Before we get to tomorrow night's game a quick update on our international players. Djordje Mihailovic had the first goal off a free kick (think of his LAFC goal, pretty similar) in the U.S.'s 3-0 victory over Guinea. With the win they made the quarterfinals and will play Morocco at 7am on Friday. If they win they get the winner of Japan-Spain in the middle of next week. If they lose there's a chance Djordje could be back in time for the Leon game on Monday night.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Leagues Cup 2024
Before we get to tomorrow night's game a quick update on our international players. Djordje Mihailovic had the first goal off a free kick (think of his LAFC goal, pretty similar) in the U.S.'s 3-0 victory over Guinea. With the win they made the quarterfinals and will play Morocco at 7am on Friday. If they win they get the winner of Japan-Spain in the middle of next week. If they lose there's a chance Djordje could be back in time for the Leon game on Monday night.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Player Updates
Monday, July 22, 2024
I DIDN'T HEAR NO BELL!!!
Friday, July 19, 2024
Biggest Game Of The Year (So Far)
After choking away a win of the Rocky Mountain Cup in Sandy with 6+ minutes to play the Rapids have a chance to make up for that with a win tomorrow night. Any other result and the Utah Soccer Club takes it back home with them. Both teams are missing key pieces so it should be a fairly even battle, but historically the Rapids have not played to their level in this matchup. They need to put the history behind them, come out like they have for 174 of the 180 minutes of this rivalry so far this season, and put Salt Lake away before they can break our hearts at the end (again). Kickoff tomorrow is at the normal 7:30.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
Rapids Get Run Over Like It Was 1996
Well we were hoping to see something other than a replay of the '96 games but the first half last night looked a lot like the era of the early Internet. Armas went with a highly rotated roster, starting Anderson, Lewis, and Loffelsend and reinserting Bombito immediately back into the lineup. It didn't work. Now I'm glad to see Armas learning from the last time we finished a 3-game week with an RMC match and we didn't rotate. We ended up running out of steam and choking away the win in Sandy. But its got to pay off on Saturday.
Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Throwing It Back To 1996
At one point around 2010 LA-Colorado was the most played competitive game (including playoffs and the USOC) in MLS. That was largely because those are the only two teams to have played every season of the 29 MLS has played in the Western Conference. San Jose took a couple of years off, Dallas played in the short-lived Central Conference for a couple of years, and KC bounced back and forth between West and East during expansion. Tomorrow the Galaxy are wearing their newly released '96 throwback kits for this old-school matchup (my rant about how LAFC and Miami got throwbacks before the other '96 teams can be found on Twitter). Kickoff tomorrow is at 8:30.
Monday, July 15, 2024
Hot Night Saps Rapids Attack
Before we get into the review of Saturday night's game a quick roster update. Today Colorado officially transferred Marko Ilic to Red Star Belgrade. Terms of the deal were not announced but Burgundy Wave does not expect any fee that might have been paid to equal what we paid for him a year ago. Thus ends one of the worst transfers in Rapids history.
Friday, July 12, 2024
Red Cows Come To Cow Town
The country's biggest city sending a team named after bulls to the home of the world's largest stock show is an interesting dichotomy. its also the first time that RBNY has been to Colorado in 6 years. We've got two pretty equal teams, both sitting in 4th place in their respective conferences and both playing at a bit over 1.6 PPG. Both are also missing key midfield pieces )in RBNY's case they sold their defensive midfielder to Liga MX recently). Kickoff tomorrow is at 7:30pm and its going to be a scorcher. Looking at mid-90's at kickoff after hitting triple-digits during the tailgate. So everyone, seriously, stay hydrated tomorrow.
Based on last week's game without Mihailovic I think this is pretty obvious. Bassett pushes forward with Ronan and Larraz behind him. After a goal and an assist Cabral has to get the start and Fernandez gets the start on the other side against his old team.
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Yapi Hour Indeed
Colorado blew out S. Louis Sunday night. As expected they couldn't handle the altitude at the end of the game and the home side made them pay. Up until the last 15-20 minutes though the visitors were using their counter-attacking strategy to good effect. Despite the Rapids generally having the possession and momentum advantage, St. Louis had as many shots on target as Colorado did and only one less hot overall.
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Again
Since mid-May its been a schedule of playing every other Wednesday with the exception of the international weekend. So its 3 game week, full week between games, 3 game week, repeat. We're ending another 3 game week cycle, we'll have a full week off, and then don a 3 game week again. Ridiculous scheduling all to get the Leagues Cup in. We're even playing through the Copa America. Well nothing we can do about it but go forward, and to be honest we'd probably play Thursday-Sunday this week even without Leagues Cup because of Independence Day. Kickoff against St. Louis tomorrow night at the Dick is at 7:30.
Oli Oli Oli, Oi Oi Oi!
