Neutral Site Home Game Against Liga MX

Leagues Cup action comes to the Dick tomorrow night for a "neutral site" game.  Because Toluca is a seeded team and the Rapids are now, technically the Rapids aren't the home team, which is why you won't see things like the Oar presentation and such.  CONCACAF gonna CONCACAF.  Regardless Colorado will get the advantage of playing in their own stadium (I wonder, do they have to use the visitor's locker room?) against a touch Liga MX team that beat Nashville 4-3 on Thursday.

That result really only leaves one way through for the Rapids, a 2 goal win.  Technically a very high scoring 1-goal win (5-4 for example) would get them through as they surpass Nashville's goal scored, but this is a team that's scored a total of 5 goals in the last two months, they aren't going to double that total tomorrow.  So a 2-goal win is the only option.

Of course we'll have to do this without our new signing Navarro, who still doesn't have his visa.  I have to wonder why the Rapids, who apparently even paid for the expedited process, can't get their player's paperwork while at least 10 other teams have signed players who need similar paperwork around the start of this transfer window and have already had them in the gameday roster for the Leagues Cup.  This isn't the first time this has happened to Colorado either.  Is it just bad luck?  Are we choosing players that for some reason aren't quickly approved?  Are we doing something wrong in the paperwork?  Are other teams getting help we're not?  Regardless, its even harder to see us scoring 5 goals when Navarro is out and Rubio and Lewis are Questionable.

Kickoff tomorrow is at 7:30, like normal.  I expect a pro-Toluca crowd, if out prior games against Liga MX teams are anything to go by.

Availability Report:

OUT: D Michael Edwards (lower body injury), D Alex Gersbach (lower body injury), M Max (unavailable), F Rafael Navarro (awaiting visa)

QUESTIONABLE: D Lalas Abubakar, M Jonathan Lewis (lower body injury), F Diego Rubio (upper body injury)

Might as well put out the best XI we can.  There's a pretty good chance there's going to be 3 weeks off after this game.  I supposed we could see Wilson instead of Bombito but otherwise, I think that's the XI.

Prediction: 0-0 draw, Rapids lose in the Shootout.  Toluca know they win the group with a draw, and they played on Thursday night in Nashville.  They essentially win the group with any loss where they score too.  I don't expect them to go too hard in this game and, well, the Rapids can't score.  So we're going to get another scoreless draw at the Dick and that will do it for the Leagues Cup.  Given our luck scoring and saving PKs I don't expect us to win a Shootout.

Another Game, Another Loss

While the Rapids continue to look better since the addition of Gutman, they continue to be unable to score when needed.  Once again we saw Colorado waste chance after chance until it was too late.  Nashville played in 2nd gear for the first 60 minutes, then put in their big players and within a minute it paid off with a 1-0 lead.  It quickly became 2-0 and the game seemed over.  Gutman's goal (yes it deflected off Cabral but I'm giving it to Gutman) in the 80th minute made things interesting as the Rapids had a couple of good chances after that, including a Bassett free kick that went off the post, but in the end it was too little too late.

I know a number of people want to take shots at Danny Wilson, because Nashville's first goal was deflected in off of him, but really the problem there was Ralph Priso.  He made a horrible cross-field pass to nobody then tracked back and tried to cover for his mistake by marking nobody and running around like a chicken with his head cut off.  The second goal was a defensive mess where 3-4 Nashville players were unmarked.  Just too easy.

This was probably the best lineup we could put out there and it just wasn't good enough.  Mukhtar, in 35 minutes, had more shots on target and a higher xG than anyone on the Rapids.  This roster is not good, an no amount of lineup rotation or formation switches by Fraser can compensate for that.

For the Rapids to move on to the knockout round they have three scenarios.

If Nashville beats Toluca the Rapids must beat Toluca or draw them and win the shootout

If Nashville and Toluca draw, no matter who wins the shootout, the Rapids must beat Toluca

If Toluca beats Nashville the Rapids must beat Toluca and the combined margin of the wins in those two games has to be at least 3

The first option is probably the most likely, forcing a 0-0 draw and winning the Shootout, so we should root for Nashville on Thursday.  But our best hope might be for Toluca to crush Nashville by 3 or 4 so they have nothing to worry about when they play us and even with a 1 or 2 goal loss they would win the group.

