Houston, Will Has A Problem

Well, no way to sugar coat it.  Despite my prediction of a 1-1 draw that was two points dropped, not one point gained.  Yarbrough's mental lapse snatched a draw from the jaws of victory.  We also saw a continuation of a lack of scoring chances, but we are efficient with them, with Kaye's second goal of the year coming off a Jack Price set piece.  The Rapids go into the international break at a solid 2-1-1 with a big home match against FSL coming up on the other side of it.  In-between Kaye (Canada) and Acosta (Honduras) will be with their national teams for the final rounds of World Cup Qualifying.

Ok, we've got things to talk about on both goals.  Starting with the Rapids, we were very lucky it wasn't called offside.  Yes, I hear what you're saying, "no offside on a corner kick!".  That's true, if the shot is the next touch after the corner kick.  If there's a touch by another player between the kick and the shot then offside applies just like any other live play.  In this case Danny Wilson is officially credited with an assist.  If you look at the replay as the ball comes in from Price both Wilson and the Houston keeper go up to play it.  The ball clearly deflects, but its unclear as to which one of them actually gets the touch.  Here's the moment of the touch (or as close as I can get it).

Kaye is bottom right.  Is he offside?  Obviously with the angle its hard to know for sure but its really close.  During the game I was sure he must be but now that I have time to look closer I could go either way.  There was a slight delay to allow VAR time to review it, so it must have been clean.  Also, how is Houston leaving Kaye unmarked on the back post like that?

On the Houston goal Yarbrough knocked a goal kick into the center of the field right at a Houston attacker.  Critical error, especially with only minutes to kill off for a win.  Boot it long and wide and make them waste time recycling it back to the attacking third.  Instead Pasher saw where the ball was going and started his break towards goal before the goal kick even got to his teammate.  The Rapids defense had no chance to shut down the attack.  Yarbrough tried to come out but let the ball get under him and slowly roll in for the equalizer.  Just a bad, bad play.  But, players make bad plays.  Even the best of them.  It hurts more when a keeper does it because they're the last line of defense, but every keeper gets to have one blunder a season.  That's Will's for 2022.

Random Thoughts:

• Auston Trusty has had better games.  Picked up a yellow for an American football tackle, lost the ball out of bounds, and was caught out on at least one Houston attack.
• Bryan Acosta had a good look to win it in stoppage time but put the shot just wide.  You really need to get that on target, but the miss wasn't as bad as some were making it out to be.
• Good to see Danny Wilson back already.  The two weeks off will help him and Esteves recover.
• Rubio back slid in this one after a couple of good appearances..  Hopefully that's a blip and not a trend.
• Kaye was arguably MOTM again.  He's started this season on fire.

Man of the Match: Jack Price.  Doing what he does best, setting up goals from free kicks.  With the assist he ties Terry Cooke for 2nd all-time in Rapids history with 34, behind Chris Henderson.  It took him 4 games longer than Cooke, but if he keeps this rate up he'll tie Henderson's 53 seven games earlier than Chris got it.