First Of Three At Home

The Rapids finish with the next 3 games at homed followed by a final trip to Seattle.  Tonight we have Montreal in Commerce City.  With Wednesday's result we're officially eliminated from the playoffs and we're now two points behind LA (with a game in hand) in last place.  Two years ago when we were eliminated from playoff contention MacMath got the rest of the starts while Irwin backed him up, will we see the same thing tonight with MacMath and Howard?  Game time is 7pm with the game being on Altitude.

With Doyle's retirement on Thursday the only player not available for either team is Montreal's Oyongo which honestly is a bit surprising at this late state of the season.  Its unusual to have two healthy teams not deal with suspensions after 30 games.  Right now the Impact are 4 points behind NYRB for the last playoff spot in the East and NYRB have a game in hand.  They are going to be pretty desperate for a result.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Badji.  Montreal has a horrible defense and an above average offense.  Combined with the Rapids decent defense and horrible offense, plus the fact that I expect the Rapids to experiment even more with the lineup now that we're officially eliminated, makes a draw likely.  Both teams can score but neither team is really going to control the game.

Doyle Retires

To quickly dispense with the mess from last night Dallas beat us in the first 10 minutes and then just ran the remaining 80 minutes off the clock with no threat they would ever lose.  The Rapids are now officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Moving on to more important news, Kevin Doyle announced his retirement today, effective immediately.  Continuing issues from his second concussion of the year combined with what we now know about CTE and the effects of on-going concussions has made him realize its time to step away before permanent damage is done.

Doyle was possibly the most professional player the Rapids have had the last couple of years.  Regardless of what was asked of him or what he felt about it he showed up and put in 100% effort to do what was needed.  He was probably a better player than anyone gave him credit for, stuck in a system that revealed his weaknesses without ever playing to his strengths.

Doyle was also a member of the Irish National Team up until the moment he retired as he was called in for Ireland's qualifiers next week.  National team manager Martin O'Neill has already said he wants to honor Doyle at a match in Ireland when the time is right, if that's not in next week's games I'm sure it will be in the near future.  Hopefully Doyle feels up to coming out to the Dick on Saturday so us fans can give him the send-off he deserves.

As far as what this does for the Rapids its not that much different than what was expected.  Most people (me included) felt that Doyle wouldn't be back next season or if he was it would be at a significantly reduced number.  Obviously now we know he won't be back so that frees up abput $450k in cap room for next season.

Rapids Start Final Run In Dallas

5 games in the next 25 days to finish the season.  Officially the Rapids haven't been eliminated from playoff contention yet but a loss tomorrow night would do it.  Even a draw would do it if San Jose wins tomorrow.  San Jose winning either game this week and FSL not losing on Saturday will eliminate us regardless of our result.  No surprise, its been over for a while, but it will actually be nice to make it official.  Game time tomorrow in Dallas is 6pm with the game on Altitude.

The Rapids will be missing Doyle, due to his ongoing concussion symptoms, while School of Mines grad Tesho Akendele is suspended for Dallas.  Otherwise both teams are at full strength.  While the Rapids have nothing to play for Dallas is trying to stop a 10 game skid and save their playoff chances.  Right now they're barely on the outside looking in at FSL by .01 pts/game.

Most likely we'll see some changes tomorrow due to the 3 games in a week schedule we have.  I doubt Aigner will start but we might see Gashi and/or Boateng.  Really the only question left though is if Badji will get to 10 goals or not.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Badji.  Dallas is a mess right now but we're still not good.  Ttheir slide continues and they'll be ripe for an upset in a week and a half here in Colorado but for now we get a point and keep our hopes of beating our worst ever season going.  Badji gets his surprising 10th goal.

Rapids Lose North Of The Border

My Friday prediction:

2-1 loss, goal by Aigner.  Vancouver has a much better offense but a pretty similar defense to us.  I think both team can score but Vancouver will control the game and with the home field advantage, get the win.

Ok, Badji had the goal and not Aigner but otherwise this was fairly accurate, for the  second straight week.  I'll be honest.  With the UW win over CU on Saturday night and the NFL yesterday I've only seen the first 50 minutes or so (up to Vancouver's second goal) but by all reports there wasn't much different in the second half.  This team just isn't good enough and that's not going to change this season.

Nice job by Badji poaching the goal on a bad defensive effort.  For as bad as the team has been this year you can see real growth in his game and he's rightfully going to be the Golden Boot winner with probably double-digit goals, not something I would have expected at the start of the year.

