First of all the MLS salaries dropped today. I'll have more about those next week, there's just not enough time in a 3-game week to get into them right now. There's a lot to talk about though.
Back to last night's game where the team didn't play well, but they played well enough to get the 3 points. Let's just talk about the turning point in the match, the PK and red card. It was 100% correct and the Laws Of The Game are pretty black and white on this.
The best angle that Apple showed was from behind the goal. From there you can clearly see the ball come off of Utvik's foot as he makes the block and head directly for the net until it glances off his arm and goes over the bar. The goalkeeper wasn't getting there. Clearly a hand ball, clearly stopped an obvious goal. DOGSO-H.
A lot of fans are hung up on both the changes to the handball rules and the changes to fouls in the box that used to be red cards (the double jeopardy changes). Neither of those apply in this situation. The LOTG are clear, a handball that prevents a goal is a red card anywhere on the field (unless its the goalkeeper in the box, of course). It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not. The only "out" is if the hand is in a natural position but a hand extended above the body as the defender makes a desperate lunge to stop a goal isn't natural. Also DOGSO-H is explicitly excepted from the double jeopardy standard. Its always a red.
Beyond that chance though, the team wasn't good, especially on offense (stop me if you've heard this before). Djordje's shot that led to the PK was the only shot on target in the first half. In the second half, despite being up a man, they only got three more. Harris had two with a combined xG of 0.2 and Navarro had one with an xG of 0.07. At least this game they had a number of chances that weren't quite on target but dangerous, which is a step up from some prior games. Overall though, not being able to get a second goal and put the game away could have cost us.
Defensively there were some mistakes made that could have cost us, but Bombito and Steffen were on their games cleaning up anything that got by the rest of the back line. Both Rosenberry and Maxso had serious mistakes that had to be dealt with and in general Rosenberry had a rough night. Also once again missing from the gameday roster was Diack. We're halfway through his loan period and he's had less than 20 minutes on the field.
Still good teams find ways to win when they aren't playing well and that's what Colorado did last night. The Rapids have 3 more games this month, if they can get 7 points out of them they'll surpass their 2023 point total by the end of May. They now have one more win than they did all of last year, and are only 5 goals away from matching their 2023 total. This is undoubtedly an improved side, the question is still "how improved?". We'll find out on Saturday as we head to Sandy with a chance to win the Rocky Mountain Cup.
Man of the Match: Zack Steffen. He made two big saves just before the PK that kept the game scoreless, then parried a wicked long shot in the second half to keep the shutout going.
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