Texas, Again?!?!

This kind of looks like Colorado giving Texas an L

This is our 7th game this season and our 4th against a team from Texas.  I can't wait until 2022 and the league gets back to playing a more varied schedule.  I doubt the days of us seeing most Eastern Conference teams will ever return but at least we'll get a better mix of Western Conference teams.  Kickoff tomorrow for the last limited capacity game at the Dick is the traditional 7pm.  Yesterday the Rapids announced they'll go back to full capacity for our next home game, which isn't until the 4th of July!  They also said masks are now recommended (starting with tomorrow's game) not required.

Injury Report:

OUT: D Steven Beitashour

QUESTIONABLE: M Brian Galvan, M Jonathan Lewis, M Younes Namli

International Callups:

M Kellyn Acosta - U.S.

Alongside the semi-official injury report above, reports from training today were that there was no sign of Abubakar after leaving the game due to injury last week.  For a while now it seems that player's appearance on the injury report has been a week delayed.  Namli was also reportedly not present in training.  I think its safe to say the only one of the players named we might see is Lewis, and then only coming off the bench.

Yes, we're wearing blue tomorrow as part of MLS's environmental week with jerseys made from recycled plastic.  They just hope you ignore that they started promoting their own NFT's this week, which are horrible for the environment.  I wouldn't be shocked to see Bassett pushed back to Warner's position and Mezquida at the #10 but I'm guessing Fraser will want to keep Bassett up front more.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Rubio and Bassett.  This game will be tougher than it should be with Acosta's and Namli's absence but we're a better team than Dallas and we're at home.  We'll get the 3 points but we won't feel comfortable about it until the final whistle.

Fraser Outsmarts Himself As Winning Streak Ends

I know Robin Fraser is known as a bit of a tactician, and he has certainly implemented a style of play for the Rapids that is largely working.  On Saturday night though he leaned on his tactical background too much and set the team up to fail.  Deciding to go to a little-used 5-3-2 formation by adding Abubakar back to the starting lineup in a back three with Trusty and Wilson, while pushing Rosenberry and Vines further up, the team wasn't prepared and LAFC made them pay.  It was clear from almost the opening whistle that the backline was unsure of their assignments and the Art Deco jerseys were finding space in the gaps being left.  LA scored twice in the first 33 minutes and while adjustments were made at half it wasn't enough as we only found 1 goal.

Random Thoughts:

• Inside the first minute LA could have been up 1-0 as Rossi was fairly unmarked on a cross he headed over the bar.  A preview of what was to come.
• Sure enough, in the 14th minute the Rapids have LAFC pretty contained, with LA attacking from midfield against a 5 man back line with 5 LA players ahead of the ball.  But then LA cuts into the middle, Wilson falls back covering the diagonal run, both Trusty and Abubakar step to the ball, and now there's a gap that Abubakar's man runs into.  Rosenberry slides to cover but its too late as Rossi is already goal side of him.  A bit of a lucky deflection under Lalas gets through to Rossi and its 1-0.
• Again in the 33rd minute LAFC is attacking and the Rapids actually have the advantage in numbers.  But Abubakar runs to empty space leaving Rossi to run into the gap between him and Rosenberry and he didn't need much of a window to make it 2-0.  
• On both goals it was obvious the backline didn't have a good understanding of where each other would move.  Abubakar and Rosenberry in particular were out of sync with each other, leaving gaps.  This is not a surprise when forcing a new formation on the team.
• In the end, Fraser made decisions like we were the lesser team, despite being on a 3 game win streak and significantly better than LAFC in the standings.  If we went in with our standard 4-5-1 (with or without Abubakar as a starter) and we were down 2-0 in the first half then you tip your hat to LAFC for beating us.  But putting out a defensive formation we're not familiar with is inviting them to attack us and gives them confidence.
• Credit to the coaches and players for making the adjustments necessary at halftime.  A goal right after half from Barrios with a nice assist from Rubio put LAFC on their heels defending the lead for most of the second half.
• In the end we only had 2 shots on target all night.  Hard to win a game when you give up 2 goals and only put 2 on target.  We came close to tying it up a couple of times but never got a great look outside of the goal.
• Outside of Rubio's assist there wasn't much offense from anyone not named Barrios.  Part of that was the defensive formation but we needed more from our midfield in this one.
• Really hated seeing Abubakar come off with an injury during his first action after his last one.  We may be relying on the Trusty-Wilson combo for longer than we thought.
• Even with the loss the Rapids are still 4th in the West and tied for 6th overall in the league on PPG.
• Next up is Dallas in our last home game until the 4th of July.  3 points there would out us in nice shape going into the extended international break.