On the other side, what does it take to get Aigner a start.  Planning for next year or not this is ridiculous.  A mid-season signing should not be waiting until the final month of the season to get his first start.  He might be great in 2018 but he (along with Boateng) is a bust for 2017.

The Rapids still need 6 points in the final 5 games to avoid their worst season ever.  Next up, a trip to Dallas on Wednesday.

Wet Night Tomorrow

Colorado is in Vancouver tomorrow night.  Not only is this the wettest fixture in MLS (Rapids and Whitecaps both being water features) but I'll be missing it as I sit int he forecast rain at Folsom Field as I watch my Washington Huskies hopefully repeat their performance against CU in the Pac-12 Championship Game last season.  Either way, its going to be wet.  Kickoff tomorrow (for both games) is at 8pm and the Rapids game is on Altitude (UW-CU is on FS1).

Kevin Doyle is out for this one due to his ongoing concussion symptoms.  Otherwise the Rapids are at full strength.  Of course that doesn't mean our best XI will start as Smith and Cooke try to figure out who's going to be around next season.  The turf at BC Place may also throw a wrench into who starts.  Vancouver has two players out injured, one questionable, and one player suspended.

If you remember, Vancouver was the site of Gashi's Goal of the Year last season.  Axel Sjoberg has also scored twice against Vancouver (once with a broken wrist), so we tend to have some luck against them.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Aigner.  Vancouver has a much better offense but a pretty similar defense to us.  I think both team can score but Vancouver will control the game and with the home field advantage, get the win.

Coaching Update

We got our first coaching news today from a variety of sources.  I think this MLSSoccer.com article covers it all.  4 people have been talked to about the job but likely they aren't the short list of candidates.  This is a good thing because 3 of the 4 names make me sign and think "same old Rapids" and the fourth, while interesting, doesn't seem like a home run hire.  Lets go through these names:

Cesar Farias - The most interesting name of the bunch.  He was the Venezuela National Team coach for 6 years and got them to the Copa America semifinals for the first and only time.  He also coached in Mexico and most recently in Bolivia.  He's certainly got a wide range of experience and is used to "punching above his weight" like he would need to do here.

Henning Berg - No.  Just no.  As a Blackburn fan I watched him come in and take the team from a playoff position to 17th place in the Championship in 10 games, winning once and losing six.  He hasn't made it through 2 full seasons at any of his last 3 jobs (including Rovers where he lasted a team-record low 57 days) before being sacked.

Josh Wolff and Jeremy Gunn - I grouped these two together because they have the same issue.  They would be getting their first professional managerial experience if the team hired them.  After three straight coaches getting their first pro experience (Pablo, Pareja, Smith) the last thing we need is another "learning on the job" manager.

The good news from the article is that the team has a goal of hiring a manager by November 1st.  That's a big change from last time where Pablo was signed on the opening day of the season.

Rapids Continue Non-Losing Ways

My Friday prediction:

1-1 draw, goal by Badji.  The altitude and missing players will weaken NYCFC just enough for us to snag a point but it won't be pretty.

And that's exactly what happened.  NYCFC went up early after Watts fell and Ford and Azira didn't close in on McNamara which let him get a long-distance strike off.  Howard got a hand to it but could only push it into the bottom of the crossbar where it bounced in.  After that it was pretty bleh soccer, though surprisingly at half the Rapids had to shots on target to NYCFC's 1 (I'm not sure when the last time the Rapids had more shots on goal at half than the opponent).  The second half was more of the same until very late when Badji got behind the defense on a long run and slotted it him home for his team-leading 8th goal of the season.  Credit to Dom, in past years he would have screwed the chance up and its another example of his improvement this season.

The game really changed for the Rapids around the 65th minute when Gashi and Aigner were both subbed in.  Aigner has yet to start and Gashi has not been starting much lately.  I realize that the focus in these last 6 games will be on evaluating players for next season but we shouldn't completely throw away results (especially since the fans are still paying for the tickets) so seeing our best players start more often than not should be the expectation.

The rapids now need 6 points in the last 6 games to avoid their worst ever pts/game total.

