Two best parts of the game....the KC player getting it square in the nuts in the second half, sorry but that's always funny, and as I was leaving seeing a KC fan puke up on the concourse and fall in a ball of pain from too much beer, pot and altitude. Game wise, it was weird, could have been any result until Marvell got a second booking but, the Rapids should have put this one to bed before that regardless. First half they owned KC, I am still shaking my head as to how they lost it, Brown needs to grow some balls and put himself about more, teams have worked him out and bully him. Does anyone know the record for most consecutive goals from a penalty in a season?
I wish there were more press coverage. I wonder what's up with Torres. He did very little vs NY (indeed, he has 0 shots for the season), but doesn't seem likely to fix his problems with 11 and 8 minutes. Is he out of shape, dogging it in practice, just not clicking...what's up. He seems too good and the Rapids have too much invested for him to be playing college kids.
I think we should be careful about jumping to conclusions. Pablo made lineup changes, not all injury related, between the NY and Portland games. We did well in the Portland game, so the only lineup change he made was to replace the suspended Jose Mari. A "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" strategy. Next week, against Vancouver, will be telling. If we see Torres on the bench or Berner in net then its time to start wondering what Pablo is thinking.
That's why I want a reporter to ask about it. Assuming every possible decision is due to Pablo's "if it ain't broke don't fix it policy" seems like jumping to a conclusion. Maybe Pablo just gives a blow off answer, but it still would seem better if someone would try, like in the big 4 sports.
I don't know, but I suspect that if we're gonna get the best out of Torres then we're gonna need some tactical changes and a lot of trust in Torres. The kind of changes that would mean playing without a target and seeing if Brown can learn to play the wing. I don't know what it'll look like, but he's invisible in midfield and too far from goal.
Thanks @SombraAla. The loss of the point at the end really hurt. I thought we definitely deserved at least a point, so to lose that in such a preventable fashion was frustrating. There were so many little mistakes our guys made yesterday - LaBrocca failing to score from inside the 6, LaBrocca failing to handle an admittedly difficult ball on a 1v1, Wynne being at fault on the first two goals, Wynne's incredibly stupid red card - that it felt much worse than it probably was. Stepping back, Rod has a great point - 4 points in 3 games is better than expected, and we probably should be at 5 in 3. I expected 1 point out of 5 games, so we're still way ahead of my expectations. My anger is still pretty much entirely at Wynne. Credit to KC for punishing those mistakes. If I had more time, I'd probably go back to watch the first two games focusing entirely on Jose Mari. I'm curious just how much we missed him last game.
Leaving DSGP I had a real "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?" feeling. Beautiful weather, great support for both teams (empty seats due to 4:00 p.m. kick, not enough winning tradition, both, other?), best seats I've ever had for live professional soccer, 2 probable starters for USMNT v. Mexico Wednesday and for Brazil this summer on the pitch, hack-master Collin not on the pitch, referee strike over so a chance to watch the real guys, and just as I'm saying "This is a draw that feels like a loss, but who wouldn't have taken 5 points out of our first three matches before we started" ... it turned into 4 points. Three more home losses and a couple draws w/o wins at home (road games always seem to have their built-in excuses) and the Coaching Search thread might get active again for 'reverse engineering' of what we have going on. I don't want to play my own ethnicity card but I wish we had some German influence for better organization in back and at least some sign of organization up top and better discipline all over the pitch. But I still did (in retrospect) enjoy the play.
