Rapids Reserves Hold Up Against Shield Winners

Fraser decided to go with a heavy rotation in last night's game, with arguably only 5 of our best XI starting (Yarbrough, Abubakar, Trusty, Rubio, and maybe Esteves).  The bad news was that Acosta, Namli, and Rosenberry all didn't make the trip due to injury (reports today are that the first two should be available in Houston while Rosenberry will be ready at least by the playoffs if not the LAFC game).  Despite that it took until the second half for the Shield winners, starting their first XI, to breakthrough and it took a quality goal to do it.  While the loss isn't great, and boy did we have a couple of chances to get a point, its good to see that our depth held up on a cold night in Massachusetts.

Random Musings:

• Lets discuss the standings first.  KC won last night, beating the Galaxy, which clinched a home playoff match for the Rapids.  Portland won, so we didn't clinch a top 3.  KC won and is now 3 points ahead of us and tied with Seattle, and KC has a game in hand.
• So what that means is that regardless of what we do on Sunday against Houston, a KC win this weekend and a Seattle win on Monday puts them out of reach (since we lose the tiebreakers against them).  If we get a draw or Portland doesn't win we'll clinch 3rd.  There's a very good chance that by Monday we'll be locked into 3rd and the LAFC game will be meaningless for us.
• Back to the game, the team held up well against "superior" opposition.  While the Revs won the stat battle they didn't get a good look at goal until the 70th minute, and the looks they did get we covered.
• Their goal came on a low-percentage shot (less than 10%) that Buchanan took from a tight angle and just beat Trusty and Yarbrough.  Neither of them did anything wrong, it was one of those cases where you have to tip your hat and say "well done, you beat us).
• Meanwhile the Rapids had a couple of great looks and couldn't convert.  Sadly the best was probably Cole Bassett ho had it center of the box with space to shoot and managed a slow roller to Taylor.  Not what we needed there.
• Drew Moor's perfect record was broken in the 32nd game of the season.  Until last night, his first start of the season, we had won every game he appeared in and not given up a goal when he was on the field.  It was his 200th appearance as a Rapid though.
• Beitashour was solid on the right, for not having a lot of playing time.  I'm not suggesting he should be getting more, but its nice to know he's ready to step in if necessary, given that Fraser did not think he was ready at this time last year.
• There was another chance at the death that just didn't roll our way.  A cross in front of the goal managed to be a few inches in front of Badji and a few inches behind Lewis, either one of which would have had a tap-in.
• Now the schedule gets easier, with a long-eliminated Houston on Sunday and then a week until we get LAFC at home.  Its unlikely LAFC will be eliminated by them but they may be on life support.
• I've got tickets to Fan EXPO Denver all weekend, so I may or may not get a game preview up before Sunday.  Depends on how tired I am after the con tomorrow and Saturday night.  I won't get to see much, if any, of the game on Sunday as it kicks off at the same time as the keynote guest, William Shatner, goes on stage.

Man of the Match: Auston Trusty.  He was a rock in defense, breaking up a number of NE attacks and being a sweeper in front of Yarbrough.  As clearly the most improved player of the season he has a real shot at defensive player of the year.