Rapids Finish A Goal And A Man Up

Jermaine Jones signing my jersey

So yeah, that happened at the C38 tailgate making it a good day before the game even kicked off.  Then it was followed up by a red card, a goal, and a 1-0 win putting the the Rapids at a surprising 7 points after 4 games.  Great day on Saturday.

General Impressions:

• Let's get to the three big decisions first since everyone is talking about them, going in order.  The first yellow on Cheyrou was an easy call and with the emphasis we've seen this season on late tackles driving studs into opposing players he's very lucky it wasn't red.  In fact Elfath called him over and appeared to tell him as much with obvious "tone it down" body language before showing the card.
• Which is why I think  the second card came out.  After being told to tone it down Cheyrou went in with a leading elbow not two minutes later.  While the elbow was somewhat a natural motion and wasn't swung in this day and age impacts to the head or near it are going to draw more attention.  it was probably a harsh yellow card but coming immediately on the heels of being lucky to not get a red it made it an easy call for Elfath.  I have no problem with the call given the circumstances and would say as much if the call had been against the Rapids.
• Here's the best screen shot of the rumored offside on the goal:

• As you can see its very very close but Moor (of all people, sadly) appears to be keeping Solignac on side.  With the angle of the picture its impossible to tell for sure and you can see the AR is in perfect position to make the call so I have to assume it was correct.
• So as much whining as some Toronto fans are doing (Kurt Larson, I'm looking at you) its hard to claim the were hard done-by in this game.
• All that said, Elfath was a mess as the ref.  After the red card he made every makeup call he could but the Rapids, smartly, didn't give him a chance to even the playing field.  The two yellows he did hand out were a non-existent dive by Johnson (Burch's) and weak (Burling's), though the latter probably could have been given on a better foul for the persistent infringement.  Oddly the chance he had to balance the teams by giving Burling a second yellow in the 88th he passed on.  I'm not sure it would have made a difference by then.
• Solignac's control touch on the goal was a thing of beauty.  More of that please.
• Colorado has scored 3 goals this season.  Pappa has 1 of them and assists on the other 2.  So far that move is paying off in spades.
• The Rapids were unlucky not to have another couple of goals.  Some good stops by Clint Irwin (no shock) and an unlucky post kept us at 1.
• We really let TFC have too much of the play once we were up a goal.  Obviously up a man and a score we didn't need to push but with guys like Bradley, Altidore, and Giovinco it doesn't take much for that group to find an equalizer.
• Speaking of Bradley he seemed to get int he way of every clearance the Rapids tried.
• I can see why we signed Gashi but he hasn't quite put it all together yet.  When he does though...
• Powers is a man without a position right now.  He's being played as a #10 but our actual #10, Pappa, is doing that job which leaves Powers with some confusion of where he fits.
• Good to see Burling back, big upgrade over Watts.
• What happened to Williams, Watts and Hairston?  Going in with an incomplete bench and no defensive subs is not what I like to see.
• MacMath's quick release was really unnecessary late when we want to kill time.  I wonder if that's something the coaching staff has been pushing.
• Badji is...not good.  His decision making was horrible.  He took shots with no angle while he had open teammates he could have dumped it to and kept possession.
• Next up, bring on FSL and the Rocky Mountain Cup! 

Man of the Match: Zac MacMath.  A surprising pick to some I'm sure but I thought his stability in the back late really helped settle things down when the defense seemed to be losing their focus.  without it an equalizer could have been found by TFC.