Man was that disappointing to drop points. We were the better team for much of the first half and easily could have had two goals. I was impressed by Watts in the first half as well. He was doing a good job of breaking up plays, which was his role, and is something Sturgis is less efficient at, so it made me understand why he got the nod. I'm not a believer in O'Neill at RB. He just doesn't look comfortable, but he did look more comfortable than the first game. Where he seems to be best is when he has the ball at his feet and is able to dribble through some people. Maybe he can become a big threat if he can push forward and we can get the ball to him there. Anybody else notice how crap he is at throw-ins? He takes forever to put the ball back into play. We were really exposed for our lack of depth along the back line. We basically have 5 experienced defenders (Moor, Wynne, O'Neill, Klute, Burch), a rookie who I thought was supposed to be the most ready of all the rookies but hasn't seen the pitch yet (Van de Casteele), a project who lucked into a contract last season (Griffiths), and then a group of midfielders that we are hoping can cover as wing backs (Watts, Sturgis, and Mullan). If Neeskens or Piermayer have shown any bit of quality as outside backs, then I expect they'll get contracts soon. LaBrocca missing an easy chance does not make this a horrible game for him. It will just give him nightmares. I've always loved his hustle and ability to read the game and he has been one of our most solid players so far. What the hell was Wynne thinking trying to pass with his chest??? I'm glad Moor is becoming a target on set pieces again. He never seemed to be a target under Pareja, which was stupid. It won't be long before he puts one in. I was glad we didn't physically dominated by KC. Seems the past few times we have played them we leave bruised and battered. I think this time it was pretty equal. Never thought Pablo ball = penalties
More on Watts, who someone on MLS soccer picked as rookie of year. Guess we were all thorwn for loop with all his CB time in preseason. Chris Bianchi @Rapids_News ·21 hrs Pablo Mastroeni on Jared Watts (@JaredWatts02): “This guy’s going to be around many, many years.” #Rapids96
I haven't really had the chance to throw my two cents in regarding the match. My alma mater, Kentucky, and their magical run thru the NCAA's has occupied my mind. That's ok, though, because it's allowed the Rapids match to really truly sink in. Anyways, at the very, very least I felt we left 1 point and arguably 2 pts. on the table. This match was a learning curve for Pablo. He was outcoached simple as that. I could really dive into that conclusion but given the competitive nature of Pablo I think he probably recognizes this and will learn. So I am not too, too worried. The Good: Sanchez - Continues to drive our attack. He caused havoc all day long and really frustrated SKC. Everyy chance created is a result of something positive he does. My only gripe or complaint is that at times he can be "too cute", "too fancy" with the ball when in reality, being a little more simplistic can be more advantageous. Powers - He played a little deeper than usual but very solid on his distribution and transitioning form defending to attacking. I don't know for sure without stats in from of me but it appears he kept the turnovers to a minimum and played the simple, intelligent ball. O'Neill - He was tough in the tackle; positioned himself well, and moved fairly well into the attack. He really left Feilhaber no choice but to foul with that beautiful meg. He was the recipient of being in the right place at the right time when LaBrocco intercepted that clearance as the ball fell to him, thus earning the penalty. However, in that sequence Shane worked some nice passing combos pushing further and further up the pitch. The Meh: Watts - Not a bad debut for the kid. I didn't see any glaring mistakes but I also didn't observe any big contribution. Watts kept it simple. He did have a tendency to play it too safe and far too often made the backwards pass instead of the forward pass. Overall, not bad, not good just meh, IMO. Moor - I know he was having to compensate for a horrific Wynne but at times he wasn't vocal or demanding enough of his backline. He also gave Dwyer that near post of the goal. The backline did not move well as a unit. Moor however, as usual, won his aerial battles, had some beautiful text book tackles, and overall was decent. But I need to see more. Buddle - Others may put him in the "bad" category but IMO he did a reasonable job holding the ball up, waiting for support, and a great opportunity on little dribble and quick strike that was well saved. My gripe is that he got sucked wide way to often. He needed to be that target man and let the "wingers" do their thing. Burch - He moved well into the attack and had some decent crosses which was nice. However, there were more opportunities to do so and he didn't take advantage. Defensively, I thought he was slower to recover, got caught flatfooted a few times, and was sucked too wide when he needed to be tucked in just a bit. Not horrific defensively just needed to tighten up a bit. Brown - Too inconsistent this game which led to a "meh". He looked lively at times streaking down the flank and cutting inside. Other times he looked lost and just dribbled into trouble or made a bad pass. He needed to find the ball and not wait on it. I wanted to see more as he left me hanging. The Bad: Wynne - Not much to discuss that already haven't been said. It may have been his worst performance as a Rapid. He played a role in two goals against. If the matched ended as a draw his sending off would have been a blessing in disguise as it would have removed him from the game. However, his stupidity caused us to play a man down which ultimately benefitted SKC. LaBrocca - His errant passing, poor marking, poor attempted tackling, and just being a step too slow absolute doomed the rapids. LaBrocca's missed sitter and whizzing the ball over the bar when he was wide open, is not forgivable. They cost us -- big time. His only contribution was the interception of the SKC clearance which led to O'Neill's penalty. Other than that, it was a match of wasted opportunities and costly mistakes by LaBrocca. I expect better from him. Berner - Some will place him in the "meh" category but not me. I thought he was poor. His inexperience was exposed as he was not able to communicate and align his backline's positioning. Wynne was positioned horribly all day and it never appeared Berner communicated and tried to correct that. He was, for the first time, hesitant to come off his line. He was very "herky, jerky" -- if you will. He made a punching clearance which was covered by Moor (I think) but he never should have come flying out like he did. He was trying to make a play instead of being smart. He attempted another punch, that he missed, and the ball went harmlessly out of play. However, he was lucky n0 one for SKC was back-post and it could have been a golden opportunity to score. On the Dwyer goal, while I don't think he could have made the save, I do think he was shaded too much towards the back post essentially giving that spot away. Two steps to his right and squaring up his right shoulder with the post may not have totally eliminated that near post but it certainly would have caused Dwyer to think twice before attempting the shot.