Man of the Match: Andrew Gutman

My Timing Sucks, Like Usual

I hit submit on that last post, went and checked my email, and the media game preview came in, with the availability report:

So as expected no Rubio or Navarro.  I expect we'll see Bombito take Abubakar's spot.  Otherwise the lineup we've seen against Houston and Dallas will probably start, with possibly a keeper change.

Leagues Cup? What's The Leagues Cup?

Tomorrow night in Nashville the Rapids kick off their inaugural Leagues Cup run.  We'll et to the specific game preview further down, but a quick recap of what this competition is and how it works.

• Every team in MLS and Liga MX (Mexico's top league) is participating.  The current champions of Liga MX and MLS got byes into the knockout stages, the rest of the teams were split into 3-team groups.  The first two teams (one Liga MX and one MLS team) were seeded based on their finishes in each league's last cycle, the rest of the teams were placed somewhat geographically.  For Colorado that put us in a group with the seeded teams of Nashville and Toluca.
• Each team plays each other once, with all games at MLS stadiums.  So Nashville will host Colorado (tomorrow) and Toluca (mid-week) before Colorado hosts Toluca (next Monday).
• The Colorado-Toluca game, despite being held at the Dick, is technically considered a neutral site game and Toluca is the "home" team because their the seeded team.  That means that the standard Rapids game ceremonies (like the Oar) won't take place.  If there's a kit clash we will also wear our road kits.
• Each game is the standard 3 points for a win, 1 point for each team for a draw.  However if a game is draw after 90 minutes both teams will get a point and then there will be a PK shootout with the winner getting an extra point (in last night's opening matches Leon and Vancouver went 19 rounds before Leon won 16-15!).
• The top 2 teams in the group move on to the knockout stage.

So what that means is that the minimum to get through is 2 points (whereas without the bonus point in a 3 team group you could get trough with a draw and loss if you win the GD tiebreaker).  3 points is probably enough unless you get unlucky on the GD tiebreaker, and 4 points clinches advancement.

Knowing all that. lets talk about tomorrow's match.  Kickoff in Nashville is at 6:30 MT and like the regular season all of these games are streamed through MLS Season Pass.  I don't know if tomorrow's game is one of the free ones this weekend or not.

Normally this is where I would list the injury report, but at least as of right now the Rapids have not put out a new injury report.  I don't know if they're required to for this competition.  There was a press conference with Fraser and Rosenberry this afternoon where Robin said Rubio still isn't ready to play yet.  *sigh*

We also haven't heard anything about Navarro's status, but I'm assuming if he had gotten his visa the would be heavily promoting him so I have to assume he won't be available either.  Great job by the FO keeping the fans engaged over this big summer DP signing, its not like this Leagues Cup is essentially the only thing we have left to play for or anything.  I know the Media Department wasn't happy about my last comments over a lack of information, but that doesn't change my frustration over it.  A team that struggles for relevance in this city , who's regular season was over by Memorial Day, and who won't play a home game after the Toluca match for 6 weeks needs everything they can get to keep fans engaged through the dog days of summer, not silence.

Anyway, I'm not going to predict a lineup because of the lack of availability information.  The only thing I will say is that I expect it to be very close to what we've seen the last couple of games.  It feels like Fraser has settled into a lineup he's happy with now that they've added Gutman.  The one change we might see is Ilic starting instead of Yarbrough.

(And I just realized that since that news came out right before the last game I never touched on it here.  Ilic was purchased and signed to a 2.5 year deal through 2025, with club options for 2026 and 2027, last Saturday.  No news on the transfer fee or salary has leaked, though we'll find out the latter when the union publishes the salaries once the window closes.)

Prediction: 1-1 draw, we lose the shootout.  Goal by Harris.  This is a little optimistic I'll admit but Nashville is only an OK home team and they've been in a bit of a funk.  I think the possibility is there to steal a point.  Given our PK woes (both taking and defending) I don't have hopes that we'll win a Shoot out though.,

Another 0-0 Draw

A game was played.  Nobody scored.  Nothing of real note happened.  Same old same old from the 2023 Rapids.

So lets move on to the bigger picture.  First, the good news.  With the draw we go into the Leagues Cup break not being in last place in the league.  That "honor" is reserved for the inter Miami Messis.  So that's at least something fun to chuckle about for the next month.

