Weekend Update - Cup Edition

Two big Cup games this past weekend for the teams!

Queen of the South - QoS had a home match against fellow first division side Dundee. Dundee is currently in second place in the 1st Division, trying to catch Hamilton for promotion. Saturday thay faced each other in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals. Rain and wind made the first half 45 minutes to forget. Neither team looked parituclarly dangerous and the teams went to the locker room still level at 0. Shortly into the second half Queens opened the scoring on a Stephen Dobbie blast that found the back of the net.

Queens had to hold off the Dundee attack for 39 minutes, and it took every last second before the Doonhamers could get the fatal blow as off a last second free kick with Dundee's keeper joining the attack the ball fell to Ryan McCann. 70 yars from goal he let fly and gave Queens the insurance goal that sent them through to the semi-final. Their opponent will be either Aberdeen or Celtic and the game will be played on April 12th. Tuesday night Queens faces St. Johnstone in a league match.



Blackburn Rovers - Blackburn faced off against Fulham FC (aka Fulham USA) in the battle of "Who's Americans are better". The 22 players who started the match included 5 Americans. Big Bad Brad Friedel for Rovers and Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, and Kasey Keller in goal for Fulham. Also on the bench for Fulham were Americans Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride. The first half was similar to the first half in the Queens game, with the wind and rain neither side particularly impressed and the score was still 0-0 at the break.

The second half started out much better, with both sides hitting the posts in the first 15 minutes. Jason Roberts came on for Blackburn and paid immediate dividends as 2 minutes into the game his cross was met by Morten Gamst Pedersen's head and directed into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. Fulham made a change of Americans, pulling Clint Dempsey and replacing him with Brian McBride to partner up top with Eddie Johnson. The added pressure paid off late in the game as Christopher Samba got caught forward and made a clumsy kick on a high ball and being called for dangerous play just outside the 18. The resulting free kick from Jimmy Bullard went directly into the back of the net, and Blackburn walked away having given up 2 points that were there for the taking.

This leaves Blackburn a full 10 points out of the last European space with only 9 games to play and with the likelyhood of extra spots being available going down after this weekend's FA Cup results, the window for qualifying for Europe is closing quickly.

Tenerife - Tenerife went on the road to Cordoba, currently 15th in the Segunda. Unfortunately Cordoba decided to show up sooner than Tenerife did, and with goals in the 20th and 58th minute had Tenerife looking at a long trip back to the Canary Islands. CDT didn't let their heads drop though and 7 minutes from full time they got a lifeline in a goal from Iriome. This was followed on the stroke of full time with a second from Arruabarrena and Tenerife salvaged a point from what looked like a lost match.

However the draw didn't help the team's promotion chances. They stay in 9th place and are still looking at a 9 point gap to the 3rd promotion place with 14 games to play.

Ebbsfleet United - Ebbsfleet hosted the first leg of the FA Trophy semi-final against league-leading Aldershot Town. Just 6 minutes into the match Ebbsfleet drew a PK, the Aldershot player lucky to only see yellow, and made no mistake, taking an early 1-0 lead. Aldershot still seemed to be resting on their laurels and 'Fleet was focused on making them pay. After a number of good attacks finally in the 37th minute John Akinde got free in the area and was tugged down before he could get a shot. Again the Aldershot player was lucky to only get a yellow card, but McPhee steped up and put away his second PK of the half, doubling the Ebbsfleet lead.

Aldershot finally woke up in the second half and had numerous good chances in front of Ebbsfleet's net, but they were unable to break through until the 78th minute with an unmarked header from the far post finding its way into the back of the next and getting Aldershot back to within 1 goal. The Fleet wouldn't be denied though and hit back almost immediately with a long ball down the left side leading to a loose ball in the box that McCarthy stepped up and slotted home to regain the 2 goal lead. The Fleet had chances to extend the lead even further but couldn't quite get the final shot. They take a 2 goal lead into the second leg on the road next Saturday, with a trip to Wembley for the FA Trophy final at stake. Before that match they face Rusheden in league play Tuesday night.

Rapids bombarded by Arsenal Reserves

The Rapids lost today to the Arsenal Reserves, 2-1. However these "reserves" included such notable first team members as Gilberto, Robin Van Persie, and Theo Wolcott. With the Rapids playing a second game in as many days most of the second team got the start. Our lineup was:

Hughes
Kimura - Zambrano - Harvey - Ward
Peterson - LaBrocca - O'Brien - Colaluca
H. Gomez - Kirovski

Only Hughes played the full 90, H. Gomez came off after getting his first 23 minutes of playing time this preseason, everyone else was subbed at half. The Rapids gave up a goal early, in both halves, but managed to get one on the board late. Colin Clark put it away with an assist from our trialist Tom McManus.

The Rapids return to Denver on Sunday, with one more trip to Jackson, Mississippi planned before the start of the season.

Rapids top Ipswich

The Rapids defeated Ipswich Town of the English Championship 3-2 today. Goals by our new signing Rafael Gomes, Nick LaBrocca, and Jovan Kirovski. The starting 11 was:

Bouna

Zambrano - Keel - Erpen - Burciaga

Gomes - DiRaimondo

Cooke - Gomez - Clark

Cummings

With Pablo, Gargan, Ihemelu, and Petke still recovering from injury the likes of Zambrano, Keel, and DiRaimondo got a change to start. Petke and Gargan were able to get some limited time in the second half, while the rest of the team, witht the exception of Bouna, was substituted at half time.

It appears that the Rapids are planning to play a 4-5-1 with two defensive midfielders this season. I have real concerns about this lineup, as we already had a problem of not getting enough offence when we had two forwards on the field. Now we're shifting one of the forwards to an attacking midfield position. On the plus side, iwe should have a very tough defense to score on, so if we can get a goal or two that will probably be enough to win some games. Don't expect a lot of goals this season when the Rapids are playing though.

