Rapids Sleep For 10 Minutes, Concede 3 Goals

The Rapids checked out between the 8th and 18th minute on Saturday night.  By the time they checked back in they were down 3-0 and the game was essentially over.  Defensive miscues across the backline meant the end of Colorado's 23-game regular season home undefeated streak.  While the home side arguably outplayed Nashville for the rest of the match that didn't really matter (and was partially because Nashville was happy to sit back and park the bus).  The Rapids now have 3 weeks over this international break to figure out how to hit the reset button and get their season in motion.

Random Musings:

• There were questions about offside on the first Nashville goal.  What many are missing (including me initially) is that Rosenberry's momentum trying to cover the cross took him off the field beyond the endline.  For  purposes of offside, a player off the field in the run of play (i.e. not waiting for ref's permission to come back on after an injury) is considered to be on the endline.  So Rosenberry and Yarbrough were keeping everyone onside.
• On that goal, Abubakar got outmuscled for the header, while Wilson was ball-watching and left Sapong unmarked.  Easy score.
• On the second Nashville got a quick restart, Everyone lost Mukhtar for a second, then when Lalas found him he gave him too much room to get off a narrow angle shot and Yarbrough got beat near post.  We should have stopped it but it was also some good play from Nashville.
• On the final Nashville goal Mukhtar ran right in front of goal, Lalas stepped to the far post while Trusty was covering near post, which gave him plenty of room to head in the cross.  Yarbrough probably could have come out for it, but he would also expected one of his center backs to be marking the most dangerous attacker for the opposition.
• 9 minutes, 3 goals, all 3 central defenders and the goalkeeper could have done more to stop them but didn't.  After that the team looked pretty stunned.
• While Markanich, getting the start after a good start last week, wasn't directly responsible for any of the goals he also didn't have a good night, ball-watching and getting caught out of position.
• The fan vote gave Lewis the man of the match, but I'm not sure why.  Playing 90 minutes as a forward and not getting a shot off does not a good game make.
• Zardes did nothing in his 45 minutes on the pitch either.  But then he's expecting Lewis to set him up.
• Barrios came in and was dangerous, but as we've seen for a while now he isn't turning that danger into goals.  I'm not sure why its not happening for him but its not.
• I was serious before.  The Rapids needs to take the next 3 weeks and get their heads on straight.  There are too many people on this team checking out too often in games.  We didn't do that at all last year, this year we're getting burned by it.  There are maybe 3-4 names that are guaranteed starters right now (Yarbrough, Price, Rubio, maybe Zardes), everyone else needs to step their game up.

Man of the Match: Diego Rubio.  Yeah, I took the easy road and went with the goal scorer, but it was a nice free kick.