This is how regression to the mean feels. If we play this way again, we'll get shredded by Atlanta. Which is painful to contemplate, on so many levels. Obviously, we have quite a few games before we play them, but getting shown up by two expansion teams in the same season might bring about a new low point in my history of Rapids' fandom.
The summary: Disco dancers in a country bar. The details: I guess my list of positives is even shorter because Hairston's lack of effort on Minnesota's goal nullifies his score in my mind. I thought Burch was decent. At least I saw quality service on a few occasions. It was the only real quality that I saw all night. Botched the kickoff, should have been at least a yellow to Azira (could have even been red if the ref hadn't been so shocked at that kind of foul 10 seconds into the game). Williams was awful, way out of position, slow to respond. poor decision making, the penalty kick (ugghhh). Very disappointed in the entire team's quality of passing, way too slow on the speed of play and gross disregard to care of the ball (when it matters). Two horrible back passes. Way too many opportunities close in on our goal for Minnesota. I would love to see just one player on the team actually be able to beat a player on the dribble. When you factor in our slow paced defenders and lack of dribbling ability, we are without a doubt one of the worst 1 vs 1 teams in the league. Maybe over the three week break, the team can purchase each player a compass so they can figure out how to pass north and south. Honestly, it would have been better if we had lost. Maybe somebody would figure out that this is a train wreck that just hasn't quite fully come off the tracks yet.
Did that red card seem harsh? The guy lost control of it a little but his boot wasn't that high. Hairston missed it too and seemed to catch the follow through.
It was reckless. Live I thought no brainer straight red. After replay I am not sure but still leaning towatds red. Regardless, it was reckless - intentional or not. A little lower and it could have broken a leg. My seats are about level where the play occured and I could hear the collision. I cringed and looked away for a half second.
Just watched the condensed match and it seems like it was an accurate representation of the hot garbage you guys saw last night. 3 games in seems early but I'm calling it now, the offseason was a failure. We were up a man against the first team in MLS to allow 5 goals in back to back games and managed a single shot on goal. We had half as many shots on goal this game as expansion Atlanta had goals, in the snow, on the road, against this team last week. That is completely, 100%, unacceptable and the worst part is there's no evidence it's going to get better or that Pablo and Padrig realize they need to get better. I knew we'd take a step back this year but right now it's looking more like a leap. But hey, Pablo got that long-term contract extension people were calling for so it's all good, right?
well I guess the squad figured out that just showing up at The Dick doesn't mean we win.......It is early, Titanic passengers, to jump to the lifeboat.......we are 1-1-1 not 0-3-0. Maybe Axel is more valuable than we thought? R
I think we knew how valuable he was. I'm not sure we expected MN to score twice without him (and could have been more), but that was because we thought MN was more awful than they were, not because we thought the Rapids were better. Paired with Sjoberg, Watts is okay. Watts is not okay as your #1 CB. And Williams was as poor yesterday as I can remember any FB. After a day to think about it, it's hard not to say that the Rapids have no individual talent. This team could not pass the ball up the field against an expansion team with 10 men. Doyle struggled at the #10; frankly, he played the same game as he did when he was up top (i.e., he had a close header off of a cross). I'm not a Powers fan at all, but he did as much as Doyle. Ugh. This club desperately needs one player who is skilled with the ball. Really, the team on the field yesterday was the same that we watched two years ago except we have a goalie who won't blow a game now and again.
I am not there yet but I am heavily leaning that way. However, I do not think Western Conference foes Vancouver, RSL, LA, and SKC had a much better off seasons. I think RSL, LA, and Vancouver will regress a bit. The problem in the Western Conference is that San Jose and Houston have significantly improved their rosters and Portland, FCD, and Seattle have maintained their core and added depth. So I don't really know what to think at this point and quite frankly that is a problem. I am just shaking my head in Bewilderment. Something has to happen in the summer transfer window. It may be too little too late but f*** we cannot sit on our hands. I have heard things here and there that inquiries have been made into Aaron Johansson. If I am the RFO I do EVERYTHING in my power to make that happen. Trades, sending cash to move up allocation ranking, cutting off a nut -- whatever -- I don't give a damn. Just do it. His lack of success in Germany has been injury related. AJ is now healthy and not playing and may have one foot out the door. I don't think he would be a Mix Diskerud flop. Anyways, leaning towards offseason failure. I will be there sooner than later, sadly. Ugh!
Clearly the team was not mentally prepared; however, sadly, I don't think that this is the main problem. I think the main problem is that this group of players and coach combination has an offensive ceiling and it's pretty low. We lost our two most creative players in Jones and Pappa and now we have zero players that create on their own. So if you don't have those kinds of players then your next best option is combination play. Unfortunately that would require one of more forward penetrating passes....also not likely in our scheme. If you can't do anything else, then you can always get the ball wide, close your eyes and cross the ball to big targets in the middle. We can provide some quality service from the left, but the right side service is abysmal. This team's not even one dimensional, it's 1/2 dimensional and way too easy to defend against. As much as I hate the way this team is coached and the way they play, I don't see any combination of players currently on the roster that could fix the inherent problems. Pablo's love for hustle players over talent will ultimately lead to his demise. Too bad, very unfair!
