Rapids Sign Armstrong From Academy

The Rapids took an important step today by signing midfielder Davy Armstrong. He's a local player who is the first to come up through the Rapids academy system and sign for the club. Being classified as a homegrown talent means that Armstrong takes one of the two protected homegrown talent spots on the roster and does not count against the salary cap. Hopefully this is just the first of many (clubs can sign up to 4 players a year from their academies) signings to come out of the Rapids youth system.

Rapids Try To Tread On Union

The Rapids get their first look at the expansion Philadelphia Union and their snake logo tomorrow. Given their location in the nation's first capital and the Revolutionary War ties of their logo lets hope our British coaching staff doesn't try to emulate the slow campaign of General Howe as he took the city in 1777/ Game time tomorrow is a early 2pm. The game will be on KWGN, and look for the small delegation of Rapids fans who made the trip East to support the team!

Injury Report:

OUT: MF Ciaran O'Brien (L hip sprain); MF Colin Clark (L ACL tear); FW Ross Schunk (R ACL tear);

PROBABLE: FWD Conor Casey (head trauma); MF Jaime Smith (neck strain)

Discipline Report:

TWO CAUTIONS FROM SUSPENSION: Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Pablo Mastroeni

While the injury report lists Clark as questionable we got the official word today that he tore his ACL last week and is done for the season. Its the same ACL he tore 370 days before he tore it last week. Rough break for him and it puts the team in bad shape. At least we get Casey back. With the news, here's my guess on the lineup:

Pickens

Kimura - Wynne - Baudet - Moor

Larentowicz - Pablo

Cummings - Ballouchy - Smith

Casey

That's pretty close to the 4-5-1 we used earlier this season, with the back line shifted to the left, pushing Earls out and moving Kimura in on the right.

Stat Of The Game: If Pablo plays essentially the whole game (87 minutes) he'll become the all-time team leader in minutes played.

Key To Look For: Team cohesiveness. We're making multiple changes from the team that figured out how to win last week, mainly due to players being injured or returning to injury. Can we pick up where we left off or will it take a while for everyone to find their place?

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Conor Casey. While this is an expansion team, its a decent team at home. We'll be playing in the heat of the day, and while we won last week I'm still not confident in our ability to carry any momentum on the road.

Our Long Local Nightmare Is Over!

Believe it or not, the Rapids actually won on Saturday night! They took a Rob Green-level own goal from San Jose keeper Jon Busch and made it stand up for the 1-0 win. While the scoreline makes it seem like a pretty even game, the rapids were clearly the better team on the field. Its just, yet again, the Rapids couldn't finish. The Rapids outshot the Earthquakes 15-8 and had most of the possession. Early on Colin Clark hit the post and Jon Busch made a big save before the gaffe off a Cummings cross that gave us the goal.

The one black mark on the game was Colin Clark leaving the game injured. In the 54th minute he went down without being touched and grabbed in left knee. He walked off the field under his own power but was carted to the locker room shortly thereafter. He was scheduled to have a MRI on his knee today. The left ACL is the one he blew out on Aug. 11th of last year, so cross your fingers that he didn't blow it again.

My key to the game was just winning the game. Check.

Other Observations:

• Quincy Amarikwa is all speed and not much else. He has occasional flashes of brilliance but for the most part he's too raw to be playing for a team in a playoff fight.
  
• Claudio Lopez needs to start, period. And not just because he took the time to give Class VI a thumb's up when the ball was out of play.
• Koz looked much better back in his natural right back position.
• Pablo was trying to fill that hole behind the forwards. He was often one of the two or three most forward players.
• Glad to see Gary Smith realize that Omar can't start up top alone in a 4-5-1. I just wish we had a better backup forward to partner with him in the 4-4-2.
• Ballouchy needs to figure out how to shoot. He had a chance to put the game away and blew it by barely even getting a shot off.
• Pickens did a good job with a number of touchy balls. He needs to remember he's at home though. He kicked a ball out of play into the stands so an injury could be taken care of and nearly took the head off a fan.

Player of the Game: Omar Cummings. He can't really take credit for the goal but he was the most dangerous player on the pitch on Saturday. With little help from his strike partner he still threatened the goal multiple times.

Do Or Die Time At The Dick

Stealing a line from our opponents area of the country the Rapids face what's pretty close to a must win game tomorrow at the Dick. San Jose is in town and both teams are battling for the last playoff spots. Game time is back to a more normal 7pm. The Supporters Group tailgate stats at an early time of 4pm due to the homebrew challenge. Come out and check out what some of the fans have been brewing up!

Injury Report:

OUT: MF Ciaran O'Brien (L hip sprain); FW Ross Schunk (R ACL tear);

QUESTIONABLE: FWD Conor Casey (head trauma)

PROBABLE: DF Danny Earls (R groin strain),

Discipline Report:

TWO CAUTIONS FROM SUSPENSION: Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Pablo Mastroeni

Believe it or not we're actually significantly healthier than the Earthquakes. They have 6 players listed as questionable or worse. The Rapids will have to play some guys out of position this week, my guess:

Pickens

Wynne - Baudet - Moor - Kimura

Larentowicz - Pablo

Smith - Ballouchy - Clark

Cummings

That's the XI we used against Dallas last week and I doubt we'll see a change with the injury report being what it is. Earls for Kimura, if he's healthy, is the only likely difference.

Key To Look For: No more keys. Just win baby. We're on a 7 game winless streak and about to go on the road for 2 games, if we don't win now when will we win?

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Jamie Smith. The Rapids still haven't proven they can win, and until they do the best I can predict is a draw. With the juggled lineup I think our goal will come from an unexpected place in Jamie Smith.

Stop Me If You've Seen This Before

The Rapids tied Dallas 1-1 on an own goal by Julian Baudet and a PK by Mehdi Ballouchy. Other than the difference in the goal scorers you can just read my recap of the Kansas City game two weeks ago to see what happened this game. Same result, same order of goals scored, same uninspired play.

My key to the game was being able to score more than one goal. Well we did! Only problem is that one of them was in our own net. As predicted, only scoring one on our side of the scoreboard only got us a draw.

Other Observations:

• Winless streak now at 7 games.
  
• Larentowicz of Thompson when tied 1-1 at home? Way to play for the win Gary.
• Rumor has it that the 2pm kickoff on the last day of July was an experiment by the Rapids to see if TV ratings were better on Saturday afternoon over Saturday night. FO, consider the experiment a failure. I don't want to sit through another sauna like that unless its for national TV.
• Rough that Casey wasn't even able to play after his collision last Saturday, hopefully he gets better soon.
• At points during the game it felt like we were playing a 4-6-0 as Omar drifted out to his normal position out wide and nobody filled the gap in the center.
• Koz is not the answer on the left.

Player of the Game: Matt Pickens. He had 3 great saves that preserved the draw and gave the team the chance (even if they didn't take it) to take all 3 points. Nothing he could have done about Baudet's own goal, he was surprised as anyone.