Coin-Flip Photos

Game recap tonight, hopefully, but I want to get these up so my wife can send out the link to her family.  These are from the coin-flip I got to do at the Rapids last home game.

Showing the coin

That yellow spot above my head is the coin we're all looking at

How did it land?

Seattle's choice

Post-flip picture #1

(L-R: AR Corey Parker, 4th Official Baldomero Toledo, Sounders Captain Mauro Rosales, Jake Nuechterlein, Me, Rapids Captain Drew Moor, CR David Gantar, AR Phil Briere)

Post flip picture #2

The Call Up

Getting harder and harder not to repeat myself on these

The Rapids have a quick turn around as they head out to the Bay Area tomorrow for a final matchup with the Earthquakes.  With a win and a Vancouver loss or draw the Rapids will clinch a playoff berth.  Even without the Vancouver result a win will prevent San Jose from being able to pass Colorado.  A loss puts San Jose within a point of the Rapids.  Game time tomorrow is 8:30pm for the weeknight game and Fleming and 'Celo will have the call on Altitude.  The watch party will be at the British Bulldog.

Injury Report:

OUT: DF Davy Armstrong (R ACL surgery); DF Kory Kindle (sports hernia)' MF Dillon Powers (concussion)
QUESTIONABLE: MF Jamie Smith (R knee)

Disciplinary Report:
SUSPENDED AFTER ONE YELLOW; DF Shane O'Neill
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOWS: MF Dillon Powers; MF Hendry Thomas

Ineligible:

FW Deshorn Brown - Jamaican National Team
FW Charles Eloundou - Still waiting on International Transfer Certificate
FW Gabriel Torres - Panamanian National Team

That's a bad set of missing players, but San Jose is equally hurting.  They've got two callups as well along with a suspended starter in Lenhart and 6 players on IR (including former Rapid Mehdi Ballouchy).  My guess at our starting XI:

With the missing players the lineup seems fairly obvious.  The only question mark is if LaBrocca slots in somewhere over a Rivero or Sanchez. 

Key To Look For: The play of the fill-ins.  Buddle and Harris have managed adequately, but  San Jose will be playing for their season tomorrow and they've got nothing to lose.  Buddle and Harris will have to step up.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Sanchez.  I think the missing players will be enough to make it difficult to get the 3 points in this one.  The draw will be enough to pretty much remove everyone but Vancouver as a threat to a playoff spot, but we'll need the win next week against Vancouver.

Tonight's Word Is Dismantled

Well, I didn't see that coming.  Colorado took Seattle to the woodshed in the first half, scoring almost at will, and spotted themselves a 4-0 lead at half en route to a 5-1 win over the league leaders.  The game started with my coin flip, won by the Sounders unfortunately, but that actually worked in the Rapids favor.  They have been working on a kickoff play all season and Saturday night it worked to perfection, putting Deshorn Brown through on a Torres pas and the rookie slotted it home for the 2nd fasted goal in MLS history, just 13 seconds into the game.

10 minutes later it was time for the Rapids other rookie to get on the board.  Vicente Sanchez saw that the Sounders were slow getting back on a corner kick and called for a ball quickly.  He crossed it in and Powers read what Sanchez was planning and crashed in to head it home for the 2-0 lead.

Brown wasn't done though, taking a pass from Powers, fighting through Yedlin's challenge, and beat Gspurning near post for his second goal of the night and ninth of the season.  Captain Drew Moor got into the act almost by accident in the 41st minute as another corner was knocked towards goal by Hendry Thomas but deflected off Moor and into the goal, giving the scoring credit to Drew.

The second half was a bit calmer, as the Rapids eased off the accelerator, having the game in hand.  After a rousing chorus of "Portland's Better!" from the Terraces Eddie Johnson would get Seattle on the board, taking advantage of a mis-communication in the Rapids defense to get a breakaway.  The Sounders got close a couple of other times but eventually gave up a response as just before the end of the game Gabriel Torres scored his first goal as a Rapid, curling a shot past the far post to finish the rout.

My key to the game was shaking off the rust.  Yeah, that took all of 13 seconds.

Random Thoughts:

• Awesome tifo from C38 to start the game, and bonus points for featuring Rapidman!
•  This game could have easily been 8-2.  The Rapids hit the crossbar on two free kicks and Gspurning had to make back-to-back point blank saves.  Irwin equaled Gspurning's saves with a little help from Drew Moor.
• This is only the 3rd time the Rapids have scored 5 goals in a match.  They beat New England 5-2 at home in 2002 (in what would be Fernando Clavio's last game in charge of the Revs) and NY 5-4 in NY in 2008.
• Sanchez and Torres showed ball work that we haven't seen in a Rapids kit since Pareja's fellow countryman Carlos Valderrama.  Nothing on the team matched El Pibe's hair though.
• The forward combo of Sanchez - Torres - Brown is what a lot of fans (including me) have been hoping for for a few games and it paid off in spades with 3 goals and 3 assists.
• Powers had a great game in midfield, overshadowed by Brown's great game.  Clearly the best draft class we've had maybe ever.
• The only debate left in the Rookie of the Year competition is which Rapid should get it.  I'm on Team Deshorn now.  DeAndre Yedlin has been a trendy pick for some in the media, but seeing him get worked by fellow-rookie Brown on his way to putting up the 2nd best scoring number ever by a rookie should end any thought that Yedlin could win it.
• Sanchez was great seeing that Seattle was sleeping on the corner and taking advantage.  He got both his assists off of corner kicks, which is something we've struggled with this season as Rivero's corners are not good.
• Eddie Johnson told the Terraces to STFU after he scored,, sticking his tongue out at them.  This as the Sounders were still down 3 goals.  Great job by C38 getting into his head, stay classy EJ.  Remember you negotiated with the Rapids just to get back into the league before the Sounders swooped in to trump the Rapids trade offer with Toronto.
• Torres needed that goal before heading off to play for Panama again.
• Had a great time doing the coin flip, thanks to the Rapids for the experience!
• Colorado can clinch a playoff spot with a win over San Jose and a Vancouver loss or draw on Wednesday .

