Rapids Take Step Back In Dallas

Saturday in Dallas looked more like 2018 than 2019.  Another late goal led to a loss when a point was there for the taking.  Or defense looked bad on both goals.  On the first there were 8 Rapids on or within a step of the box against 4 Dallas players, one of whom ran himself out of the play into an offside position, and yet Dallas sustained possession in the box for 7 seconds and two passes before scoring.  On the second its 7 defenders on 5 attackers and Dallas got off two great shots with Howard able to save the first.  As we saw in Seattle, unmarked attackers will find the goal.  The Rapids goal came off a nice free kick where Kamara got what felt like a foot above everyone else to ping a header off the corner of the crossbar and Smith slid in to force the ball across the line with his thigh/groin.  Even with that they had to go to VAR to confirm it crossed the line.

Random Musings:

• Three worrying trends are apparent over the start of the season.  1. Slow starts on the road, the Rapids were lucky not to be down within the first few minutes.  2. Late goals, that's two weeks in a row that we've dropped points from an goal after the 80th minute.  3. Our defense doesn't mark anyone.
• One of the reasons we weren't down early and didn't lose by more is Badji doing Badji things.  Early on he pinged the post on a shot he was unpressured on, late in the game he had a good look at goal and didn't put it on target.  Anyone wondering why we traded our leading scorer last year just needs to look at this game to get an answer.
• Tommy Smith was back and did a good thing (goal) and a bad thing (not marking the goal-scorer on the second goal).  We don't need him to do the first but he really needs to stop doing the second quickly if he's going to help this team.
• Seriously, on Dallas' two goals we had them outnumbered by a combined 17 to 9 (including Howard) and they scored both times with no trouble.  The man on the ball never had any pressure on him on either goal.  Ridiculous defending.
• Howard could do nothing on either goal and made a great save on one of them and a number of other good moves during the game.  He looks a lot more like his pre-injury self.
• Why was Jack Price taking the free kicks?  The one that scored the goal was good but most of them were average at best.
• Serna made a couple of highlight plays, but they were largely highlights because he put himself in a bad position he had to recover from.  Better teams would have made him pay for those.
• Rosenberry was passive on both goals (as was most of the defense).  I expected more out of a fringe national team player.
• Of course, he might have been following Acosta's lead who was also pretty passive the whole game.
• Shinyashiki looked like the rookie he was.  He had a great 1v1 chance to put the Rapids up and hit it right at the keeper.  He'll learn.
• Kamara was the most motivated and active player again this week.  He's quickly become a favorite of mine.
• This felt like the first real disappointing result of the season.  Going in I had pegged us at two home draws in the first 3 games against 3 of the tougher 2018 Western Conference teams and that's what we got.  Dallas is a team in transition with new leadership though and a point was there and a better team could have stolen a win.  Instead we reverted to 2018 play and results.
• Pressure is mounting to get a win against Houston at home this week.  Weather will be decent (but cold), everyone but Ford should be available, and we'll be at home.  If we can't get 3 then this season could go downhill quickly.

Man of the Match: Cole Bassett.  He just looked like he belonged on the field despite his age.  Good ball control, steady presence, and knew where he needed to be.  Nothing spectacular but good solid play in a midfield that didn't have much of it.  I'm starting to wonder if its not better to put Feilhaber at the 10 with Bassett and Acosta behind him backed up by Price.  Mezquida hasn't done much to show he should be getting the minutes over Cole.