The Rapids came out on fire Saturday night, put 5 in the net, but only 2 that counted, then after the first 40 minutes fell on their faces en route to a 3-2 loss. It was the most disappointing result since the season opener in Portland. Certainly one step back after the steps forward of the last few games.
To get to the obvious point of discussion first, all three goals called back for offside were the right call. On the first and third Navarro is obviously offside on the cross in. On the second its a little more debatable but still the right call. On the initial cross-field pass to start the attack Cabral is offside. The ball wasn't played to him, so normally that wouldn't be a problem. However he interfered with a defender who was moving to make a play on the ball. If you watch the replay the defender has his back to Cabral and tracking the ball going over his head. He then turns towards where the ball is going and immediately runs into Cabral. The defender absolutely flops to sell the call but Cabral is standing right in his path to get involved in the play and by the offside rule. that's interference.
After the game Rosenberry suggested they never really recovered from the third goal being called off. That's a concerning response to 40 minutes where they absolutely bossed San Jose up and down the pitch. It feels like one of the first real failures by Armas, both not being able to stop the team losing their focus and not being able to adjust to what San Jose did at halftime.
Getting into specifics, the defense did a lot of ball watching on this one. On the first goal there are 10 Rapids in or on the edge of the box, yet San Jose has two men unmarked with plenty of room at the penalty spot. There was a deflection and a lucky bounce from Steffen's initial save but it was far too easy for SJ.
The second came from a nice touch by the Earthquakes, sending a corner back across the box to the left side of our defense, but the attacker came in the box again unmarked (or at least he completely beat the trailing Cabral). And all the other Rapids were ball watching.
The winner came from another case of our defense marking space, not players. For some reason, despite only two players over on the right side, our whole defense was overloaded to the right side with Sam Vines at LB being essentially at the penalty spot. So it was a nice pass to cut the line but made easier with a whole half of the box being emptied.
You'll notice that "Sam Vines" and "left side" came up a lot in those descriptions. As I mentioned last week the left back position is not one of our strengths right now, and its something we need to figure out ASAP. I don't know if its the instructions Armas is giving Sam or if he's just struggling on his return but we're at the point that maybe sitting him down for a game or two to clear his head might not be a bad idea. Certainly in a three game week maybe giving him Wednesday night off wouldn't be a bad thing.
Colorado is entering a tough stretch of games with four of the next five against Western teams in the top 4 right now (and the 5th is against 7th placed Houston). Lets hope we don't come to regret these dropped 3 points.
Man of the Match: Rafael Navarro. Yes he has to work on his offsides (though the third goal was really close) but he's finally putting back-to-back performances together. He's got about two months to get on real tear to force us to make a decision.
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