Fun half of soccer. I swear I told my wife that Serna was having a good game before he scored. Okay, LA has to be tired. Win the game, Rapids.
We've been saying how Ford has been taking too many live-or-die plays. Well that time he died. Have to say, he had a good game up to then. The Rapids luck died today.
Well, I guess we knew the come-from-behind business wouldn't last. Though they did come back. But not good spotting them a goal like that.
Quite the frustrating game. I suspect everyone already knows that. I thought the first half was decent. Alex screwed up, but beyond that the Rapids seemed solid and (gasp) in control. They something happened at half time. Perhaps they thought the 2nd half magic would automatically happen. It didn't, they looked flat and disinterested. Maybe it was the heat. LA was clearly exhausted and we didn't take advantage. A number of mistakes doomed us and it was a LOSS. BTW, when I saw the bench, there was serious concern about what would happen when sub-time came around. Clearly depth is not our friend.
and Serna accounted for like 95% of those stats. Still can't understand why he played a bit at start then disappeared, I don't think he was ever listed as injured.
According to the Post, Said's injury may be a bad one. They also said Doyle may have broken his hand, which is very unfortunate since I think he has been one of our best players recently. I was surprised how much the ref was letting go with the Gal's during the first half. Just a beating by LA to our "speedy" team. Thug-life was going the opposite direction for us.... rod.
Couple thoughts after a night thinking about it. The Rapids didn't play that poorly, but the breaks did not fall their way. Frankly, they had been falling our way lately, so this wasn't a surprise. We don't have enough possession to deserve breaks all of the time. Put last night down to the law of averages. The Da Fonte experiment is over. After a couple decent games where he battled, his flaws were out for everyone to see. I assume they'll go back to Williams. Although Ford had the one blunder, he has real potential. He and Sjoberg should be challenging for other teams.
From another thread... Gals 3 Rapids 1 FT. It was sad looking at the sparse crowd, no energy, no atmosphere. After Allesandrini scored the 3rd on a PK the Rapids just went through the motions. No fight. Is this how it felt at the stadium last night? I wasn't home and haven't seen the video yet.
I was disappointed Alessandrini did not start but I suppose it's fortunate he did not. (And Dos Santos was out too.) As it is, in addition to converting the PK he set it up with a nice backheel to spring Jamieson.
Ford no question. Sjoberg also appears to be working out rust. Those two will get better. About left back, meh. It's not like Williams and Miller have not also had disastrous games. They need someone better. MLS journeyman Mark Burch was pretty much the steadiest left back they've had in a long time. Shouldn't be difficult to find someone like that! But...this is the Rapids, so it is difficult.
Pretty much? Though not as lifeless as some recent disastrous seasons, esp. given the crowd size. With the Rapids getting 3 shots in like the first 4 minutes, incl. two breakaways, that got the crowd interested from the start. But in the 2nd half, the Rapids and Gals both seemed pretty low energy. I wouldn't say they were especially deflated after the 3rd goal considering how the whole 2nd half went.
Watched on TV, but it sure did seem to be about right. Only change is I submit the Rapids just went through the motions starting at half-time.
Entertaining game. Hopefully Saied not seriously hurt. Azira gave up that ball led to pk Seemed familiar to last game. Gatt brings new dimension to attack just wish he could put more opportunities away. Da font not up to MLS snuff not sure if Williams can di That's a shame. Both Saied and Gatt played well and finally made me forget about Cronin/Burch trade.