Rapids Fail To Show In Utah...Again

Stop me if you've heard this before.  The Rapids go to Utah, come out flat, go down by at least a goal, stage a furious attempt at a comeback in the second half, it turns into an end-to-end game, and Colorado loses, probably by multiple goals.  Yep, almost every damn time we go to Sandy we choke and the did it again Saturday night.  A 3-1 loss meant the team left the Rocky Mountain Cup in Utah and also failed to clinch a playoff spot.  They'll need to bounce back quickly with the upcoming schedule.

Random Thoughts:

• I think Fraser is overthinking things at this point.  Leaving Acosta and Kaye out of the 18 and starting Barrios on the bench is a poor setup for a winnable game.  I recognize we have 5 games in 13 days and the Seattle game midweek could be huge, but its a lot less huge now that we lost in Sandy.  Sometimes you need to focus on winning the points in front of you and then worry about what's next, and that's before we get into the rivalry aspects of this match.
• Likewise his continued insistence on this 4-5-1 seems odd, considering we always play better once we switch back to a flat back 4.
• But that could be due to our slow starts.  Maybe its not the formation but just an inability to really show urgency until the second half.
• Regardless, this loss wasn't all on Fraser.  Abubakar and Trusty had horrendous nights in center defense.  On the first FSL goal Trusty badly whiffs on the ball letting it go through his legs and Abubakar had lost his man leading to the goal.  On the second Trusty has plenty of time to play a ball upfield but hits a lazy pass that's easily intercepted and it comes right back past him while Lalas loses his man again.  On the last, and t be fair the team was pushed up to try to get a tying goal, Lalas misjudges a ball and his man is off to the races.  Just horrible matches from both of them.
• Colorado essentially had no offense in the first half.  They were more dangerous in the second, getting one back and it felt like for a bit a second might come, but then FSL got its legs under them again and shut things down.
• Along those lines, Cole Bassett since mid-July, has had 2 assists, 1 PK goal, and one game with more than one shot on target in 11 starts and 4 sub appearances.  I know he's got a ton of skill, but he's just not starting material right now.
• Had Rubio scored he would have broken a 3-way tie with Casey and Cummings for the Rapids leading scorer in the Rocky Mountain Cup.  They all have 3 RMC goals.
• Meanwhile, sadly, Drew Moor has joined those two and Pablo on the list with 6 RMC losses in their career (Pablo also lost twice as Rapids coach).
• Colorado really dropped a chance to make up ground on the rest of the West this weekend.  Seattle, SKC, and Portland all lost as well so a win would have put Colorado 12 points ahead of 5th, 8 ahead of 4th, and 2 ahead of SKC in 3rd with a chance to tie Seattle with a win on Wednesday.
• The Rapids now go into a 3 game stretch where they play 3 of the top 5 teams (not counting themselves) in the league in a week.  Wednesday against Seattle, where anything but a win all but eliminates them from winning the West (with a loss/draw they would be 9/6 points back with 4 to play).  Then a huge 6 pointer against Portland on Saturday where a win could put them up more than the Timbers could make up in the last 3 game but a loss could have them slip to 4th,, depending on what happens Wednesday.  finally a trip across the country to New England who might be in position to win the Shield that night (if they haven't won it already by then).
• Even with the doom and gloom the Rapids will make the playoffs and almost certainly will host the first round game.  Right now they're still 2 points ahead of the pace FSL and the Galaxy are playing at in 5th place.

Man of the Match: Younes Namli.  Not much to choose from here so I went with the goal scorer.  With that goal the Rapids became the last team in MLS this season to get a goal or an assist from a DP.  Only took 29 games.