*sigh*. I don't know why I thought it would be different, but I did. Instead the Rapids did what they've always done in the CCL. Crash out in the first round in a generally embarrassing fashion. I didn't start following the team until just after the 1998 appearance, so I can't speak to that, but in 2011 it was Gary Smith not even bothering to travel to a road CCL match and the Rapids looking decidedly minor league from top to bottom when hosting Santos. In 2018 it was Anthony Hudson openly stating before the matches that he didn't care about the result and was using the games as preseason warmups. Last night it was a team playing up a man, at home, for 75 minutes and then not getting the result they needed before losing in penalty kicks. Oh, and being apparently outdrawn in their home stadium, in sub-zero temps, by Guatemalan supporters. But remember, we're taking it "seriously" this year.
Comuicaciones haws 2 shots on target in the series, both in the first match, and is moving on. This despite having at least 6 players not even make the trip to Colorado and having another sent off in the 15th minute. For 75 minutes the Rapids had complete control of the game, and they came up with a single goal. Now credit to Cremas' keeper, he had a good night, but we didn't really make him work that hard given the difference in talent level (no knock on our opposition, they even admitted they were the less talented team), man power, and home field advantage. In our last 3 games we've scored a single goal when 1 more goal in any of those games would have been enough. We haven't win a knock-out game/series since the Open Cup in 2017. This team is desperate for the guy who can step up and score when we need a critical goal.
Can we stop pretending that the answer to our hole at striker is Rubio or Lewis or Shinyashiki? They had their chances this series and none of them answered the call. It felt like Lewis lost the ball more than he kept it over the two games. Rubio had the chance to be the hero, and couldn't manage to stay onside (that was correctly called by VAR). Shinyashiki could barely get time in the series, and when he did he failed to do the thing he need to do, namely make his PK.
Robin Fraser put out a good lineup in both games, but this lineup has no ability to break down a bunker. We saw it last year and we're seeing it again this season. The lack of the necessary talent on this roster isn't on Fraser, its on Smith. He talked a month ago about having targets identified at striker, but apparently he can't get the deal done. Something he's consistently failed at, despite his success with the rest of the roster. Literally every preview I've read for this season has talked about how the Rapids need a 9, and somehow we went all offseason without signing one. I understand we're playing Moneyball because that's what our owner gives us to work with, but Moneyball ended the same way our season did last year. Why will anything be different this season?
It was also embarrassing to see the crowd makeup in the stadium last night. I'm going to make this perfectly clear up front, this isn't a knock against those of us who did show up, or even those fans with more brains than us and decide to watch from a warm home. There's no way a random Guatemalan team should be outdrawing the home team in snow and single-digit temps in Denver. It shows a failure of the Front Office, over 25+ years, to connect with this community and build a fan base. There should be plenty of committed/insane fans who are willing to come out to this game despite the weather and overwhelm the couple of thousand Guatemalan fans. Instead we sounded like the visiting support in our own stadium. It doesn't help when that visiting team shows more respect and love for their supporters than the burgundy boys did. Outside of Jack Price pretty much the whole team just turned and trudged their way to the locker room after the Shootout instead of acknowledging the fans. Poor show guys, and thanks to Captain Jack for taking the time to show some love.
In the end this is another series where we failed to show up, on and off the field. and we got the expected result. Now we go into the regular season where we have the talent to, over 34 games, finish in a playoff spot and have a "successful" season, but its going to end quickly in the playoffs again unless we add some real firepower. And ever if we do we'll still have to wonder what could have been had we added it before the season.
Man of the Match: Max. Hey, he scored on his home debut, which is all you can ask. If only the rest of the team had lived up to that standard. Honorable mention to Yarbrough, who started out the shootout looking like he wasn't going to save anything, but then came up big forcing the kicks to go 7 rounds. But he had nothing else to do last night not facing a shot on target.
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