Interesting reactions from everyone... I was surprised by a few things... 1. Powers pushing so incredibly high. For the most part, I thought this was successful but as high as he pushed at times I would have rather seen Brown in that spot. Or Buddle in that spot with Brown higher up the field. 2. Folks seem to be praising Watts. I thought it was an ok first showing, but I certainly didn't see it as praiseworthy. 3. I've watched a handful of replays of goals from the game. Burch was just as liable as Wynne for the second goal. He was in no-man's land and he froze in place. He should have done MUCH better there. I guess you can't expect much out of your backup LB, but he leaves much to be desired out there. 4. Berner needs to be the backup. He took some real bad angles when coming out. After a few games, that has to be is one glaring weakness. He almost got burned near post in the first half as well. 5. Why on earth were we in a 3 man back line in stoppage time, a man down. Why was Moor outside and O'Neill inside in stoppage time, a man down after playing the opposite of that all game. Where the eff was Sturgis on defense inside stoppage time, a man down. Hey Moor, once you are inside the 18 you might want to close down your guy. I can take a loss, but when it comes from such STUPID play I really struggle with it. I really do. If the other team out plays you, fine. But to just have total breakdown from coach to that many players is just bush league.
Might want to watch those replays again. Burch was subbed out 17 minutes before KC's second goal. I think you saw Watts, and yes, you are correct. However considering that was the first time he had played LB and was (at best) our third choice for that spot and that he's a rookie I have a hard time holding him as liable as an experienced player like Wynne.
I think Murphyskicks' reference is to the first goal, where Burch got beat and allowed the cross. I thought Burch was the main culprit, but I couldn't tell fromwatching on TV how Zusi got so far ahead of Wynne.
Such a bad day for Wynne ball watching and letting that man just run by him and then the second yellow so far up the field for no reason pretty much seemed to seal our fate. I can never seem to find the individual stats unless they are specifically linked in one of the articles so I have no idea what LaBrocca's passing accuracy was, but, I too don't understand his judgment many times. There are so many instances where he plays a ball forward and no one is even with in 20 yards (maybe slight exaggeration) of it. It's as if he just decides to put imaginary people through sometimes. Personally, I think it was a bad decision to start Watts and not Sturgis it just doesn't make any sense to me. Also, Brown's play for me has been pretty worthless. He works hard which is great, but, his touch, vision, decision making is non-existent. I think Torres deserves a shot and Brown needs to sit and watch for a bit. I like it when rookies get a chance, but, not so many at a time. I'd like to see Chavez get more time as well.
Can't speak for others, but when I say I was impressed by him, it comes with the caveat of this being his first ever game at this level and against a very good opponent. He wasn't necessarily winning the job for the future, but he wasn't doing anything to make you think he can't hack it at this level...that is until they put him at LB to replace Burch where he looked like a fish out of water. I think we actually were still playing with a 4 man back line, but they moved Sturgis to RB and he seems even more uncomfortable there than O'Neill.
I thought it was a bad call. That was not a deliberate handling, no matter how you interpret "deliberate".
Brown isn't a left winger. He has some flaws that you point out, but when he is at forward his strengths outweigh his flaws. At left wing his strengths go away. I agree that starting Sturgis would have been the better play. I was calling for that last week.
I've only found it by going to the MLSsoccer.com link for the game, then clicking the "Old Matchcenter" link, then there should be a chalkboard tab. LaBrocca had 23 successful passes, 11 unsuccessful. 6 of the unsuccessful look like they were pretty long (> 20 yards).
Here's a link to the chalkboard: http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2014-03-29-COL-v-SKC/chalkboard
Richard Fleming writes: Sounds like he is challenging this board. But it's not just soccer (Renck had been the Post's Rockies beat writer the past few years): Twitter is charming in its burning hatred for everything.. But a reminder this is first of 162..Not first of 16 for #Broncos..Breathe...— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) April 1, 2014
Hmmm … I don't think we're doom merchants, maybe disappointment merchants after giving up a late goal/point. Prior to Pablo being signed I was probably a confusion/befuddlement merchant (especially after the TH/Jason twitter buffoonery) as well. Still happy with the points and Pablo's early progress … overall, I'm hopefully optimistic.
I look at personnel this way ------brown(torres)-------serna(sanchez) ---------------------powers------ --sturgis----------------------------labrocca --------------------watts----------- --klute-----moor--------wynne---o'neill ---------------------irwin------ And would like to see VdC worked in somewhere.