Rapids Lose But Will Still Host Playoff Game

Colorado played the same sort of game they've been playing, and got the same result, 0 points.  In this case they held Seattle to just a single goal but that was enough.  In the second half Rosenberry tried to pass to Larraz around midfield but the ball was a bit behind Oli.  He stabbed at it and the deflection bounced right into Morris' path.  He went in one on one with Steffen but Zack was able to make the save.  Unfortunately the ball feel to Rusnak and with Zack on the ground he had an open goal to look at.  Maxso was able to deflect it but not far enough to stop it from going in.  After the game Keegan took responsibility for the poor pass that started the sequence.

The problem continues to be a lack of creativity on offense.  The heavy legs and absence of Bassett has made it really difficult to score.  Luckily Cole said he'll be back for Austin which is good, because we'll likely need a result there.

The good news is on Sunday Portland played a scoreless draw with Dallas, which meant they can no longer catch us in the standings.  That ensures at least a top 8 finish and a home playoff game.  The next step is to avoid the play-in/wild-card game.  To do that the Rapids need to beat Austin or Minnesota needs to not beat St. Louis.  We can also avoid it with a draw and a Houston loss OR Vancouver not winning both remaining matches.  With a loss in Austin we need Vancouver to lose one of their remaining two or draw both of them.  Vancouver has a game next Sunday during the international break so we could be sure of avoiding the play-in game by then if they lose that match.

Not beating Austin likely means we finish 7th at best or keep our current 6th if we get lucky.  A win means we'll stay in 6th and could get to 5th if Houston doesn't beat the Galaxy.  We can't get into the top 4 and get home-field advantage in the first round.  Assuming we avoid the playin game we would start on the road the weekend of October 26th & 27th, have our home match the following weekend (Nov 2nd/3rd) and game 3 if needed on the weekend of Nov 9th/10th.  If we fall into the play-in game we would host that on Wednesday October 23rd most likely.

And with that we have a much needed two weeks off before Austin.  Odds are I'll be fairly quiet for those two weeks as I don't expect anything to happen this week and next week I have family things going on.  In fact, don't expect a game preview for the Austin game but I'll have a recap afterwards and a playoff preview that week after.