Everything else though?  This team is arguably the worst team to watch at home in league history.  12 home games (in league play), 6 nil-nil draws.  7 goals scored in those other 6 games.  (( goals in 11 road games isn't much better).  I pointed this out about a month ago, since then we've been blanked in 4 games and won the 5th 2-1.  The Rapids still aren't fun.

Well now its spread from fans and bloggers and now Forbes, of all outlets has noticed.  'As MLS Sets New Scoreless Draws Record, Blame The Colorado Rapids'.  A couple of choice quotes:

Maybe there’s a simpler skapegoat though: The Colorado Rapids.

The Rapids took part in the record-setting affair on Saturday night, a 0-0 tie at home against the Houston Dynamo that was their mind-numbing seventh scoreless affair of the season. That’s 22.6% of all the scoreless draws that have been played this year in a league that has 29 teams.

Put another way, Colorado by itself has played in more scoreless ties through 23 games than occurred in three entire previous MLS seasons. The 1996 season featured only six 0-0 results. There were only three in 1998, and four in 2002.

When the Rapids aren’t tying, they’re almost always losing. They’ll enter the break 10 points adrift of the playoffs despite the introduction of the more forgiving 18-team format.

No fanbase deserves a team that is not only so bad but also so entirely uninteresting, and with no real obvious evidence that the front office is trying to solve the problem. The Rapids might not set historic marks for futility in terms of points earned. But they will go down as one of the least enjoyable MLS sides to watch.

Colorado so far has acquired one attacking wingback in a trade and signed one striker on a loan. Compare that to their fellow last-place team in the Eastern Conference, which just signed the greatest living player on Earth.

Yeah, and that's only part of the article.  There's no world where this fists into 'The Rapids Way' or 'Trust the Process' or 'rebuilding year'.  This is just bas soccer on a bad team that has no plan.  Navarro alone isn't going to fix this.  The Front Office needs to stop gaslighting about a 'push to get back into the playoff race' and come up with a real plan to construct a team who can complete in 2024 .  Because right now, there's no reason anyone should be buying tickets to this team for the rest of this season or the next.

Make Rapids Fun Again

Last Game Before The Break

Houston's in town tomorrow for the last league match before we take a break for 5 weeks for the League Cup.  Its also our last home league match for two months.  ITs going to be a very weird August if we don't advance in the Cup competition with no games at all until the back third of the month and none at home.  IF there's a winner in this game it will either be the Rapids second home win of the season or the Dynamo's second road win in 2023. Kickoff tomorrow is at 7:30pm, like always.

Availability Report:

OUT: D Alex Gersbach (lower body injury), M Max (unavailable), F Rafael Navarro (awaiting visa), F Diego Rubio (upper body injury)

That's about as small of an availability report as we've had all season.  Rubio moving back from Questionable to Out isn't a great sign though.  Navarro is hoping to have his paperwork in time f or next week's Leagues Cup match in Nashville.

This is the same lineup that beat Dallas last week.  With only 45 minutes on Wednesday (and not a real intense 45 minutes at that) I don't think there needs to be any rotation for this one.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Ronan.  I'm not yet up to predicting a win, even with Houston's lousy road record.  If we do get 3 points though, it might mean that things are starting to turn around.  Not early enough for 2023, but maybe something to give us hope for 2024?

I'd Say That Was Pointless, But We Got A Point

I wasn't sure what to write about that odd second half last night, especially as it seemed like nobody else knew how to take it either.  But really Robin Fraser covered it better than I could.  As seen on the broadcast at the final whistle, an exchange between Fraser and Portland coach Savarese as they shook hands:

Savarase: What a waste of time

Fraser: S*iiit...

Then later in the postgame press conference, again from Fraser: 

 The game was a reflection of the oddity of the event

Really, I can't top those comments.  On to the Houston game on Saturday. 

A Little Bit Of This & A Little Bit Of That

A hodgepodge of news and previews today so I decided to put it all in one post.  Starting out there was an announcement this morning of an official ownership group, calling themselves Denver FC for now, to bring a NWSL or USL W team to Denver.  The group includes Lakewood native and Rapids analyst and host Jordan Angeli, who played for the NSWL's Washington Spirit and WNY Flash (as well as the earlier WPS Boston Breakers).  They filed for a D1 bid last fall and are actively working on gaining an expansion slot.  At this time there's no affiliation with the Rapids.   Adding a woman's team would be a great move for Denver, which doesn't have a WNBA or women's soccer team.  Consider me in full support of this move.  They'll have their kickoff event at Number 38 on July 21st during the USA-Vietnam Women's World Cup group stage match.

