This Team Fears No One At Home

Another good performance by the Rapids at home on Saturday night.  After being taken apart by San Jose two weeks ago the team we saw this weekend was much better prepared and ready to face the Earthquakes.  That said, they were outplayed for stretches of the game, but they did enough to get the win without making it look like they were stealing the 3 points.

Random Musings:

• Odd start to the game, after the opening kick I'm not sure the ref blew his whistle for at least 20 minutes.  no goal kicks, no corner kicks, no fouls.  I'm not sure I've ever seen that at the pro level.
• We were lucky not to give a way a PK in the first 5 minutes.  The ref was pretty lenient most of the night, which balanced out between the teams.
• I'm not sure how Acosta's shot made it into the goal, its the type of shot that usually goes off target or the keeper easily saves.  A well placed ball indeed.
• Maybe the Rapids just knew SJ's keeper was weak to his right as both goals got by him on that side.
• Colorado was both unlucky to concede and lucky to only concede one.  SJ's one goal was off a bad deflection but the Earthquakes hit the post twice.
• Kamara hit the same post.  Maybe that post should have been MOTM, 3 big saves!
• Casey has won 7 of his 15 games now, and if you discount the one where he took over midweek that's essentially a 50% win record which is very good for a Rapids manager.
• The Rapids have also gone a single-season record 15 games without being shut out and are on pace for their second best offensive season of all-time.
• All that said, the road gets much much harder from here.  Of our 10 remaining games 7 of them are on the road and 8 of them are against teams currently in a playoff position.  We have the hardest remaining schedule left in the league.
• The Bodmer line is at 1.7 pts/game.  Not unreachable but unlikely.  The Bodmer Line is just an average of past seasons though, not a predictor of what the number will be this season.  Realistically its looking to be higher than average so the team would probably have to average more like 2.3 pts/game or so to make the playoffs.  That seems pretty much impossible.

Man of the Match: Diego Rubio.  A few weeks ago I complained that his theatrics on the field were barely worth it if he kept scoring.  Well, he has kept scoring.  He got the winner in this one for his 3rd game in a row with a goal.  I still don't love the attitude on the field but you can't complain about the results right now.