Rapids Hit Troubled Waters In Canada

A post-Hudson start and a pre-Casey finish left us with a 2-2- game where both teams probably feel like they could have won.  As we saw in a prediction from Friday...

This has a annoying draw written all over it, where both teams will come out of it thinking they left 2 points on the field.

The Rapids could have, should have, been up 3 in the first 30 minutes.  Not finding the third goal came back to haunt us in a second half where we looked like Hudson's Rapids than Casey's.  An odd decision to only use one sub, and that being 16-year old Seb Anderson, while multiple Rapids were dead on their feet led to the inevitable late tying goal.

• After a less than stunning USOC outing the team followed it up with some poor play and poor decisions in this one.  Casey seems to be losing a bit of his magic touch.  I'm not saying that he's failed, I'm just saying we need to pump the brakes on him becoming the long-term manager, at least until the end of the season.
• Rubio picked up a red card that cost us the game against Vancouver last time, this time he makes a stupid foul that creates the Whitecaps first goal off a PK and changes the momentum right before the half.  This is a bad pattern.
• A bit of a soft foul and a great free kick for Vancouver's second, but you felt that goal was coming oe way or the other.
• Big credit for how the team played in the opening 30 minutes.  The Whitecaps were struggling just to clear their lines.
• Rubio was in the right place at the right time which is what you want from your striker.  I'm not sure he didn't steal a Olympico from Mezquida though, that might have been going in on its own.
• Stunning ball movement on the second goal.  Kamara-Mezquida-Kamara-Shinyashiki got the ball from midfield to the back of the net in 10 second.
• Mezquida picked up two assists in 20 minutes, his best start of the season.
• The undefeated streak now goes to 6.  Can we keep it up against LAFC on Friday?

Player of the Match: Kei Kamara.  Got an assist on the Shinyashiki goal, and Andre later apologized for "stealing" the goal from him (though I'm not sure his header would have gone in).  He had another great shot go right off the post as well and generally ran over the Vancouver defense.