On Wednesday I said:
2-1 win, goals by Navarro and Mihailovic. KC has the third worst defense in the league and is coming to altitude on short rest for a game that we use to traditionally win. In the past we would play down to our opponents but this team doesn't do that. That said, I expect SKC to play a low block that we'll struggle to break down enough to really put the game away. We won't be concerned about losing, but we may not feel comfortable about the win until late.
Turns out we were worried about losing for 20 minutes or so in the second half, but other than that it was a fairly accurate take on what the game would be. SKC wasn't particularly hood but for the first 5-10 minutes of the second half, but for a while that looked like it might be enough as the Rapids reverted to their more recent traditional 4th of July play instead of their historical tradition of winning. This was the first win in almost 10 years on the 4th of July.
At half Colorado led in essentially every stat and had completely dominated play, but had nothing to show for it. SKC made them pay coming out of the locker room, with multiple good looks including hitting the crossbar. Three minutes in the Sporks overloaded our left side, pulling our defense that direction. They then switched the field which left left winger Leibold with the ball and no pressure as Rosenberry moved towards him. He whipped the cross in to the top of the box where Thommy has some space. Abubakar moved to cut that space down, but Vines also tried to jump in front of the shot. Thommy whiffed on the cross and just popped it out to the Rapids left...into the space Vines had just vacated. Russell was unmarked and easily slotted it home.
My first instinct when watching the replay was to blame Vines for, once again, leaving his man unmarked. He does deserve some blame for that decision, he needed to trust Abubakar to step up to Thommy. Looking at the bigger play though first SKC should get credit for pulling us out of position. Despite that though the Rapids are still in good position with 5 guys defending 4 initially. Rosenberry slides back to his natural position and gets support from Bassett to try to pressure the cross (they don't get there), the CB's take the two center attackers, and Vines has eyes on Russell. But then Thommy comes from deeper, somewhat taking advantage of Bassett moving to the right but also Ronan is not doing anything defensively. He's somewhat pacing Thommy as the ball gets played out to Leibold but just lets him run by into that space. If Ronan sticks with him Vines would, presumably, not feel the need to try to support Abubakar and leave Russell open. This isn't the first time I've notice Ronan not being as engaged as I'd like on defense.
Colorado didn't go away after the goal, but for about 15 minutes it looked like they didn't really have an answer. Finally pressure started to mount and off a Mihailovic free-kick in the 69th minute an unlikely goal scorer stepped up. Oli Larraz got his head to the cross and put it far corner. I don't know what Meila was looking at on the cross but he made a weak effort to stop it and didn't get close. The first MLS goal for the homegrown!
The Rapids kept up the pressure after that, with the insertion of Yapi to play alongside Navarro. It paid off right at the end of normal time. Yapi got behind the defense but unfortunately took a poor touch. Melia thought he could get to the ball and came rushing out but Yapi used his speed to get there first and poke the ball across the front of goal. Meila clattered into him and the burgundy boys had their 10th PK call of the season. Mihailovic stepped up to score it and on the back of two great Colorado homegrown plays and n goal+assist from the soon to be member of the U.S. Olympic team the Rapids celebrated Independence Day in American style with a 2-1 win.
With the win Colorado sits in a tie for 4th place in the West and needs about 10 points over the last 12 games to feel good about making the playoffs. This is only the second time they've reached 40 goals scored in the first 22 games (1998). In case you're wondering this is the 10th time they've had 10 PKs in a season, with the high-water mark being 14 PKs, with 12 scored.
Man of the Match: Oli Larraz. I know that Djordje has a goal and an assist, and that would be the normal choice, but how do you not reward a homegrown who got his first goal? Not to mention the momentum really changed after that. Also credit to Armas, he pulled Harris off and put Larraz on and my reaction was "we're down a goal and we're going more defensive? WTF?". Well that's why Armas is coaching and I'm blogging. Both Larraz and Yapi were subs and they both paid off big.
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Using Some Sporks For Our Fourth Of July BBQ
Let me take you back to 2019. 10 games in, Hudson is fired, and a notable offseason signing, Benny Feilhaber, is traded "home" to KC. In the post trade coverage Benny says "I want to be playing on a team that’s competitive and fighting for championships". Well since then neither team has won a major trophy, but the Rapids have won 12 or so more regular season games than SKC. Just something to think about as we go into our Independence Day game against them tomorrow night. SKC is struggling this year and Colorado should take advantage of that fact. Kickoff is at the normal 7:30 with the traditional fireworks show after the game. Also as is tradition I will not be in attendance as I celebrate my anniversarhy with my wife (26 this year).
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Rapids Run Out Of LAFC But Call-ups?
Sorry for the delay on the recap. Yesterday...was rough. Anyway this isn't going to be much better. We'll recap the game but follow that with some good news.