Back on the men's side a bit of unfortunate news as the Rapids announced today that Alex Gersbach has undergone surgery to address a tendon injury and will miss 6-8 weeks.  Optimistically this means he'll be back about the time the Leagues Cup wraps up and league play restarts.  I don't know which came first, the need to do this which led to trading for LB Andrew Gutman, or knowing that we acquired Gutman meant that they felt comfortable getting this addressed now since there was cover at LB.

Last but not least we have a game tomorrow.  Well, half a game.  At 7pm tomorrow night the second half of the 4th of July game against Portland will be played at the Dick.  Tickets from the 4th are valid for entry tomorrow night and if you need a ticket because you gave away your fourth of July ticket (like me) it seems like plenty of people out there are offering theirs.

The game will pickup just as if they were coming out of halftime on the 4th.  The same XI for each team will start on the field (though I think the teams will be allowed to make subs just as if they had made them at halftime of a regular game).  There are some special rules however if players are no longer available:

• If a player who was in the game when it was postponed is no longer available (due to injury or no longer being on the team) they can be replaced with somebody who was on the bench on Tuesday night without using one of the 5 subs/3 sub windows the team gets.
• If a player who was on the bench when the game was postponed is no longer available they can be replaced by any player who was on the roster and available when the game started.  In the case of the Rapids that means players like Gutman (was not a Rapid yet) and Bombito (was with team Canada) can not be added to the bench.  I think players who were listed as out injured on Tuesday, like Rubio, are also ineligible to be added for this restart.  This rule will allow us to add Abe Rodriguez to the bench to replace Ilic, who's loan expired since the 4th of July.
• The only exception to the above is for goalkeepers, if a team loses the active goalkeeper in the game and the goalkeeper on the bench they can then take any goalkeeper they have and add them to the active lineup.  That's the only way a player can go from "not in the gameday roster" to "on the field for the restart".

Its impossible to predict what's going to happen tomorrow night, so I'm not even going to try.  Its a weird situation we've never experienced before.

Rapids Win! Rapids Win!

For the first time since October 1st, 2022 the Rapids beat a MLS team at home.  And just like last October, it was Dallas they beat!  After a very Rapids start, with Abubakar heading it into his own net (though scored as a goal for Junqua since the original shot was on target), the team turned it on and put out maybe their best half of the season.  The addition of Gutman on the left side paid immediate dividends as the former Atlanta player was bombing down that side putting pressure on Dallas' back line and crosses into the box.  The Rapids had 6 corners in the game and in the 31st minute made one pay off with Maxsø getting his first goal of the season.  After that Colorado controlled the rest of the half and went to the locker room even.

Dallas would get two shots on target early in the second half but after that it was only the Rapids that would threaten.  Colorado put one in the back of the net only for it to be waved off due to handling (Gutman seemed to confirm to the ref that he did in fact unintentionally handle it).  But the pressure continued.

In the 59st minute a long cross-field pass from Ronan was brought down by Rosenberry, who tried to play it back to a crashing attacker.  The pass was blocked back to him and instead he crossed to a wide open Yapi who, somehow, from 3 yards out, put it over the bar.  However VAR intervened, seeing that on Rosenberry's attempt to play it back it was blocked by the outstretched hand of a Dallas defender in the box.  The PK was called and both Bassett and Galvan stepped up to take it.  Repots from fans sitting near the bench said that Fraser was clear he wanted Bassett to take it, but after the two of them had a quick discussion Galvan was the one placing the ball on the spot, something Fraser reportedly seemed non-plussed by.  Galvan took the kick and sent a panenka right down the middle, at which point Fraser was reportedly quite pleased.

After that Dallas didn't have a chance on target and the Rapids got their first win in two months (and their first goals since May).  Its not enough to keep Colorado out of last place but it was enough to keep Fraser on top of the career PPG average for Rapids managers by 0.005 over Gary Smith as Robin tied Hankinson and Clavijo for the 3rd most managed games in team history.  Even with the win the Rapids will have to play the rest of the season at about 2.0 PPG to have a chance at the playoffs, but even if we're playing for 2024 (and we are) its nice to see a win at home finally.