The Minnesota game was as poorly played a match as I have seen since the coach whose name should never be mentioned. I really had to strain to find two positives, and finally settled on the two goal-scorers as the most positive events in this disaster. Yes, it's a little like praising the prime rib dinner and the quality of the band on the Titanic. I see a team with some mid-level MLS talent and a lot of USL-level talent. I see unimaginative coaching, lack of preparation, poor fundamental soccer, and almost complete indifference to results. The Rapids are punchless on offense and uneven on defense. Several things stood out in the match, none of them good. Minnesota got in behind the Rapids back line several times in the first half. A better team would have lit up the scoreboard with the opportunities that Minnesota wasted. Far from correcting this at half, the Rapids still let Minnesota penetrate the back line several times in the second half. Set pieces were nightmares. On offensive set pieces, unmarked players were missed, corners were launched without intent, and players did not communicate when two went for the ball. Don't the Rapids practice set pieces? Several crosses in the box were ignored by Rapids players. At least two of these (one each from Hairston and Badji) should have resulted in point-blank shots on goal. NOBODY reacted to these crosses. Inability to complete passes in the offensive third has plagued the team in all three matches. Players are trying too many passes into the teeth of the defense, and not using shorter and crisper passes to bring the pressure. The Rapids did a lot of meaningless running around throughout the match. Don't any of the players know the game plan? Don't any of the players communicate? Don't any of the players have a dose of situational awareness? Who is in charge of this rec league squad? Sloppy back passes are going to burn this team to the ground. Too many players have as their first instinct passing back to reset the play. That works in Serie A, Ligue 1, and the BPL, but the Rapids don't have world class talent and don't change field crisply. The passes are listless, telegraphed and predictable. Even Minnesota jumped on several of them, and nearly forced Williams and Howard into disasters. What will better MLS teams do to this sloppy play? Unless something changes -- and quickly -- the Rapids are going to be partying like it's 2015.
I predicted a 1-1 win but I have to agree that this is a 2-2 loss. Playing with a man advantage for 20 min and firing blanks. Really a big problem. The only positive is that the offense did at least manage 2 goals before Minnesota got the red. Hopefully, they can start to sync up better and put this game behind them. We only have two games over the next month so will have a ton of time to work on these issues. Wow... 2 games in a month???. WTH.????? Time will tell.
The back passes are especially a problem when the other team knows there's no threat moving forward. A center mid will show for the ball when the backline has it, but w/back to the defense, they are no threat to do anything with it except send it right back. As we've noticed for years, across several coaches, the players are too isolated, and there's little movement off the ball. They also tend to be very slow in moving the ball and if there's a small transition opportunity, it is lost as the D has a chance to reset. I don't know what the answer is, but I think I'd like an a-mid more than a striker like Johanssen. Or a guy like Leon Britton, someone who can pass and direct traffic a little. A striker/finisher would be great but those guys never see the ball in good spots (look at what Gashi had to work with last year). Looking at the Rapids chalkboard and selecting for successful passes, the area around the box was painfully free of successful passes (this was the worst of the 3 games so far this year in this regard, btw): Edit: That's my pessimism coming through, btw, maybe a passing midfielder *and* a finisher??
Wow, one single successful pass that ended (barely) inside the box. That tells you everything you need to know about this game.
Gah! Sorry, I thought I had uploaded the revised pic. At first I did not realize "successful passes" does not include assists. I thought, "weird, Burch didn't get an assist for his cross"? Here it is with the crosses (incl. corners) included, blue is Burch's cross, the yellow are "key passes": To me, this is still as bad. One non-cross completed. Granted, if you exclude crosses, Minnesota looks bad, too.
Really Min just missed by inches on 2 other scoring chances early in game, to me, we were lucky to get a draw. Really I don't see us ever getting the style/ offense we want until Kroenke's are gone from the picture.
They "attack" but make sure the backdoor is covered first. It feels hopeless and I think this strategy plus losing players will cost us in the standings.
I agree with most of the comments. The Rapids also have to understand that Sjoberg was a big part of their team defense last year. Hamstrings can take a long time to heal; hamstrings requiring surgery can be longer. The six to eight week prediction seems optimistic to me; not to mention he won't be in playing shape for awhile after that. From the DP article this morning, it appears Pablo understands the lack of attack and back pass issue mentioned by most everyone. However, even with a change in tactics, this team does not have the talent to promote a passing offense. With JJ, one of the best players in the US, we had an average MLS offense. Without him...sigh. I don't believe anyone could coach this group to be an effective unit.
Agree - as long as we play 4 backs and Cronin and Azira, we will never have much of an attack. That's 6 players whose primary role is to defend and who have demonstrated little attacking skill.
Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler New England put up 4 goals in the first half against MNU, taking only 4 minutes to score their first. In case there was any doubt, our offense now quantitatively sucks.