Texas. Messed With.

On Friday my prediction was:

2-1 win, goals by Navarro and Bassett.  I'm choosing to be optimistic going into the second half.  Austin is pretty similar to us, we're at home, and a couple of weeks off will hopefully have allowed us to fix our defensive issues.

Missed it by that much.  I didn't give our defense enough credit after pitching a relatively easy shutout on Saturday, especially considering our makeshift back line without Bombito (Canada) and Vines (illness).  Per FotMob Austin was held without a shot on target.

As an aside, I have no idea why Bombito wasn't listed on the availability report.  I think the Rapids were playing the MLS rules to the letter, since the callup wasn't officially announced until Saturday morning he technically didn't have to be listed as unavailable when the report was due on Friday, but I'm assuming that everyone knew what was going to happen.

I will say Colorado got a bit lucky on the shutout.  In the 59th minute, after going up 2-0, Austin was attacking and tried to ping a through ball into the box.  Abubakar was allowing an Austin attacker to slide by him which caused his arm to be outstretched and the ball hit it.  You could argue it was a natural position for the defensive move he was making, but IMO it was pretty clearly a handball and Lalas was in the box.  Austin should have had a penalty.

I don't think that would have changed the outcome though other than making my prediction 100% accurate.  The Broccoli was cooked by the 60th minute.  They weren't prepared to come off a two week break and play at altitude.  They were never dangerous after that point and I don't think only being down one instead of two would have changed that.

Enough about the defense, lets talk about our offense, who looked good coming off the break.  We could have, and probably should have, scored 4, largely due to Goal Bassett.  He had a great shot that was barely parried out of the way by Austin's keeper that would have given him a first half brace and then he had a golden chance in the second half that he should have just powered through but instead he tried to go for placement and shanked the shot.  It was wide-open for him and he knew it.  Meanwhile Navarro pulled off a wicked side volley that pinged off the crossbar.  Hitting woodwork probably saved us $500K on his transfer fee.  :D

Overall a nice complete game coming out of the break.  Now its a tight turnaround for a flight to St. Louis on Wednesday.  Lets hope its not a late night due to storm delays because we're back at home on Saturday facing Montreal.

Also, did anyone get a pic of Rapidman in his aloha shirt at the tailgate?  It was a good look for him.  :D

Man of the Match: Cole Bassett.  Youngest player in team history to score 25 goals.  Easy choice.