Man of the Match: Michael Barrios.  Scored the goal and was by far our most dangerous player on the night.

Rapids Go For 4 In A Row In LA-LA Land

The Rapids last 4-game win streak is almost old enough to vote.  We beat the first San Jose Earthquakes, the LA Galaxy, the Metrostars, and the Kansas City Wizards in July 2003.  Tomorrow night they have a chance to do something that hasn't happened in Darren Yapi's lifetime.  All they have to do is go to LA and beat LAFC.  While that's a tall task, its not as impossible as it may have seemed the last couple of years.  LAFC is off to a rough start this year and Carlos Vela has been battling injury.  His availability for tomorrow is questionable.  Second, the Rapids have the best road record in the league since the start of last season.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 8:30pm, and you all know the TV situation.

Injury Report:

OUT: D Steven Beitashour

QUESTIONABLE: M Brian Galvan, M Jonathan Lewis, M Younes Namli

The talk is that Lewis will be available and Namli won't.  My guess is no Galvan either.  Not that I expect to see a change from the starting XI:

You know the saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  This lineup has outscored the opposition 5-1 over the last 1 2/3rds games, and the only change from the prior 1-0 win is Basset for Namli.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Acosta. I think this is going to be a tough test but one we're mostly up for. In past years LAFC would look at this game as a slump buster, but now they're taking this game as a significantly bigger challenge.  That said, LAFC is too good to stay down this long and the Rapids don't yet have enough of a history to put a ton of faith in to the idea that they can keep LAFC on the mat.  I think a well played draw is the most likely scenario, but any result wouldn't surprise me, even a blowout by either team.

International Window News

 Two bits of news around National Team play (kind of) came out today.

• Kellyn Acosta was called up for the US's friendly against Switzerland in St. Gallen on May 30th.  He'll miss the home game against Dallas the night before.  Technically this is outside the international window that starts the next day so the Rapids weren't not required to let anyone go.  We don't know if Vines, Lewis, or Bassett were requested.  If I had to guess the Nats enquired about Acosta and Vines and the Rapids said they could have one of them but not both (and may have said specifically Acosta, not Vines, given our LB depth issues).
• Not technically about international play but Minnesota United announced today that our game in Minnesota on Wednesday August 4th will now be played on Saturday October 9th.  The good news is that it eliminated a "3 games in one week" run for us at the beginning of August.  The bad news is that October 9th falls during an international window so we may be missing players for the game now.

We Messed With Texas

The Rapids played their most complete game of the season on Saturday night and put Houston to the sword.  The Dynamo were never really into the game, and the one glimmer of hope they got was quickly extinguished by a major mistake by their keeper.  With the 3-1 win the Rapids move to third in the West and third overall in the league by PPG.

Random Thoughts:

