Zlatan Who?

The Rapids finally got a look at Zlatan for the first time in a while and, well, meh.  He certainly didn't look as good as Andre Shinyashiki.  That, combined with some great goalkeeping on both sides and maybe a little of help from the officials got the Rapids their 3rd straight victory, though they did concede their first goal under Fraser in route to the 2-1 win.  That's 9 points and a +5 GD in the 3 games Fraser has been in charge.

Also this.  In 43 games in charge Hudson earned 33 points.  In the 21 games since then with Casey and Fraser in charge they've earned 34 points.  if you ever doubted the importance of coaching in MLS, don't.

Random Musings:

• Both goalkeepers were on fire last night.  On a different day that's a 4-3 game and I'm not sure who wins.
• With Kamara out the last three games Shinyashiki is making his claim to the Rookie of the Year award.  I still think he comes up a little short but he's looking more mature than his age.
• Danny Wilson and Tommy Smith as our centerbacks was a recipe for disaster last year.  This year we start them against Ibra and somehow the Lion is more like a mouse.  Again, coaching matters.
• In 4 games against Zlatan's Galaxy the Rapids have 3 wins and 1 draw
• Zlatan only played in 2 of those 4 games, in those games he had a combined 8 shots, only 1 on goal.
• Apparently Fraser called Abubakar into the office yesterday to ask if he had ever played right back.  Lalas said no, and Fraser told him that due to Vines being sick he was playing their last night.  At times he looked more like a winger than a right back but it worked!
• Price's late yellow means he won't make the trip to Toronto on Sunday.
• How about Sjoberg getting an appearance just to mark out Ibra for the last part of the game?  That has to be huge for the Swede.
• Ok, lets talk about the calls.  I think the Rapids got one more beneficial call than the Galaxy.  The Rapids PK, the reversed red card, and the non-LA PK were all on the light side.  I think you call all three or you call none of them.  The ref called one (our PK).  I think, if you set the bar that the touch on Shinyashiki is a foul then the hack on him later is clearly a red and Wilson's boot to the face is a PK.  But if you decide that Andre flopped originally all three fouls get downgraded to no call (or a yellow for the foul in the corner).
• That said. the Rapids have gotten their fair share of bad calls this season.  Barring a hand of God (or 5th Down for you CU fans) I tend to think calls balance out over the course of a season.  The LA fans who have "lost faith" in the league over last night are a joke and shows just how long the Galaxy have had "favored child" status when it comes to officiating.

Man of the Match: Clint Irwin.  Had a spectacular night and saved us on more than one occasion.