Man of the Match: Braian Galvan, just for the cheeky panenka on a PK he wasn't even supposed to take.

Welcome Rafael Navarro!

A big weekend for the Rapids as they got their first home win (we'll be reviewing that in the next post) and signed Brazilian striker Rafael Navarro on a 12-month loan from Palmeiras with an option to buy.  That option is a reported $4.5 million dollar deal, which would be a record signing for this team (there's a $500K loan fee already agreed to). Navarro will be available as soon as his visa is complete (though even if he had it today he would not be eligible to play Wednesday night since that's a continuation of a game that started before he was signed).

Navarro is 23 years old and got his start at Botafogo in the Brazilian second division where he scored 19 times in 62 appearances and was the 3rd leading scorer in the league the season Botafogo won it.  He was then signed by Palmeiras (same club as Lucas Esteves came to us from on loan) at the end of 2021.  He's only scored twice in 41 league appearances for them but almost all of those were coming off the bench.  He played the last 17 minutes for them in the Club World Cup final against Chelsea and he's scored 8 times in 13 appearances in the Copa Libertadores.

With this signing the Rapids have 3 Designated Players (Navarro, Cabarl, Maxso) for the first time since 2016 when they had Gashi, Doyle, and Howard.  He'll obviously slot right into the starting XI once he's cleared to play.  There's nobody else healthy on the roster that has this track record.  Once Rubio is back then we will likely see both of them starting.  Cabral will either move to the wing or the bench, and Yapi and Lewis will become subs.  This was a big piece of what we needed in this window.  The key will be is if he can show he's worth the $4.5M tag by next July, though the Rapids have a history of agreeing to buy clauses and then renegotiating them so its possible we could bring him in permanently at a lower number.

Also, following on from my rant on Friday night about Mark Ilic's loan details, the Rapids Communication Director had a public response to me on Twitter that its only fair that I link to here, so that you can read both sides of the issue.  I don't think there's any more to say on that subject at this point.

Can We Get 90 In On Time?

The Rapids announced today that the second half of the 4th of July Portland game will be played at the Dick at 7pm this Wednesday, July 12th. Any 4th of July tickets will be honored for the second half

For the third time in the last four home games the forecast calls for the Rapids to dodge storms tomorrow night.  Right now it looks worse for the tailgate than the game itself but with the luck we've had this year?  And the game will be followed by the delayed 4th of July fireworks, weather permitting.  Most importantly though at halftime the team is inducting Drew Moor into the Gallery of Honor, which is more than well-deserved.  IMO he's the only name missing at this point, and at the moment none of the active players have earned a spot.  It was scheduled for tomorrow because we're playing Dallas, where Drew got his start as a rookie.  He also got his first MLS Cup by beating Dallas, as seen above.  :D

One other milestone of note, assuming we get the full game in Robin Fraser will tie Pablo and Clavijo for 3rd on the all-times games managed list (regular season only) for the Rapids with 114 games.  Kickoff tomorrow is scheduled for 7:30.

Availability Report:

OUT: D Moise Bombito (Team Canada), D Alex Gersbach (lower body injury), M Max (unavailable)

QUESTIONABLE: M Jonathan Lewis (lower body injury), F Diego Rubio (upper body injury)

Well, that's getting better.  Reports are that Lewis was active in training on Thursday.  And of course Andrew Gutman is available now as well.

This seems like the obvious lineup assuming Lewis can go and Rubio can't.  That back 5 is pretty locked in at this point, as are Bassett and Ronan, so there's only so many other options for the other 3 spots, none of them good.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Bassett.  Dallas isn't great on the road so I'm thinking we have a shot at a point, but that's about it.

Ilic Still In Limbo, Much Like The Fans

Game preview coming later but this is sticking in my craw and I wanted to get it out.  Brendan Ploen of the Denver Post did the heavy lifting and got confirmation from the Rapids that Marko Ilic's loan has expired.  He also reports that the team is in negotiations with Kortrijk to bring him back on a permanent transfer.  There was an option to buy in the loan agreement that wasn't triggered so presumably the Rapids are interested in him but no at the number originally agreed on, so they're trying to do a deal at a lover number.  (As an aside, I can't remember a time when the Rapids exercised the buy close in a loan deal as opposed to renegotiating it to a lower number.  Good for business, but it makes me wonder what the point of those clauses are and if the Rapids have a "rep" now for not exercising them.)

