Time To Mess With Texas

The Rapids left for Houston today for their final regular season game tomorrow.  All 8 Western Conference playoff spots have been clinched so teams are just playing for positioning.  The Rapids could finish anywhere from 5th to 8th.  Luckily the schedule favors that.  San Jose plays Seattle, LAFC plays Portland, and the one negative, Dallas plays Minnesota (which is why we can't pass both of them), while we play last place Houston.  Kickoff tomorrow for all the Western Conference games is at 4:30pm.  TV is still Altitude only, but the league announced yesterday that all the playoff games will be nationally televised, so everyone will be able to see the Rapids in the playoffs, no blackouts!

I expect Fraser to go for the win tomorrow with the lineup, especially with there being two weeks off before the playoffs due to the international break.  There may be a player or two who need a rest, but otherwise we're going to see pretty close to the lineup we saw against Seattle and Portland.  Maybe Irwin starts in front of Yarbrough, but I doubt it.  Rosenberry, Abubakar, and Vines will likely start on the back line with either Wilson or Trusty.  Midfield will probably be Price, Acosta, Bassett, Namli, and Shinyashiki, but Lewis might get a start, and Rubio will be up front.

Prediction: 1-0 win, goal by Bassett.  Houston is not very good and has nothing to play for, and the Rapids are clicking.  Goal Bassett gets his 7th and wins the team Golden Boot to go along with a probable team MVP award.  The Rapids finish 5th and get the Dallas-Minnesota winner in the first round (Dallas if that game ends up a draw).

Welcome Back My Friends

2 games, 2 Cascadia teams, the top 2 teams in the division, 6 points, 1 playoff spot.  That's a hell of a week for the Rapids.  When the final whistle blew Colorado was back in the playoffs for the first time in 4 years, and with room to spare.  The game itself was probably fairly dull for a neutral.  Colorado had 4 shots on goal all game, Portland had 0.  Other than the goal none of the shots bothered Portland's keeper (the highlight reel at MLSSoccer.com includes 2 off-target shots as the entirety of the Rapids offensive highlights outside the goal).  The closest Portland got to the goal was with literally their last kick of the game, which pinged off the post and went out for a goal kick.

The one point of excitement was early in the first half when Portland was called for a PK that was overturned on VAR.  The ball was played by the Portland defender and it spring up and clearly hit his arm in the box.  Clear PK, right?  No.  The most recent change in the handling rules clarified that an accidental touch on the arm after a defender plays the ball isn't automatically a PK.  If the defender is making himself unnaturally bigger it is a PK.  You could certainly argue that it applied in this case, but its a judgement call.

Other than that the primary highlight was Acosta's goal.  Rubio picked a Timbers' pocket in midfield, brought it towards goal, fed Namli in a give and go, then dumped it the other way to Acosta who sidestepped a defender and hammered it home.  Another good bit of ball work and a nice team goal.

So with the win the Rapids clinched a playoff spot.  Depending on what happens on Sunday the could finish anywhere form 5th to 8th (we can't get to 4th because Minnesota and Dallas play each other) which means we'll be on the road for the first playoff game.  Its just a matter of who we play.  If we win on Sunday we're also guaranteed to have more points than any of the teams that miss the playoffs.  We would also have enough points to have made the playoffs even if all our cancelled games had been credited as a forfeit by a 3-0 scoreline (the standard for FIFA forfeits),

Man of the Match: Kellyn Acosta.  Yeah, it was the easy choice.  But everyone played a solid game so the one thing that stood out was the goal.

Rapids Try To Clinch A Playoff Berth in Portland

 

Yep,  while everyone is running electoral math (yeah, going to be a long week) I've run the playoff math.  With a draw tomorrow, or the Galaxy not beating Seattle tomorrow night, the Rapids clinch a playoff spot.  2020 feels like 4 years long and combined with the 3 years prior it feels like forever since we've seen the playoffs but by this time tomorrow night we may be celebrating our spot.  Portland is battling a large injury list so a draw is certainly not off the table, though its a uphill battle.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 8pm (LA kicks off an hour after us).

The starting lineup is going to be tricky.  There's a couple of questions, how many games can guys like Vines, Rosenberry, Namli, etc. play in a row without a break?  Also Price and Abubakar are one yellow from suspension.  If they got that yellow tomorrow night they would not be able to play in a critical (and probably more winnable) game on Sunday.  If they got a card on Sunday instead they would be suspended for the first game of 2021 (not the first playoff game).