• Nice to see the Rapids start on the front foot for a change.  Colorado had more goals in the first half than Houston had shots on target for the game.  The expected goals were 2 to 0.3.
• Sam Vines goal was a great counter to open the scoring.  Yarbrough had the first touch and 3 touches later it was in the back of the net.  Barrios gets the majority of the credit with his two touches but Vines trailing out of his LB spot to clean up the goal is a nice piece of work.
• As I predicted Rubio got the game winning second goal.  I just missed that we would score a 3rd time.  Another great setup from Barrios and an lightly marked Rubio was not going to miss on his birthday.
• The Dynamo goal was a misplay by Trusty and a very well placed shot. The ball across the box should have been intercepted by Trusty and when it wasn't Vines didn't have enough time to step up.  Still the shot managed to nutmeg Vines and find the small hole between the diving Yarbrough and the post.  A couple of inches either way and either Vines blocks it, Yarbrough saves it, or it misses the net.
• Bassett's pressuring of keepers finally paid off.  Houston's keeper got the ball caught under his feet, tried to clear it past a charging Cole, and he deflected it into the net.  Simple.
• We're seeing over the last two game what the difference is in the midfield with Bassett (and Acosta), vs. Namli.  While our attack might not be quite as dynamic we are able to better pressure the defense with Bassett.
• Shinyashiki started the season hot but has faded over the last couple of games. I would really like to see what Namli does in his place out on the wing.
• I mean, what more can you say about Sam Vines this season?  He's not going to be here much longer if he keeps this up.
• Good to see Benezet get some time this week, and looked fairly good.  But we need more than 10-20 minutes every couple of games.
• I did enjoy that we brought on Benezet and Mezquida up 3-1 and didn't just rest on the lead.
• Kort Ford was in the 18 for the first time in 2.5 years.  Great to see!
• And Olli Larraz gets his first minutes, the 19 year old signed with the Rapids academy 10 years ago.  The Rapids media team had some great clips of him post game, with Price giving him plenty of support.
• Bassett, Vines, Larraz.  #PlayYourKids
• Next up is a real test out in LA against LAFC.  They're off to a rough start but they're too good to not bounce back.

Man of the Match: Michael Barrios.  Two assists, made life miserable for Houston's left side, and showed why we made him our 3rd highest player.  Easy choice.

Rapids Go For Hat-Trick Of Wins

Tomorrow night Colorado tries to go for a third win in a row, and balance out their scales against Texas teams so far this season, as Houston comes to town.  The Dynamo are off to a pretty good start this season with 8 points in 5 games and they're coming off a win over SKC on Wednesday night.  The flip side of that is that they're on their second game in 72 hours.  Advantage, Colorado.  Kickoff tomorrow is back to our normal 7pm and TV is still on our normal not available to most.

Injury Report:

OUT: D Steven Beitashour; M Braian Galvan

QUESTIONABLE: M Younes Namli

Looks like that hit Namli took last week might be a bit worse than first suggested.  It seems like everyone else expected to be available is though.

I think, given his knock and how well Bassett played last week, Fraser will give Namli the night off.  I can see Abubakar getting his first start but I don't think Fraser will make that change yet.  Otherwise we're not going to change what's working.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Rubio and Barrios.  Houston's had a slightly worse offense and a slightly better defense than we've had so far, but playing their second game this week and playing at altitude will give the Rapids the advantage.    Barrios is finally going to put one in the net and Rubio is going to get his second game-winner.

2021 Salaries!

Editors note, this is apparently the 2100th post on this blog in about 13 and a third years.  That's about 3 posts a week.  Hopefully there's some quality among the dreck.

Before we get into it, one quick roster note, Yaya Toure was loaned to the Springs for the season today.

For the first time since 2019 the MLs Players Union released salary info today.  This was as of the roster freeze date on April 15th so its already a little out of date for some teams, but the Rapids haven't made any changes since then.  Here's the full list for Colorado.  The first number is their base salary, the second is the guaranteed salary for 2021.  An important note, these don't map directly to salary cap hits due to things like transfer fees and GAM/TAM buy downs but at least for the Rapids I think the relative cap hits equal the relative difference in salaries largely.

So, some interesting numbers there.  Going in alphabetical order.