I have thoughts on the idea of signing Ilic, and we'll get to them, but what really annoys me about this is that its another self-inflicted wound my the Rapids communication staff.  When the loan deal was announced the language the Rapids used was that he was on loan "through July".  At first that made sense, because that would allow him to play in the two Leagues Cup games at the end of the month.  But then Kortrijk's announcement of the deal stated it was through July 5th, the opening of the MLS transfer window.  That made a lot less sense given the lack of game time he would likely get.  Because of that there were two different dates floating around that even informed outlets like Burgundy Wave were confused by.

Why?  What was the point of a generic "through July" language in the announcement?  Did the Rapids think they were going to confuse Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Toluca (our July opponents after the 4th) by them not knowing who might be in goal?  Does anyone really think that MLS teams care that much which keeper is playing for the Rapids?  And any benefit would be fleeting, when Ilic wasn't on the gameday roster for Dallas tomorrow it was going to be clear why.  Were they just lazy and assumed nobody would care about the end of the loan?  To be fair, very few people probably do, but those that do, like Burgundy Wave, Juanners, Holding the High Line (and me), are the type of fans and media you want to keep engaged and trusting the team.  Instead once again we're talking about the team being super-secretive with everything.  That's not how you build a fanbase.

Media and bloggers were told in the offseason that the club was going to be better about this sort of information.  Instead its the same fuzzy information we've dealt with for years on everything from injuries to contract lengths to callup timing.  It continues to be difficult to take the club seriously when they continue to run their communications like its amateur hour.

Half A Game, But New Players

On Monday I gave it a 50/50 chance that last night's game would be played, and they played 50% of the game.  So I'm counting that as an accurate prediction.  After a 2 hour delay to start the game and a 90 minute delay at halftime they finally called the game and the second half will be rescheduled for a later date.  

The teams will start just like they were coming out of the locker room last night, with the same XI on the field for both sides.  If, between now and then, one of the players on the field is no longer available when the game restarts either due to injury or being transferred, they can be replaced with one of the players on the bench last night and that won't count as one of the subs/sub windows for the game.  If one of the bench players last night is unavailable then they can be replaced by anyone who was on the roster as of last night (so nobody who gets added to the roster now that the window is open).  The key is that a player who was not in the gameday roster (like say Rubio or Lewis) can not take the place of one of the XI in the game who's unavailable (there is an exception to this rule for goalkeepers if a team doesn't have any keepers who were in the gameday squad available).  The only way a player who wasn't in the squad last night could get into the game is to have somebody on the bench be unavailable when the game is rescheduled, have them be replaced by a player, and then use one of the game subs to bring them into the game.

As for the half that did get played, it was fairly lousy soccer.  The wet conditions and the general poor level of the teams led to a game where neither side could get extended possession, but if one team looked better than the other, the Rapids had that edge.

We have no game to talk about, but we do have roster moves.  The transfer window officially opened this morning and Colorado has already added two players and has a thirds in limbo.  The big move was trading for Andrew Gutman from Atlanta.  Colorado traded $300K in GAM this year, $100K in GAM next, year, and an international slot through the end of this season.  There's another $150K in gAM that could go to Atlanta depending on Gutman's play.

Gutman is a 26-year old left back with a very attacking mindset.  He already has 3 goals and 5 assists this season.  He's taken a rather confusing career, skipping MLS to go to Europe and being signed by Celtic only to be immediately loaned back to the U.S., first with USL's Charlotte Independence and then to FC Cincinnati, he was then picked by Atlanta in the Re-Entry draft and bought from Celtic without ever playing for them.  Atlanta immediately loaned him to RBNY for the 2021 season before he came back and played for Atlanta in 2022 and this year.

His drawback, which is a little concerning in a defender, is that his defense has not been good this season.  So he's similar to Lucas Esteves, though lets hope better on offense and not as bad on defense.  I expect we're going to see a pretty standard 5-man back line with Gutman attacking up the left and Rosenberry or Nicholson (or Galvan?) attacking up the right.  For the price this is a solid pickup by the Rapids, it should solve the left back problem in a way Gersbach clearly didn't, and at 26 Gutman can play in MLS and is under contract through next season.

