Rapids Saved By Other Team's Failures

The Rapids threw away a great chance to take a leading role in the end of the season by playing overly defensive and with a lack of talent on the field in a 0-0 draw with San Jose Saturday night.

Pablo's stubborn determination to stick with the 4-2-3-1 in every circumstance and his belief that effort in practice trumps talent is killing this team. Sometimes you just have to put the talent on the field if you're going to be better than the other team.  Calvert gets more time than Pappa, really?

In 2015 everyone in the FO agreed our issue was a lack of offense and they said they were going to go get offensive talent this offseason, and they actually did. So why are we starting all the same offensive players from 2015 save Le Toux? Gashi and Pappa need to be starting at this point because the 2015 crew isn't getting the job done.

All that said, the players that did start didn't seem to be putting out the practice effort that got them the start. Badji's woeful ball skills killed two one on ones a decent striker would have scored. On the first he decided to round the keeper and then touched the ball less than arm's length from the keeper making it easy for the keeper to redirect it and force him into a bad angle. The second he decided to beat the keeper on the shot and shot right at him. Powers just kills attacks. Hairston's touches were all over the place. Cronin keep shooting long and not getting it past the first guy. Gashi's two shots were very very bad. Poor coaching, poor effort, poor talent on the field.

We could have all but wrapped up a top 3 finish with a win tonight and put real pressure on LA, Dallas, and TFC to keep up with us. Instead we wasted another 2 home points. At least I shouldn't have to worry about the Shield race. Any team that can't beat the Quakes at home shouldn't be winning the Shield.  However Dallas, LA, and Toronto all drew as well so the Shield race is exactly where it was before this weekend started, so we still have a great opportunity.

With FSL losing and both NY teams getting draws our chances of claiming a CCL spot went up slightly this weekend.  Toronto is now a heavy favorite to win the East and send that CCL spot to the best American team who hasn't qualified yet and there's a better chance now the top 3 teams in the West will be the already qualified Dallas (through their USOC win), LA, and us.  So the two CCL spots for regular season finish are more likely to go to LA and us after this weekend's results.

For the first time since I've been tracking it the Bodmer Line has gone to 0.  47 points is the average point total for the 6th placed team in a 34 game season so we've done enough for a playoff spot.  In reality it looks like the 6th placed team will have less than 47 points this year so we're really looking at probably a top 3 finish, maybe 4th at the worst.

Man of the Match: Sam Cronin.  This is partially for a decent game on Saturday, at least he was trying to put shots on goal, and partially for a general recognition of his good play this season.