Finally

12 long games and by the end of the last one the Rapids finally came out on top.  Probably the best played game by the team as a whole all season as while there weren't a ton of stars, nobody really had a bad game, for the first time this year.  To be fair, had Zlatan played the result in probably different but 3 points is 3 points.  Colorado got the stops when they needed to due to a big game from Tim Howard and a goal-line clearance from Rosenberry.  The Rapids could have made it move than one if Kei had not been having a off night or Lewis had finished his first breakaway as a Rapids, but Shinyashiki got the job done, all we needed was one.

Random Musings:

• Casey is obviously going to play as a counter-attacking team. Sit in deep, it them on the break, try to minimize the damage to our patched together defense.  That's the smart move right now given where this team is at.
• Despite his late start to the year Lalas Abubakar is making a run at team MVP already.  Since he's on loan from Columbus he can't play against them next week, it will be interesting to see how we look without him.
• Tommy Smith looked decent lined up next to Abubakar, with natural LB's and RB's outside of him.  That might be a manageable defense until/if Ford gets back.
• LB is still a hole.  Wynne didn't look great.  If Vines is healthy next week might as well see what he can do.
• Nicholson was driving at Polenta all night, clearly they saw something in the footage that suggested he was weak.
• Seeing Glad's red card get overturned last week and not seeing Polenta's card being upgraded this week leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  
• I love Kamara, but last night was probably his worst game in a Rapids jersey.  I hope it was just a one off and not a sign of lacking confidence after his poor PK last week.
• Shinyashiki has two goals this year.  They both came after the 80th minute and led to 4 points (out of 5 total).  Not too bad for a rookie.
• The win caps our losing streak and a team-record tying 8 games, and our start-of-season winless streak at a league-record tying 11 games.  That also keeps FSL in the record books alongside us with that record.

Man of the Match: Jonathan Lewis.  We got our first real good look at what he can do in this game.  Yeah, he missed his first breakaway but that's just the minimum requirement to be a Rapid these days.  Other than that he was dangerous all night and gave LA fits.  He topped off his performance with a spot on the provisional Gold Cup roster announced today.