Rough Couple Of Weeks For PRO

I decided to give this recap another day to see if anything came out yesterday after that officiating on Saturday (and to calm down a bit more).  It was a bad day for PRO and arguably cost the Rapids 2 points.

At halftime I was concerned we were seeing more of the same from the Rapids.  They had the majority of the play, couldn't turn it into shots on goal, and then gave up ANOTHER goal in the 5 minutes before the break.  To the home side's credit they came out of the locker room and took the game to Seattle, putting up 3 shots on goal in the half and tying the game on a cheeky little free kick from Mihailovic.

But what this game will be remembered for is one or two very questionable calls from center ref Alexis Da Silva.  In the 47th minute Jackson Travis came in hot and took the legs out from under  Kossa-Rienzi after he had gotten rid of the ball.  Another ref, another scenario, another night and Travis is picking up a yellow there with very little to complain about.  Given that he had picked up a yellow in the first half it was very possible the Rapids could have played the whole second half down a man.

That wasn't the worst call in my (biased) opinion though.  In the 86th minute Navarro went up and got his head on a cross to put the Rapids in the lead, only for it to be immediately waved off for a foul.  While Navarro's hands were on the defender's back the replays make it clear there was absolutely no force in his arms and the defender took a dive to get bailed out, which he did.  Even then though, you could argue that we had one bad judgement go our way and one go against us.  Da Silva's final mistake though was when he called the foul he didn't let the play finish.  He blew the whistle before the headed ball crossed the goal line.  So even if VAR had wanted to step in and correct the call they couldn't.  What's the point of having VAR if the officials eliminate its use through their actions?

Outside of the two calls the takeaway is that the team looked good and the 4-2-2-2 continues to succeed more than the 4-2-31 did.  Its only papering over the issues though.  Its now 3 games in a roq where we've given up a goal near the end of at least one of the halves.  9 of 16 total goals give up that way.  Also Cole Bassett is still pressing too hard and its causing him to make more mistakes.  I almost want to sit him for a game or two to let him get his head straightened out but I'm not sure who could replace him.  Maxso is still looking like he's not fully focused at time.

Its not all bad though.  Nico Hansen looked good in his debut in net.  I wanted to give him the MOTM for only giving up the 1 goal he could do nothing about but in reality the defense in front of him kept him from being very busy (only one save).  Yapi is still not quite on the same page as Djordje and Rafa but he's creating good chances.  Its great to see up starting 4 homegrowns (Travis, Larraz, Bassett, Yapi).  Now we need to focus on consistency.

Man of the Match: Djordje Mihailovic.  He's playing at a MVP level right now.  The decision to go under the wall (which he seemed to tip Cole to right before he did it) worked perfectly and left the Sounders looking stupid.  Legitimately the best signing the team has had in maybe a decade.