2018 Season Catch-All Thread

I thoroughly enjoyed both games!

 

I thought the Smith red car was warrented. He celebrated off the field at the Minnesota bench and he plays for a team that sucks, and just won their first game since early August.

 

No, I don't make bets like that (I don't make bets on college sports generally. Seems a bit...off..to bet on how kids are gong to play a game, March Madness aside,)

I told Hope late in the game that if I weren't a Dawg (or Zero) fan this was probably a great game to watch. From a pure competitive "evenly-matched" POV its got to be one of the better games in FBS this year.

Yeah, but that's not how red cards work. There are 6(?) specific reasons a red card can be give and "being an ass" isn't one of them.

 

Poor guy doesn’t know what to do when Rapids D pitches a shutout.

 

Smith gets a red card because Minn bench and players cannot control themselves. Fricken joke.

 

Wasn’t able to watch- how did Bassett play?

 

I thought he did pretty well, with the caveat this was a weird game where the Rapids were surprisingly effective after weeks of posing no threat to the goal. Gashi was getting the ball in dangerous spots pretty for the first time all year and even Boli scored.

As you can tell from the game thread, very early on Bassett made a bad mistake and sent a backpass that the their striker Angelo Rodriguez (who figured very heavily in this game as he was the guy offside on both of the VAR-reversed goals) ran onto. He tried to chip Howard from the top of the box but sent it wide. That sequence made the game highlights, it looks like Price could have been made a better effort there.

Bassett was in the center with the Rapids moving towards goal off a turnover and sent a nice pass out wide to Gashi on the right. Gashi ended up sending in a pass to Serna making the run into the box but a defender just got there first. That's also in the highlights.

He had one of the shots in that crazy sequence in the box where the Rapids had 4 shots off a set piece that were blocked/saved. Unfortunately he was closest and his shot was not on target.

Late in the game he had the ball on the left wing and looked pretty good as he dribbled past his defender. That one was about keeping the ball close to his feet rather than a guy blowing past his defender with speed. He got off a shot that was blocked near post.

 

I'm traveling again so wasn't able to watch ... enjoyed the highlights. Winning beats losing and glad Bassett got a start!

 

Um...

Minnesota United snap losing streak with win over Rapids - NY Daily Post

 

Nothing like writing an article on Friday. Have to say this is pretty funny because it was the expected result. Maybe he missed all the VAR reversals...

 

The article is actually accurate and pretty decent. In contrast I don't believe the MLS website article mentioned the Rapids snapped a losing streak. To them, another Rapids losing streak isn't news.

 

Looks like the NY Post wrote a bad headline and slapped in the (correct) AP article on the game

And its not like they wrote the headline ahead of time, because the Union weren't on a losing streak that needed to e snapped, they just mixed up the teams when they wrote the headline.

 

I think he did quite well, especially considering his age. Was he perfect, no. But hey, this is the Rapids, you can't expect any sort of perfection around here haha!

Here's a nice little writeup on his impact on the game, stats, etc.
https://www.coloradorapids.com/post...uts-rapids-fans-mls-notice-during-first-start

As far as the eye test goes, he fought hard all game long and put in a pretty good shift overall. I didn't think he really looked nervous. Yeah, he completely missed from point blank range, but no one on this team can score anyways. Yeah, he made a couple bad passes here and there (and one that nearly cost us a goal), but who doesn't anymore these days. His completing 76% of his passes in his MLS debut, and a heck of a lot of those being in the attacking half (see above article for the graphic of his passes), I think that's pretty good.

The best thing I saw from him was confidence. He was ALWAYS asking for the ball. He would try to get himself in a nice little pocket of space (3-5 yards in between a circle of defenders) and constantly be asking for the ball so he could lay it off to the next guy and cut through their defense (see the ball he played to Gashi for example). I can't think of many 17 year olds asking for the ball all the time in the attacking half, constantly trying to press forward and make cutting passes, all in their MLS Debut in a hostile road environment against a team that is fighting hard for their "Hometown pride."

Heck, most of the current Rapids would have tried to keep the ball away from themselves, so that they weren't the ones to make a mistake in the game.

