Scab Ref Costs Rapids A Point, Hides Team's Ineptness

This is a game Colorado would have gotten a point out of with the regular refs.  But this is also a game that the Rapids only have themselves to blame for losing.  A continuing issue reared its head again, the inability to put the ball in the net.

Lets start with the elephant in the room.  On what was essentially the final play the Rapids were caught out by Houston, played poorly, and threw away the point.  But its a play that should have never gotten to that point.  Maxsø was down in the box bleeding after being elbowed in the face.  Referees are clearly directed to stop play for a head wound, and a player bleeding from the head down in the attacking box while play is going on is a clear incident of that.  Play should have been stopped and the ref cost the home team a point, arguably 3 if a PK had been called on the elbow to Maxsø's face.

That said, it never should have gotten to that point.  The lack of offense in this team is a serious problem at this point.  This was a weakened Houston side that, much like Seattle last week, was beatable but we couldn't get anything going in the attacking third.  This team has been unable to breakdown a low block for the last two seasons, and this season appears to be no different.  We had two shots with a xG above 0.10, a 0.11 shot from Cabral and a 0.12 shot from Mihailovic.  If that's the best we can do we're in for a very long season.

Our three DPs are Navarro, Cabral, and Mihailovic.  Combined they have 34 starts, 50 appearances, and a grand total of 5 goals and 2 assists.  Essentially they're involved in one goal every 5 starts.  Excuse me?  How is this in any way acceptable?  Navarro has 16 games left to prove he's worth $4.5 million.  At this point I wouldn't pay $450K.  Cabral is a bust but we've known that for a while.  Mihailovic has not fit in with this team yet and I don't think 5 games is too soon to have expectations for the biggest signing the club has ever made returning to a league he excelled in just 18 months ago.

Meanwhile we have Lamine Diack.  Here for 5 of his 26 games and gotten 0 minutes.  That's not how you use a TAM-player.

At this point, despite a surprise 4-point road trip to Sandy and Seattle, this is the same old Rapids.  Armas can talk about "play in transition" and we can change a bunch of players, but until this club actually invests in real scouting and real leadership it won't matter.