Player of the Match: Deshorn Brown.  His first multi-goal game took him past Clint Dempsey for second on list for goals by a rookie.  He was rewarded with his first callup for the Jamaican National Team for their World Cup Qualifiers against the U.S. and Honduras next week.  He'll miss the San Jose game on Wednesday but he'll have the two games against Vancouver to try to meet or break the rookie goal-scoring record set by fellow Jamaican Damani Ralph at 11 goals.

Rapids Face Dempsey-less Sounders

Important coin flip tomorrow

Colorado begins the final four game run of the season tomorrow with a nationally televised game against my hometown.  The sounders flew into Denver today without designated player Clint Dempsey who is still recovering from a hamstring pull, so that helps the Rapids chances.  Game time tomorrow for the telecast on NBC Sports is scheduled for 8pm, which means kickoff will really be around 8:20 or 8:25.  The tailgate, featuring the annual chili-cookoff, will start at 5pm.

If you don't like the direction the Rapids are playing in the first half then you can blame me.  I won the team's contest to flip the coin for this match so it will be me at midfield before the game.  Hopefully I don't screw it up. ;)

Injury Report:

OUT: DF Davy Armstrong (R ACL surgery); DF Kory Kindle (sports hernia)
QUESTIONABLE: MF Jamie Smith (R knee)

Disciplinary Report:
SUSPENDED AFTER ONE YELLOW; DF Shane O'Neill; MF Dillon Powers
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOWS: MF Hendry Thomas

Ineligible:

FW Charles Eloundou - Still waiting on International Transfer Certificate

Yes, Jamie Smith is still on this team, though it doesn't look like he'll be playing tomorrow night.  That said, he probably wasn't going to play if he's healthy. ;)  Other than that everyone who's played this season is available including Diego Calderon.  Seattle has a player out and seven questionable (including Dempsey) so they're hurting.  My guess at our XI:

Torres will hopefully start again but with Pareja who knows.  I'm sure Buddle will start in the middle though that should really be Torres with Brown on the right.  Maybe we see Powers and Rivero but odds are Powers and Sturgis. 

Key To Look For: Shaking off the rust.  Lately after a bye week we've looked pretty bad, we can't afford that this week.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Torres.  Torres has to score eventually, right?  Seattle is playing well and I expect that to continue, but the home field advantage is enough to get us a vital point in the playoff race.

Playoff Race Status - October 1

A mostly good weekend of results for the Rapids leaves the standings looking like this:

Vancouver's and Dallas' losses really put them behind the 8-ball, but San Jose has jumped up to be the biggest threat with their win.  Still the Rapids have control and the other teams have to hope they (or LA) stumble.  Colorado's magic number to clinch is 9, so that's winning 3 of 4 or having the trio behind us dump an equivalent number of points (9 for San Jose and Vancouver, 8 for Dallas).

Even though we have 3 of our 4 games against Vancouver and San Jose, 2 wins or 2 wins and a draw isn't enough to clinch a playoff spot on our own, no matter what combination of games gets us there.  That said, 2 wins gives nobody room for error.  That would put us at 51 points, with Dallas being eliminated if they don't win every game and Vancouver and San Jose being eliminated with 1 loss or 2 draws.  Given that we can only get to 2 wins by giving one (or both) of those final two teams a loss that puts us in good shape.  LA faces the same dilemma we do, so that's one more team that would need to get results to leave us out of the playoffs.

So this weekend's game against Seattle isn't critical but we can really turn the screws on the rest of the conference with a win.  We can't afford to lose to San Jose next Wednesday if we lose though, so our goal this week needs to be at least 3 points.  2 might do it but I wouldn't want to risk it.  The other games we care about:

Saturday:
Dallas @ FSL: Again, I refuse to root for FSL even if its probably the best result, so go Dallas!

Sunday:
Chivas @ LA: I suppose a Chivas result is too much to hope for here.

Portland @ Vancouver: Vancouver losing is best, but it means there will be almost no chance to catch Portland for 3rd place.  Maybe a draw wouldn't be horrible?

Wednesday the 9th:
Vancouver @ Seattle: Obviously we want a Seattle win.