• Acosta is making a million dollars?  That I didn't expect.  Highest base salary on the team.  As long time BigSoccer poster Stan Collins pointed out, Acosta might be the first career American MLS player without a notable National Team career or a high-profile position (striker, attacking mid, keeper) to break the 7 figure mark.  Certainly there hasn't been more than one or two before him.
• Now we see why Dallas was willing to give Barrios away so cheaply.  $650K is a lot of salary to take on.  So far he seems to be earning it but he's got a high bar to meet.
• Cole Bassett is underpaid, significantly.  He makes less than Beitashour!
• Benezet might be the worst Rapids signing since Boli.  On top of his $650K salary (T3rd highest on the team) we paid a $500K transfer fee to get him and gave TFC $50K for his rights.  All for a guy who's gotten 27 minutes as a sub so far this season and managed all of 5 starts and 30% of possible minutes last season.  Unless he makes a major contribution the rest of the way he needs to go at the end of the season.
• Mezquida is probably a bit overpaid for this team, given the number of midfielders we have in rotation in front of him.  $350K is a lot for a guy who might get spot starts and probably isn't the first choice off the bench.
• Namli on $1.2M guaranteed is about what I expected.  Not sure he's earned that yet but given that he's technically on loan we do have an out.
• Sam Vines got a well deserved raise!
• Danny Wilson is now at a number that matches his contributions.  A lot of Rapids fans like to complain about him given his original salary, but $275K for a MLS-level backup/spot-starter CB is just about right.  He is who he is at this point and shouldn't be the focus of so many complaints.

Overall this is a really balanced list with only one sore thumb (Benezet), generally better than the Rapids have done.  Colorado has the 5th lowest salary total in the league at $10.1M, about $2.2M below the average.  They do have the second lowest amount of their salary (43%) tied up in their top 5 players, just ahead of RBNY.  Miami leads the league with 70% of their salary going to their 5 highest paid players.

Locker Room Needs New Paint After Halftime

A first half that was the type of hot garbage we saw against Austin for most of it made way for the best half of soccer the Rapids have played this season and an impressive comeback for a 3-2 win.  Obviously the highlight of the night, other than the 3 points, was actually being able to be in the stadium for the match and not even the rain could bother me.  Plus, proud Seattleite here, that barely qualified as annoying rain.

While the win is great we shouldn't let it completely overshadow the problems we saw in the first 30 minutes or so.  The team looked listless and uninterested and once again our midfield was non-existent.  The game changed after the second Minnesota goal when Namli came off with injury and was replaced by Bassett.  At the time I thought that was the last thing we needed but I was badly wrong.  That change flipped the game on its head and while we didn't see any results on the scoreboard by halftime it put Minnesota on their heels and they never got off them.

Random Thoughts:

• I joked about Fraser's halftime speech peeling the locker room paint in the title but a couple players have hinted that Robin did read them the riot act at the break.  Seems to have worked.
• I think I (and a few other fans( have to admit Fraser knew what he was doing playing Namli on the wing last year.  His lack of defense just kills our midfield if he's in the center. Its time for him to take Shinyashiki's spot on the win so Bassett can start in midfield. Hopefully the gaffer sees this.
• The first United goal was on a weak foul, but so was our goal last week. The real problem was how Yarbrough set up the defense. I don't know if he read the positioning wrong or if he saw something in game tape that had him worried, but he left himself no chance to get to a ball to that upper corner, that's where Minnesota put it.
• The second United goal was bad luck more than anything.  Namli picked up a knock and was trying to play through it but had the ball stolen (which would be his last touch of the game).  The team was transitioning forward and Minnesota hit us on a quick counter.  Wilson was too slow to keep up, Namli's man had a free run since Namli went down, and Trusty slid over to make up for Wilson's lack of speed leaving his man open.
• Now the good stuff.  The Rapids first and third goals were once again off of Jack Price set pieces.  The first was just a good team job of keeping the ball in the mixer off a corner kick until Acosta could volley it home.  The third was Danny Wilson being unmarked on a free kick which is just dumb defending by Minnesota.
• The second was our first goal from the run of play this season.  Sam Vines laid in a perfect cross.  Minnesota actually had it fairly well defended with two men bracketing Rubio.  The keeper spilled the ball in the rain and Bassett was waiting for the rebound.
• Sadly that was pretty much the highlight of Rubio's game. Too much whining, not enough playing.
• I'm perfectly happy with Drew Moor being our closer.  One goal lead in the 85th minute, bring in Moor to shut everything down for 5 minutes plus stoppage.
• Completely unrelated to the game, but the new Columbus SC rebranding is garbage.