The other move the Rapids made is signing Costan Rican national-team defender Daniel Chacon from Rapids 2 to the full squad, and then they loaned him to Costa Rican side Alajuelense until the end of the season.  So no help there until 2024 (he's signed through 2025).  Rapids 2 signed Chacon last summer and immediately loaned him back to his then Costa Rican side so he could compete for a spot at the World Cup, which he got and made one appearance.  He made 3 appearances for Rapids 2 this season, while battling injury.  This is starting to smell a bit like we're trying to flip him for cash sooner rather than later, I'd be surprised if he ever makes a significant impact with the first team.

The player in limbo is goalkeeper Marko Ilic.  His loan from Kortrijk was reported by the Rapids as "through July" but by Kortrijk as "through July 5".  Which means he might, technically, not be a Rapids player anymore as of the window opening.  Colorado included an option to buy in the loan deal, but there's been no report of them exercising the clause.  Of course, there's been no report that he's left either.  I figure we'll know around 6:45pm on Saturday at the latest, when the gameday squad for the Dallas game drops.  If he's on it then the Rapids bought him or negotiated an extension to the loan (or his team had the date wrong).  If he's not he's probably headed back to Belgium.

Celebrating My 25th Anniversary Tomorrow

Also, there's a Rapids game.  You pick which one seems like a better thing to celebrate.  The Timbers are in town for, at least at this moment in the standings, the Rapids last home game this season against a team outside the playoffs.  If we can't get a win tomorrow its hard to see where else we get a win this season.  We have two road games against non-playoff teams (not 3 like I thought yesterday), in Minnesota and Portland, and Vancouver and Austin, who are just barely in the playoffs, still come to Commerce City but tomorrow seems like the best option.  Of course, weather is in the forecast so I figure its 50/50 if the game even gets played.  Kickoff for those of you going is at the normal 7:30pm, I'll be celebrating with my wife instead.  Somehow she's put up with me this long, I'm not sure why.  :D

Availability Report:

OUT: D Moise Bombito (Team Canada), D Alex Gersbach (lower body injury), M Bryan Acosta (Team Honduras), M Max (unavailable)

QUESTIONABLE: M Jonathan Lewis (lower body injury), M Ralph Priso (lower body injury), F Diego Rubio (upper body injury)

This is the same availability report as Saturday's as no new information has come out.  Acosta came in as a sub last night as Honduras was eliminated from the Gold Cup despite beating Haiti.  I'm pretty sure he won't be back in Commerce City tomorrow night but he should be available on Saturday.  Bombito will be part of Canada's squad tomorrow night as they look to move on to the knock-out rounds.

Going to skip the lineup projection for this one, holiday weekend, yadda yadda, yadda.  I expect minimal rotation from what we saw on Saturday.

Prediction: 1-0 win, goal by Yapi.  The homegrown gets his first MLS goal in front of the 4th of July crowd and the Rapids pull out a much needed win.  Assuming the game gets played of course.  Yeah, this is overly optimistic, but its the last time this season I feel like I can predict a win, so I'm going for it.

Rapids Embarrassed, Even By Their Standards

The Rapids have lost a lot this year, but even by the low, low standards of this season's team last night was an embarrassment.  Down 2-0, after 11 minutes and only a big Yarbrough save or two kept it from being 3 or 4, the game was over before it started.  On the second goal multiple players quit playing defense.  There's really not much more that needs to be said, I even decided to run an errand before the end of the game.

The Bodmer Line started at about 1.21 PPG before the season.  Its now at 1.93 PPG.  But sitting in the Wooden Spoon spot the playoffs are so far out of reach it doesn't matter.  The real problem is that the Rapids now need to match that 1.21 PPG level, essentially play like a playoff team, the rest of the season just to avoid their worst season ever on PPG.  And I don't see them doing it.  They need 17 points out of their last 14 games, which suggests at least 4 wins.  We only have 4 games left against teams not in a playoff position, the first of which is against Portland on Tuesday night.  If we can't win that game there's no chance this isn't the worst season in Rapids history.

Just assume there are no Man of the Match awards until we at minimum win a game.