Is Bassett gonna be the saviour of the Rapids? Probably not. But hey, at least he tried to keep things going on the offense, and played hard the whole game. Shows some promise as a decent soccer player!

 

When does the DisCo make an announcement for the weeks action? I may have more interest in that than I do in our next match. Where they start and stop on sanctioning actions in that ending intrigues me.

If NFHS rules applied in MLS Minnesota might have their developmental players starting in the next match "leaves bench when a fight is taking place" is listed as red in that column (pg 12, link below). In the same section Smith's red is probably for this (IFAB- USSF column) "insulting or abusive language or gestures."

With switching back and forth from HS to Club I may review the comparative chart more than I do the NFHS rules or IFAB/USSF laws, lots of useful information collected there (e.g restarts etc.) that may not all be spelled out in easy to find locations in the other sources.

https://www.nfhs.org/media/1018270/2018-soccer-guide-interscholastic.pdf

 

Officially Smith was sent for Foul and Abusive Language. He tried to start a fight and it just about worked. Wonder how many additional matches he'll get, and who Hudson will start in his place?

 

Figures that when the Rapids finally get a win it would still leave a bad taste in my mouth (Smith's ridiculous behavior at the end - makes me ashamed to be a Smith).

A very strange match - 2 goals VAR'ed for offside, and both in the build-up? 2 players and an assistant coach sent in 104th minute?

 

It baffled me too until they zoomed in on a close up of the plastic bracelet he was wearing with WWPD on it ... (What Would Pablo Do). At least he kept his shirt on his back and out of his pants.

And both of those cases remind me of a sage coach in a soccer movie (can't remember which one) that told a player after his goal celebration that basically he had gotten it wrong and "You want it to look like you've been there before".

 

You pulled this from the game report I assume. Game reports are notoriously unreliable about the reason for cards.

In this case its pretty obviously wrong. They went to VAR to decide that Smith got a red card, and VAR doesn't include audio. so how did thy decide that he used Foul and Abusive Language. Foul and Abusive Gestures could be picked up on VAR but I think that's a stretch for what he did.

Honestly if the Rapids cared I bet they could get the red card overturned but I doubt they'll appeal at this point in this season. And I'd be shocked if Smith got anything added on based on what we know at this point. I think more than anything the refs were trying to calm the situation down and found a justification to send Smith off alongside the United sub so it was "even". But I don't think Smith did anything that fell into a red card category, unless there's an angle of the scrum we haven't seen where Smith threw a punch or something.

 

The official player list for the MLS Award Ballots is out. I know this will come as a tremendous shock to Rapids fans everywhere:

• 41 players from 21 teams have been nominated for MLS MVP. Guess who was nominated from the Rapids?
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  Nobody.

• 33 players from 20 teams were nominated for Defender of the Year. Guess who was nominated from the Rapids?
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  Nobody. Although Shane O'Neill was nominated for Orlando City.

• 21 players from 21 teams were nominated for Goalkeeper of the Year. Guess who was nominated from the Rapids?
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  Nobody.

• 15 players from 10 teams were nominated for Rookie of the Year, Guess who was nominated from the Rapids?
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  Nobody.

• 15 players from 10 teams were nominated for Comeback Player of the Year. Guess who was nominated from the Rapids?
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  Nobody.

• 34 players from 21 teams were nominated for Newcomer of the Year, including
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  Finally, one nominee: Jack Price.

• 23 players from 21 teams were nominated for Humanitarian of the Year, including
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  Zac MacMath.

• 17 coaches from 17 teams were nominated for Coach of the Year, including
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  Oh get serious, will ya? Of course not.

 

Calvert, Dykstra, Hamilton, Perez, and Vines were just reaclled from their loans to Charlotte/Colorado Springs.

Can you say "Start all the kids" the last two games?

 

Or the DisCo is giving every player and substitute from the Minnesota match a retroactive red card? ;>)

 

15 players from 10 teams were nominated for Comeback Player of the Year. Guess who was nominated from the Rapids? Nobody.

Discussions were held on who might be nominated for Comeback Player of the Year in 2019. Guess who was discussed from the Rapids? The whole damn team, which has unlimited room for improvement.

 

Alas, Tim and Gashi did not comeback.

The other players--they were never really there I guess.