Man of the Match: Cole Bassett.  His introduction change the game.  Our midfield started connecting passes and stopping theirs, which took the pressure off the back line.  All that and he scored.

1 year, 2 months, and 1 day

427 days.  That's how long it will have been between  going to the Dick for a game when I walk in tomorrow, but the streak will end tomorrow!  I am finally going to a match again now that I'm at full vaccine efficacy.  Tomorrow the Rapids host Minnesota, who's winless so far on the season.  Game time is an odd 8pm kickoff for a home game, and you all know the TV situation.

Injury Report:

OUT: D Steven Beitashour; M Braian Galvan

He hasn't been listed but it appears Kortne Ford started the season on the Injured List, which means he won't be eligible to play until after the first 6 games.  A much better injury report than we've seen so far.  Earlier this week Fraser commented that he had no concerns about Abubakar or Price (who left last week's game with a knock) so he should have almost a full roster to pick from.

I think despite Abubakar being healthy Fraser will give him one more game to get his fitness up to 90 minute shape.  Plus the current CB duo has gotten two shutouts in three games.  Otherwise I would expect no changes from the team that won last week, unless there's something in Minnesota's game film that Fraser wants to take advantage of.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Rubio and Namli.  Minnesota has looked bad so far and while that can't last I think we can take advantage while they're down.  They've only scored once this season but they have too much talent to not expect them to find a way to get a goal on the board.  We're going to need to step up for our first multi-goal game of the season.

Banger Gets Rapids 3 Points

Nice to get the first win of the season, and we've got a winning streak in Rio Tinto now! The game still showed room for improvement but a win is a win.  Both Rubio and Yarbrough made the bench for the MLS Team of the Week after their play this week (more on that later). The big news, beyond the 3 points, is the return of Sam Vines and his impact was clearly shown in this match.  Keeping him healthy is going to be a key to the season.

Random Thoughts:

• Just a banger of a free kick by Rubio.  That will be in contention for the league goal of the year and will likely be the team goal of the year.
• That said, we're still not getting enough out of him.  His combined expected goals (xG) and expected assists (xA) is barely over one for the season.  We need more than one created goal every 3 games from our false 9.
• In the first 20 minutes I thought Danny wilson was having a howler of a game.  Then something flipped and Wilson and Trusty looked like a lockdown pair of centerbacks.  I still think Wilson sits when Abubakar is ready to start (good to see him dressed on the bench) but he's making Trusty work to be the starter.
• I mentioned that Yarbrough was named to the bench for the league team of the week, behind Nashville's keeper.  I don't get that choice as Yarbrough wasn't even the best keeper in this game.  Vancouver's keeper was arguably their man of the match while Yarbrough looked sketchy at times.  He went walkabout and almost cost us a goal (Wilson saved him on that tone) and he made a big stop with his feet clearly behind the goal line which is a no-no for a keeper as it gives the ball enough room to cross the line if it gets to the keeper's body (it didn't in this case).  A really off game for him.
• Acosta back in midfield was a big plus for having control of the game.  Odd to see him more advanced than Namli though.
• Price's injury is concerning.  Not only is he our bite in midfield but missing his dead ball skills will be huge.  Hopefully its just a slight knock.
• Bassett is not as good as he was last season.  Last summer I was sure he was going to be the first of our young players sold, by this summer, but now I think that will be Vines.  He broke up a clear scoring chance by not seeing Lewis making the run to his right and generally struggled as a substitute.
• Drew Moor sighting!  His 391st MLS appearance.
• Shinyashiki had a hat trick in the first 20 minutes...of saved shots.  Luckily that didn't cost us, but he's got to do better with those chances.
• In general if we could shoot anywhere but at the Whitecaps we could have had another 5-0 scoreline at Rio Tinto.
• Next up, Minnesota at home on Saturday 9odd 8pm kickoff time though).  And for the first time in 14 months I'll be at the game!

Man of the Match: Sam Vines.  Not only for the better shape he brought to the team but also for his individual play.  He might have had the best game of any Rapid so far this season.