Who: Seattle Sounders vs. Colorado Rapids Where: CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA When: 1PM, Saturday, 4/14 Watch: KONG 6/16 Listen: 97.3 KIRO FM An away draw after a home loss is a sign that the team is on the road to recovery, right? So, this means we'll be getting a win at home this week. It is only logical, after all. This game could mark the first time that Mullan plays in Seattle since breaking Zakuani's leg, so it should be interesting. Colorado is a decent team and currently rocking a 3W-2L-0D record, which puts them higher in the standings than Seattle in both total points and points per game, but a win this weekend would reverse that and put the Sounders ahead in the standings. It should be an entertaining day game for the Sounders, who will, hopefully, have several key players back in the line-up from injury.
As mentioned in the previous post, the Sounders are hoping to get Johansson and Rosales back for this game. Rosales seems to be the most likely as Johansson's injury continues to mystify the physios, but I'm eternally optimistic, so I'm going with the "optimal" line-up in Yoshou's Guaranteed to be Wrong Predicted Line-up: [LINEUP-4-4-2]Estrada, Montero, Fernandez, Evans, Alonso, Rosales, Gonzalez, Ianni, Parke, Johansson, Gspurning[/LINEUP-4-4-2] I would not be shocked to see Johnson in for Estrada after two poor showings by Estrada. I also would not be surprised to see Hurtado in for Ianni or Parke.
Any word on Johnson ? I know about the hammy and Sigi/the club taking their time, but is he about ready to go now ?
I think it is just a fitness and getting used to his teammates issue now. He played the last 25ish minutes of the DCU game. I didn't see the last half, so someone else will have to say how he did. He's also got Estrada playing in his spot right now and Estrada had a pretty good first couple of games before falling back to earth in the last two games. Personally, I don't think we see Johnson starting until the Chicago game on 4/28.
Could it be that my predicted line-up is just barely two hours old and already it is wrong? Josh Mayers says, perhaps: https://twitter.com/#!/joshuamayers/status/189431289215074304
With Brian Mullan playing, the spirit of Zakuani will be strong within the Sounders. 3-0 for the good guys.
Ugh, I really don't want to see another creative black hole on our right side. And if EJ's going to make an appearance just put him up top. It was only 25 minutes, but he didn't look comfortable at all playing as more of a winger.
Would like to see Sivaebek get some minutes if Rosales is not ready to go. 3-1 Sounders. Goals by Montero, GAM, and one of the center backs.
Excited about this game! Normally I Hate the 1pm kicks usually since the crowd is half-volume at best... but with Mullan on the field, you know there will be some standing-on-seats rampaging. I think that guy can single-handedly get the entire crowd involved even when some are still half-asleep. Plus it'll be interesting to see how the ref calls the Dirty Mullan v Flaco Fernandives match-up. My guess is they call the whole game tight since the ref knows the history going in... which obviously benefits us. I wonder if it's more of a blessing than a curse that we play the hack teams like Houston, SJ, DC, and Colorado all while Rosales is injured. We get a 2 week break after this game then: Fire, LA, Union, Dallas, RSL, VAN, Crew, Chivas, Impact, KC... pretty benign teams. Union and FCD can be chippy, but that's a good schedule for he and Johansson to start their real season on the right side. I want to see Zach Scott at left back this one game.
Firstly, as a Rapids fan, none of us liked watching tha tackle where Mullan broke Zakuani's leg last year. It was a terrible play and a terrible mistake, period. Tha Rapids FO said even before Mullan's punishment was announced that they would support tha Disciplinary Committee's decision. Neither tha FO, tha team, Mullan himself, or even tha vast majority of fans disagreed with it. Zakuani is great to watch play. Through following his Twitter page, I've come to believe he really is a great guy. He's handled this whole thing very nobly, with a lot of class and perseverence. I know we as Rapids fans hope for Zak's complete and full recovery, not just of general health, but also of his great footballing form. "It'll probably be the first time I'll see Steve," Mullan says. "And I'll reiterate my apology and shake his hand and finally be able to say it to his face. That's what I'm looking forward to." Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20120202/zakuani/#ixzz1rmbgFlZt Secondly, to Ajas and anyone else who labels Colorado as a "hack" team, I ask you where you find numbers to back up your claim. Colorado is conceding 11.0 fouls per game this season, tied for second-to-last in MLS. In 2011, Colorado was also second-to-last in total fouls committed. Even in 2010, when Conor Casey and Pablo Mastroeni, our two most physical, foul-prone players, were seeing regular minutes, tha Rapids were again second-to-last in total fouls committed, and again below MLS average for yellow/red cards per game. Numerically speaking, since tha beginning of tha 2010 campaign, only Portland has conceded fewer fouls per game than Colorado. In Ajas' list of "benign" teams are LA and FSL, both well above league average in fouls per game...not to mention Montreal who is on pace to commit tha most fouls by a team in league history. Numbers would bear out that being a physical team (which no one can deny Colorado is) is not tha same as being a dirty, "hack" team. It comes off that these labels are given based on personal bias rather than hard evidence... Thirdly, I understand Seattle's hatred of Mullan. If it was one of our guys, we'd have tha same outrage. But he has served his punishment without trying to contest it, he's apologized to Zak, and he wants to again this weekend as well. Before that tackle, Mullan hadn't seen a red card since 2006. In fact, during 284 MLS caps, Mullan has seen yellow 37 times, which is every 7.67 games. Both Alonzo and Montero are great players and fun to watch, but they see yellow far more frequently than Mullan. No one calls them hacks. I just wonder why we don't see more numbers to back claims of players being "dirty". I also wonder if it's fair to write off a man's 11 year career (in which he's been an asset to every team he's been on) as dirty or thuggish due to one mistake. Here's to an exciting, well-played, and injury-free game for both clubs this weekend.