So that leaves a lot of questions for tomorrow night.  Do you kind of write the game off, give a bunch a people a rest, and make sure you're at full strength?  Or do you focus on what's in front of you tomorrow and deal with Sunday on Sunday?  I think you can't rest Price and Abubakar just to avoid a yellow card.  You put the best XI out there you can without risking long-term injury or exhaustion to anyone.  If somebody needs a game off, give it to them, but otherwise get the win, or at least the point, tomorrow night and leave no doubt.  Also if the Rapids win both remaining games they'll finish in a position where they would have qualified for the playoffs even if the league hadn't changed to PPG, which wills hut some whiners up.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Bassett.  Portland has slightly better offenses and defenses but not by much and they're injured.  Plus while they would love to strengthen their hold on first place that doesn't have quite the same urgency as the Rapids will have trying to clinch their first playoff spot in 4 years.  I think that's enough for the teams to battle to a draw.  Worst case, if the Rapids lose, I think the Sounders get a result in LA anyway and we still clinch tomorrow night.

I Did Not See That Coming

Well, I look like an idiot after last night's game.  The Rapids that played FSL off the field in Sandy showed up to face Seattle last night and were clearly the better team.  All credit to Fraser and the guys for going from looking like a team that hadn't played in a month to a team that can hang with anyone in the league in a week.  The 3-1 score line was no fluke, they took the lead in the first half, then held a good Seattle offense without a shot on goal in the second half before putting the game away late.

With the win the road to the playoffs becomes much clearer, and easier.  The Rapids clinch a playoff berth in a number of ways.  The Rapids are in if:

• The Rapids draw or win either of their remaining games

OR

• The LA Galaxy fail to win both of their remaining games

OR

• The SJ-LAFC game is rescheduled for Wednesday and SJ gets no more than 1 point in its last two games

Right now of the teams who have not clinched a playoff spot in the West the Rapids have the best chance to clinch a spot.  It would be nice to win both games though which would give us more points than at least 4 other Western teams and shut up the whiners who think its unfair that the Rapids are going to "sneak" into the playoffs on PPG after not playing 5 games.

Coming back to last nights game the Rapids had three very different quality goals.  The first was a great team goal where Vines and Benezet played a give and go into the corner.  Vines then placed a nice chip in front of goal for Shinyashiki to head home.  Frenchman to American homegrown to Brazilian for the lead.

After a defensive breakdown (Rosenberry somehow left Morris unmarked at the top of the 6) the Rapids re-took the lead just before half.  A Jack Price corner was cleared to the top of the arc where Keegan Rosenberry hit it solid and true, ripping the ball into the corner of the net to take a lead to the halftime locker room.  Not the type of shot you expect from a right back.

The second half started out fairly even but Seattle started to wear out and the Rapids took more and more control.  Still it didn't seem like a 2-1 scoreline was likely to hold up, and technically it didn't.  With 15 minutes to play Jack Price lined up for a free kick and put it right in front of the net where Goal (we call him Goal now) Bassett headed it home for his 5th goal of the season,  tying Lewis for the team lead again.  Price's assist on the play broke the tie for the team lead with Bassett.  Any air went out of the Sounders at that point and a surprise win was wrapped up for Colorado.

Its really hard to point out anyone who had a poor game.  There were lapses here and there but really the only negative was Rubio being too selfish multiple times.  I understand strikers are naturally a bit selfish, it's part of their game, but there were 2-3 times Rubio passed up what should have been a great attempt at goal for one of his teammates to hold the ball to try to find a harder shot for himself.  He's got to know when to be selfish and when to lay it off.

Man of the Match: Nicholas Benezet.  His first start since the MLS Is Back tournament and again you can see the skill that we signed him for.  He was putting the ball into dangerous situations all night ans had the secondary assist on the first goal.  If he can stay healthy and play like this he can force himself into the starting XI next season.  But he's got to do that to be worth his salary, he can't be coming off the bench most of the season.

Can We Do 2013 Again?

In October of 2013 I flipped the coin before the Rapids home match against Seattle.  The Sounders won the toss, the only thing they won that night.  Deshorn Brown would score 13 seconds after kickoff on the way to a 5-1 win.  We need something like that tonight.  The Rapids have a slight chance to clinch a playoff spot tonight with a win and Portland getting at least a point, and LA and FSL drawing.  Even a point tonight would be huge for Colorado's playoff chances.  A loss and we have to be very concerned that we could miss out.  Kickoff tonight is at 7pm and its our last home game of the year.

Again, between COIVD, the lack of an injury report, and out packed schedule I'm not going to make a lineup prediction, though I expect Fraser to stick close to what was working in Minnesota on Wednesday.  A concerning note, Minnesota's game today was cancelled due to COVID positives in their team, which apparently includes a player that played against the Rapids on Wednesday.  So, not good.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Bassett.  I really wanted to predict a draw but Seattle's defense is really good and ours is not.  I don't think they'll shut us out but I can't see us hanging with them, unfortunately.