wasn't in the 18 was Davy Armstrong.  That doesn't bode well for his long term future.

On to 2014 where maybe, just maybe, Colorado might host a game.