I appreciate the tone of your post and that you're trying to be cool about this. That being said, I've followed the league for years and my opinion of Mullan BEFORE the Zakuani incident was that he's not only a hack but he's actually part of that most loathsome class of players, hacks who spend large portions of the game pissing and moaning to the ref. He's always had a temper and a propensity for throwing in hard tackles and he combines it with a sense of persecution and indignation that borders on the Donovanesque. Actually, he and his old teammate Brad Davis were a real one-two in this department; during Mullan's time w/ the Dynamo they spent half the game clipping ankles and kicking shins and the other half imploring the referee for more protection. The Steve Zakuani incident was a perfect summation of these, career long, tendencies as it was Mullan's own overdeveloped sense of victimization that led to his unpardonable lapse in judgement and Steve's injury. So Brian Mullan can go sit and spin in hell, I hope he blows out his achilles on Saturday.
First of all, it's good to know that at least one team in MLS has supporters that find the refereeing so laudable. It's a fascinating commentary. 2nd-- name 2 players on LAG or "F"SL who are hacks... Will Johnson, *maybe*? Guys like Beckerman and Alonso draw yellow because it's their job to commit harmless tactical fouls on counter-attacks around midfield. Not because they get doinked and make a habit to lunge in dirty. Just be honest with yourself for one second... You KNOW the colorado gameplan is to plow into the back of any sounder receiving the ball at his feet. Or hack at the knees and ankles, bitch at the refs... You Know that already. Why even bother defending it? It's just your team, no need to apologize-- just embrace it. Dirty Mullan and the Leg-Snappers. You'd be a hit band in the 60's.
I believe his point is that the refs are equally bad across the league, so all teams would be affected somewhat equally. So seeing that the Rapids are that low in fouls and card count leads to one of two conclusions. Either they aren't the hack team they're made out to be, or the refs are taking it easier on them than any other team for some unknown reason. Occam's Razor would lead me to believe the former is true. That's not to say the Rapids don't have some physical players, but if you think about how many non-hack players the Rapids usually start (using last year's team: Wallace, Kimura, Wynne, Pickens, Smith, Cummings, Moor) its not a surprise to realize there are a couple of players (Mastroeni, Casey, Mullan) that have apparently set the rep for the whole team, a rep that isn't really accurate. And its not just Rapids fans pointing this out, the Northwest focused Prost Amerika came to the same conclusion last year: http://www.prostamerika.com/2011/06/27/in-defence-of-the-colorado-rapids/44795 http://www.prostamerika.com/2011/08/15/goody-two-shoes-moor-on-edge-of-outfield-record/47532 Really, you're going to try to defend FSL? Beckerman, Borchers, and Olave, just off the top of my head.
Art Theil, and i believe we should follow our mom's advice "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" http://www.king5.com/sports/sportspress-nw/147082065.html for me, i'm there to support the boys in rave green on the pitch.
That the rapids have players best at exploiting the horrifically lenient reffing. Well, except when Lenhart trips on his own shoelaces in the box.... I agree the guys you listed aren't hacks except Smith and maybe Moor, but-- I cut slack for CBs. Since any team in any league has 2 CBs whose physicality is their primary asset. that's just the way of the world. But just among the Rapids front 6-- Casey, Mullan, Pablo, Ninja, and Jamie Smith.... holy shit, that is just a team whose purpose is to inflict damage. Anyway, it looks like Sigi agrees with my scheduling sentiment and is keeping both Rosales and Johansson out.
Bah. Thiel's piece is to huggy for me. Boo the guy when his name is announced, then ignore him the rest of the game, IMHO. Just don't be a douche and try and throw crap at him.
I might chalk some of it up to that, but there's no way the Rapids are good enough at hiding it to explain how they were next to last in total fouls last year if they're as big of a hacking team as their reputation would lead you to believe. Also interesting that you say this... But then list Pablo and Ginger as hacks. They play the same position as Beckerman. According to you its their job to commit fouls on counter-attacks. Trust me, Beckerman's style of foul isn't significantly different than Pablo's. That's not a surprise since Pablo mentored him for 6 years as he was learning the position.
Jonny Bishop: So be it and I respect your opinion as well. I just hope we won't overhype an incident that tha parties directly involved have squashed. But to each their own... Ajas: You asked me to name players who were hacks. I'm not goin to without numbers or some type of hard evidence. That was tha whole point of my previous post. I'm not labeling players as hacks, though I found it interesting that some teams who are more foul-prone were not labeled hacks by you. Tactical fouls of tha type you say are ok do sometimes result in injuries when guys are going 100% in a fast paced game. That is part of tha game, albeit an unfortunate one. Would we call Shalrie Joseph's tackle that earned him a game suspension dirty? It was a bad challenge yea, but you'd be hard-pressed to find an unbiased observer who would call Shalrie a dirty player. And of all tha teams who could exploit tha system, seriously Colorado? Rapids are a small market club with no league-wide or international stars. Doesn't add up to me, nor tha assumption that Rapids players are somehow smarter and craftier than tha otha 18 clubs whose games are reffed by tha same guys... I don't wanna divert yallz game thread too far off topic and apologize if I've done that a lil bit. Question about Johnson or Estrada. Would yall rather see Johnson start? It didn't seem to me that his last two games were totally awful, I could be wrong. Was it just tha level of expectations that he set after his first two games maybe?
EJ = Stepovers++ I still rather see Estrada. EJs fitness still sucks and I like Estrada's pressing. I'm inclined to see if Estrada is just a flash in the pan before increasing our team stepovers stats