While in England the Rapids have brought in Tom McManus, a striker formally with Dumferline of the Scottish 1st division, on trial. As one poster on BigSoccer put it, the Rapids are apparently looking for John Spencer 2.

The Rapids will play the Arsenal Reserves tomorrow.

Roster Moves

The Rapids made a number of roster moves today to get within cap and roster size limits.

The biggest move was signing Brazilian defensive midfielder Rafael Gomes. This was a long rumored signing as he's been training with the teamm all preseason.

The Rapids also waived a number of players, defender Chase Hilgenbrinck, midfielder Scott Campbell, defender Brandon Prideaux, midfielder Jose Cancela, and defender Cliff Wilmes. Trialists midfielder Daniel Antunez and forward Kevin Forrest were not given contracts either.

Finally some players were signed to new contracts. Defender Jordan Harvey got a senior roster contract and John DiRaimondo, Nick LaBrocca, Mike Graczyk, midfielder Brian Grazier and defender Cesar Zambrano got developmental roster contracts.

After all of that, where does it leave us?

Well first of all we've signed another defensive midfielder to a team with one of the best defensive midfielders in the league in Pablo, and we used an international slot to doit. This means we'll either be wasting an international slot on a bench player or playing Pablo out of his natural position, probably on the back line. Its great were adding depth, but I'm not sure this is the way to do it.

Secondly the sighning, then waiving of Chase Hilgenbrink is puzzling at best, and more of the same comedy from the team of Fernando Clavijo and the Rapids Front Office. Anyone remember Yerland Macdonald from last season? Nope, neither do we, he was brought in from the Costa Rican National Team and his Norweigan club side then waived before the season even started. What's the point of going to South and Central America if all that results are players that can't even manage to make it to Opening Day, or if they do they're cut midseason like Roberto Brown? Once again the Rapids FO proves its the most clueless in the league.

None of ther est of the player moves stand out. Prideaux was dead weight midway through last season, Cancela was actually let go in the offseason it was just made official today, and the rest are reservists that may or may not turn into quality MLs players.

Weekend Roundup

My travel kept me from last week's roundup so I'll try to fill you in (briefly) if anything of note happened.

Queen of the South - Queens faced the league leaders, Hamilton Academical, at home and knew they had a tough mountain to climb. Hamilton immediately put the Doonhamers on their heels and struck first at the midpoint of the first half. Queens were not push-overs though and scored twice before the end of the period to take a lead into the locker room. In the second half Queens had the run of play but couldn't convert, then in the final minute it all came apart. Hamilton scored after a questionable non-call for a foul on Queen's Andy Aitken and in the hubub after the goal Tosh was given his second yellow for dissent. With the limited time remaining and being down a man Queens had to settle for the draw, a result they would have been happy with before the game, but they have to feel somewhat unlucky not to get the full 3 points. QoS is still in fourth place, 4 points back of 3rd and 15 points from the leaders, but also 15 points from the relegation zone. 9 league games to play, and next week Queens faces Dundee at home in the Scottish Cup Quarterfinals.

Blackburn Rovers - Rovers went up north to face Newcastle this week and left town having stolen 3 points. Newcastle had the run of play for most of the game, with Rovers only forcing 2 significant saves out of the Toon's keeper. Meanwhile at the other end only the ability of Big Bad Brad Friedel and Newcastle's inability to put anything on target kept the scoreline even. In particular Newcastle's Alan Smith couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, from the inside.

With 88 minutes gone it appeared the sides would settle for a 0-0 draw when 2nd half sub and new father (his wife having given birth to twins 48 hours earlier) Matt Derbyshire broke free down the center of the park and was fed the ball in stride by David Bently. A clinical finish past Newcastle's keeper gave Rovers the 3 points and left the Toon staring at relegation. Rovers now sit in 7th place, 5 points behind Liverpool (who have a game in hand) for the last guaranteed European spot and 3 points behind ASton Villa in 6th.

Tenerife - Tenerife faced relegation candidates Alaves with a chance to pick up much needed points. In a quiet match Tenerife got the necessary goal and the 3 points. This kept them on pace with the upper part of the table, leaving them in 9th place, 7 points back of the 3rd promotion spot. With only 15 matches to play and 6 teams to pass time is running out for CDT. Next week they go on the road to face 14th place Cordoba in what is almost a must win situation.

Ebbsfleet United - The quarterfinal FA Trophy match was last week and it took 210 minutes to separate Ebbsfleet and Burton. After a scorless 90 minutes on the road Ebbsfleet had the replay at home and after another 90 minutes without a goal it went to extra time. With 4 minutes to play Stacy Long got the winning goal for the Fleet and they booked their spot in the semi-finals. The two legs will take place over the next two Saturdays, with Ebbsfleet hosting the first leg. The winner will face York or Torquay in the final at Wembley.

After the replay on Tuesday Ebbsfleet had a short week before their match against Northwich on Saturday. The first have was quiet until the end when Northwich pounced on a rebound from keeper Lance Cronin to have Victoria the lead at the break. It went from bad to worse for the 'Fleet after the break when MacDonald gave up a penalty and saw red just 3 minutes into the second half. The penalty was put away and United was looking at a two goal deficit. Fleet clawed one back, only to surrender a third and all signs pointed to a loss. Right after Northwich's third goal though Stacy Long, the hero from Tuesday night, got Ebbsfleet on the board again and the tyeam pressed for the equalizer. They would get it 2 minutes from full time as Chukki Eribenne got his first goal in two months to salvage a point from the fixture.