Elements Cancel Out For a Draw

Water met Fire on Saturday night and the two opposing forces resulted in no winner as Chicago and Colorado ended with a 1-1 draw in very cold temps. The Rapids were playing with a depleted lineup, missing Casey, Folan, Wynne, and of course Mullan. Despite that they controlled the majority of play.

Chicago had only 3 shots on goal, alas they scored on one. Right before half Puerari played a through ball that allowed both Oduro and Pappa to beat the offside trap. Oduro beat Wallace to the ball and got a cross into the box. Kimura let Pappa get ball side of him and he beat Pickens at the near post to give the Fire a 1-0 lead at the break.

The Rapids didn't wait long to strike back though. 4 minutes after the break Cummings played a great ball that Akpan, in his first professional start, ran onto behind the Fire defense. From a tight angle he ripped a shot that Fire keeper Conway got a hand on but couldn't prevent going into the upper 9- for Akpan's first professional goal. After that the Rapids had a couple of good chances but couldn't find the winning goal, having to settle for the tie.

My key to the game was the Rapids rediscovering their form. While they controlled the game there was still something missing in the final third. The team is getting closer, but they aren't there yet.

Other Observations:

• Where have you gone Omar Cummings? I don't know if he's just disappointed about not moving to the EPL or really needs Casey to play off of, but he's been AWOL most of this season.
• We really miss Casey. Its obvious that we have nobody to hold the ball in the middle of the attacking third to open up options.
• While Kimura was beat on the goal the fact that the right back was racing to get ball side of somebody on the left post shows you how badly the whole defense was beat.
• I'm not sure what LaBaeux was going to bring to the game at the end that Nyassi wasn't bringing. You know we're in bad shape when that was the best option off the bench.
• I'm not sure if this is something Gary Smith wants him to do, but Jamie Smith is playing much more inside this season. It really leaves Wallace on an island.
• Pickens was upset at his defense a couple of times. At least once it was due to Nyassi not knowing his responsibilities on a free kick and Pickens had to make a big save on the restart. The team has to get that worked out.
• I'm getting tired of these cold nights at the Dick!

Player of the Game: Andre Akpan. not only did he get a goal in his first start he looked more involved than Cummings and his work with the ball was better than I expected.