Well, I Didn't See That Coming

Ok, that was an impressive performance from the Rapids.  Their second best game of the year continued an undefeated streak against the Galaxy.  Colorado controlled the game almost from start to finish, outshot and out possessed the Galaxy, and never really felt in that much danger of losing the game.  A first ever homegrown to homegrown goal got the burgundy boys on the board as Bassett one-timed a Vines cross into the net in the first half, and then a favorable VAR ruling in the second half found the Lewis' team leading 4th goal was not offside as first ruled.  In-between the Galaxy's Araujo managed 2 yellow cards in 3 minutes, putting the Galaxy down a goal and a man.

The big takeaway from this game is that the kids are alright.  After Kamara's departure the 'old man' in the starting XI was goalkeeper William Yarbrough...at 31.  Everyone else was 27 or younger.  Mezquida (28) and Benezet (29) brought the average age of the players who appeared up a bit but still pretty young.  The age of the players who ended up on the boxscore (goals or assists) was 19, 19, 21, 23 and 23.  That looks good.  Right now the Rapids only have 5 players over the age of 29 on the roster, 4 of which (Irwin, Moor, Beitashour, and Warner) are pretty clearly backups at this point, with only Yarbrough likely to get significant minutes if anyone is available.

We've talked a lot about the attack, but credit goes to the defense as well.  Rosenberry had Pavon locked down all night.  That let Abubakar and Wilson really focus on the center of the field and keep anything from getting too dangerous.  And the few times they weren't able to do that Yarbrough was up to the task.  The only real negative from the game was injuries, both Wilson and Namli left after taking knocks.  We'll have to see what their availability is for the next couple of games this week.

BTW I said the VAR ruling was favorable earlier.  Not because it was a questionable call, but because the offside that was overturned was very close and VAR in MLS doesn't use the Hawkeye line-drawing system you see in the EPL, so the VAR is still eyeballing it from a screen.  The player that held Galvan onside was far enough away from him that it entered into a grey area of being a clearly wrong call that should have been reviewed, since its not obvious it was that close.  So the favorable call was that they agreed to review it, not that they made a favorable decision.  Given how the game was going though I don't think it changed the outcome of the match.

Man of the Match: Cole Bassett.  Had the most shots on the team, a goal, and honestly, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to name him MotM.  I don't think he's going anywhere this year, but I'm not 100% he'll be around when we start the 2021 season.  European teams have to be sniffing around at this point.  If it weren't for Lewis' goal Bassett would be tied for the team lead in goals and the team lead in assists.