Tonight's Rapids Game A New First For Me

Tonight the Rapids host the second best team in the league, NYCFC.  Last time we saw them was in Yankee stadium last year where they put a 5-1 beat down on us.  That was almost a sixth of all the goal we allowed last season and by far our worst performance.  NYCFC is right where they were last year, 2nd place in the East, while the Rapids are on the other end of the table.  Tonight's game is at 7pm with the call on Altitude.

I'll be watching on Altitude, not at the game.  For the first time since 2008 (before I first got season tickets) the Rapids are playing at home, I don't have plans, and I'm not going.  This season has beaten my interest out of me.  Some friends will also not be there tonight and I had a choice between staying home and listening to Bob Rondeau's final season calling the Washington Huskies as they host Fresno State or watching the Rapids play ineffective soccer against a good team and hoping to eek out a draw.  I'm going with the former and I'll multi-task to watch both the Huskies and Rapids at the same time.

Bobby Burling is questionable for the Rapids but everyone else is available.  The big question is will Aigner finally start a game?  NYCFC is down 7 players, including David Villa, with an 8th questionable.  If we're going to take on a good team, now's the time to take them on.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Badji.  The altitude and missing players will weaken NYCFCc just enough for us to snag a point but it won't be pretty.

Rapids Snap Winless Streak With Surprise Win

The Rapids last road win?  Houston (last year).  The Rapids last home win? Houston (in July).  So of course we should have seen this surprise win coming.  Colorado seems to have Houston's number but it wasn't exactly exciting soccer.  We saw our first real glimpse of what Aigner can bring to this team, his perfect cross to Badji to set up the winning (and only) goal is a pass we haven't seen often as Rapids fans.  That was only the 3rd shot on goal of the night though and Houston also only had 3.  Kortne Ford had a good game on defense.

While the win is always welcome and needed, the main difference between this game and the last couple is that Houston played no better than us, which at least kept it competitive.  Offensively there was no difference this week, other than Aignr's pass, to what we've been seeing.

The Rapids now need 7 points in the last 7 games to avoid their worst pts/game ever.

Colorado @ Houston Tomorrow Night

The Rapids finish their road trip in Houston tomorrow night.  A tough matchup against an team undefeated at home while the Rapids are still winless on the road.  Game time tomorrow is 6:30pm on Altitude.  Since the Huskies take on Montana at 6 I'll watch that live and catch up with the Rapids, if its worth it, afterwards.

Burling and Doyle are both questionable for this one.  Burling from his continuing foot injury and Doyle from the head knock he took last week.  I assume neither will suit up tomorrow.  Maybe Aigner will start for this one?  Houston has two players out injured.

Prediction: 2-0 loss.  Houston has a top 5 offense and a average defense, both of which are better than the Rapids.  With how the team has apparently given upon the season this won't take long for Houston to run us over.

Rapids Lost Again

Another game, another loss.  Another time when the players didn't even try.  The Rapids were down 2 in under 30 minutes and never looked like they belonged on the field with what was (at the time) the second worst team in the league.  Their first shot wasn't until just before halftime, their first shot on target wasn't until the last 5 minutes of the game.

Honestly, I don't think we win another game this season.  Our best chance might be this weekend in Houston only because the Dynamo are a mid-tier team and who knows where their heads are with the hurricane (not to make light of the tragedy).  After that there's 3 road games, none of which I see us winning, and home games against NYCFC (loss), Montreal (a chance), Dallas (loss), and FSL.  That home finale could be a good chance since both teams will be eliminated by then, but if we're on a 15 game winless streak at that point I see no reason to expect it would change.

Next up, @Houston at 6:30pm on Saturday.  I'll watch that game on delay after watching Washington-Montana live.

Colorado @ LA Tomorrow Night

Even though its a World Cup break the Rapids have a game tomorrow night.  This was rescheduled from May when both teams decided playing without a couple of called-up players was better than playing a midweek game between two weekend games.  Kickoff is 9pm and the game  is on Altitude.

MacMath is expected back for this one to start.  Everyone should be available except for Howard and Williams, who are on international duty, and Gordon, who's suspended.  Aigner is expected to be in uniform.  Still with the players on loan that only leaves 19 players to choose from for the 18 man gameday roster.  I'm going to guess Burling or Da Fonte will be the odd man out.  LA will be missing 8 players between callups, injuries, and suspensions, including the Dos Santos brothers.

Interesting note, LA has won one home game this year, Colorado hasn't won a road game yet.

Prediction: 0-0 draw.  Bad teams missing players means bad soccer.