First to the NYCFC game. I think this game really showed the difference between a solid and deep MLS team and the Rapids who are pretty close to a quality XI but are paper-thin. Starting Sam Vines, Cole Bassett, and especially Seb Anderson really shows our depth is lacking. While the first two (particularly Vines) have shown they are ready to play at this level I'm not sure either one is a lock-down starter yet. Anderson is certainly not and we saw that Saturday night. Great pressure and positioning to get a goal, but also poor decision making to be behind the play and draw a red card. If Sam Nicholson is starting instead of Seb there's no red card. Of course there's no guarantee of a goal either.
The other talking point from the game is the claim that the winning NYCFC goal was offside due to the initial pass that Abubakar intercepted going to an offside player. It wasn't. I'm actually a little frustrated by Casey leading with that at his post-game press conference because there's no way he could have seen it from his spot on the sidelines and making such a strong claim that it was offside was just wrong. Let's break it down:
- If you watch the video clip on the Rapids website or MLSSoccer.com you'll notice the replay of the goal cuts in maybe a quarter second after the ball was played. At that point the NYCFC attacker is onside due to Tommy Smith being closer to the goal than he is. Now its possible that Smith made a Usain Bolt-like sprint from behind the attacker in that quarter-second but its unlikely. I'm 99% confident that the attacker was onside when the pass was played.
- But lets assume I'm wrong and he was offside. Its not a foul to be offside. Its a foul to be involved in the play from an offside position. The current directives from FIFA on offside interprets "being involved" as playing the ball or challenging for the ball. Challenging for the ball is defined as being close enough to play the ball and attempting to do so. When Abubakar heads the ball the NYCFC attacker is a step or two behind him and not close enough to challenge for the ball at that moment. Thus at that moment he is not currently involved in the play and is not offside. Now I know what you're going to say, "Abubakar only played the ball because of the offside attacker" and you'd be right and I'd agree, that should be enough to be considered to be involved, but its not. Its a stupid interpretation but its the one currently being used. We saw the same calls being made with the same reasoning at the U-20 and Women's World Cups this summer.
So for two different reasons the attacker was not offside. All that said, the ref didn't have a good night but he did get the two key calls (the red and the goal) correct. But he missed a clear foul and yellow against Nicholson late, he let a couple of other incidents go that should have been called, and in general left everyone frustrated.
Player of the Match: Howard/Irwin. They both had great games and Irwin had to step in quickly for the injured Howard. So I'm giving it to both of them. Good news is that Tim is not on the injury report this week.
On to other news. First I need to track back a couple of weeks as I never discussed Nana Boateng being release from his contract. Honestly it wasn't a surprise considering he has been back in Sweden all season with family issues. Reports are that he agreed to terminate his contract for free so the Rapids get back the rest of his cap room this season (a little over $150K). This works for him to as by being released before the window closes he can sign as a free agent anywhere, presumably somewhere closer to home. Boateng never really worked out here, after a few early flashes the serious injury to his back in 2017 really change him as a player and set him back.
His release, along with Kortne Ford's full season injury, ensures that no player signed between the end of the 2016 and 2017 seasons will play a minute for the Rapids this year. Names like Aigner, Da Fonte, Perez, an Hamilton along with those two are a list of missed opportunities (or in Kort's case, injury). There are a lot of reasons the Rapids aren't a good team right now but one of the big ones is that fact that we essentially took a year off from improving the team and we're still suffering for that.
On a more positive front our youth movement is starting to pay off. Reportedly we received another bid for Cole Bassett from Germany, and Sunday is the first day we could accept it under FIFA rules (Bassett turns 18 on Sunday, the youngest age a player can accept an overseas transfer offer). My bet is that we hold on to him a bit longer but next week could be interesting. Both Bassett and Vines were included on the Homegrown Game roster for next week's All-Star festivities, they'll take on the Chivas U-20s on Tuesday in Orlando.
Also some good news for Anderson after he became what we believe to be the youngest player in league history to get a red card. He's been called into the U.S. U-17 preliminary camp for the U-17 World Cup in Brazil on Oct/Nov. Now getting called into the camp doesn't mean he's going to go to the World Cup but its a positive sign in that direction. That camp starts tomorrow for a week and a half and the U-17's will play USL sides Orange County SC and LA Galaxy II during the camp. Seb was already going to miss this week's game due to the red card, but being called up for international duty puts that on hold until he's done. So he'll miss the game in SJ and the Montreal home game for Nats duty, then he'll be suspended for the home game against San Jose once he returns.
Last, but hardly least, we still don't have a full time manager. I've heard multiple rumors that Robin Fraser is the guy but nothing concrete or verifiable. Over the last few games we've see the "new manager" bounce run off of Casey and while the team is still improved, there have been a couple of games and a few decisions that are starting to show what Casey still has to learn. I'd like to see the FO either name a new manager or make a public statement that Casey has the rest of the season. This limbo is annoying.
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